Just tell CFAI you have cancer and want your money back. This has to qualify for extenuating circumstance.
If that doesn’t qualify, I don’t know what would.
good luck man, screw the cfa. get better
F cfa…get well more important
I was diagnosed with bladder cancer about two years ago. Given your age and what you say about risk factors I think staging of your cancer is likely not advanced at all, and while dealing with it is going to be a nuisance it is probably not going to be the thing that does you in. So, assuming you get good news on the staging (Ta or T1), carry on with your life, better you do that than sit around worrying about bladder cancer.
I don’t know much about bladder cancer, or what it takes to fight it, so I can’t help there. But I would like to offer a different perspective on things.
I studied my ass of five times, sacrificing time with my family, friends, exercise, etc… in order to study for the CFA tests. I didn’t have any known health issues, cetainly not cancer. Although my exercise level would always decrease in the months I studied, I would always work hard after the tests to get back into shape.
On Saturday, June 1, 2013 I sat for the L3 test.
On Sunday, July 14th, 2013 I was running on a treadmill and collapsed. A few angels at the gym saved my life, but that could have been the end of my story… after all of that hard work.
The point is, you just never know what life will bring you. For me the CFA was a personal challenge. Had I known I might only have 6 weeks to live after June 1, 2013, I may not have spent all of the time shunning all those who ended up visiting me at the hospital and praying for me.
On the other hand, I have young children who saw and understood that their daddy was not giving up on his goal of attaining the CFA charter after a setback (as you can probably figure out, I didn’t pass every test the first time). My kids will always know that. And I will stand tall knowing that I didn’t give up,
My advice is: Get the information you can about your treatments, and make your own decision knowing you have a long life to live. Regardess of whether you decide to sit for the test as planned, defer for a year or more, or even if you decide that this isn’t what you want to do… I wish you the best of luck with your decision and with your battle with bladder cancer.
^Wow. Great story. Glad things worked out.
^^ Makes you put things into perspective.
Exam is soon, so you may as well take it, but I would not stress over it, it’s just not your biggest priority anymore IMO.
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I’m sorry you have to deal with this.
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Determine your prognosis given staging. Look up the Kaplan Meier curves for your particular situation and plan your life accordingly based on the statistics as best you can - keeping in mind that with or without bladder CA, every day is a blessing.
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My best guess and biggest hope, given A) the little information I have B) assuming that you are in US with health insurance C) and from what I’ve seen in pt’s with bladder CA (I’m a physician but not a urologist), is that you have many, many, many, many quality-adjusted life years remaining - i.e. a long life to live.
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I fully expect you to pass Level III if not now, then next year and continue on with your life with only the occasional annoyance of follow up with your urologist perhaps yearly.
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My best wishes and regards to you.
It’s obviously a personal choice, but here’s my $0.02:
CFA will be there a year from now. If you know much about chemo (and believe me, I do), you know it can be pretty debilitating, and even an “easy” road though chemo is pretty sh*tty… So studying might be harder than you thought. It will also add stress, and you do NOT need additional stress at this point. The first job is to get well.
While bladder cancer is pretty treatable, remission is not 100% guaranteed. There’s a possibility that the stress of studying could tip the scales. And if it did, would you really want to know that you wasted time on this?
CFAI will most likely give a deferment. It’s only a year. Get well. Good luck.
1 year is nothing in your lifetime. Look at the bigger picture.
Just found out that I passed Level 3 
I ended up being able to do practice exams/study for 4 days in May/June after I finished my cancer treatment and everything is good with my health now! Thanks for the advice.
Yay you!
Congrats, for beating cancer.
Congrats on LIII and especially for your return to good health!!
Forget cfa until you are cured. Stress and mental state can worse it.
Good job!
Congrats. Seriously though, bladder cancer at age 25?
Good for you! What an inspiring story. Congratulations on your success and best wishes for a quick recovery!