Can I wait and take care of this later?
If you want to pursue your legal rights, you should begin as soon as possible. For one thing, it often takes a long time to resolve these matters, and you may need money for your medical treatment as well as living costs.
It is also important to remember that you have no way of knowing how long you will live with the disease, or how long you will be able to testify to what you know, or give information about what happened. Once you give the lawyer all the information you can, he can go on to pursue any and all claims you might have. Hopefully, if he can recover money, it will be available for you if you need it. If the claim takes a very long time, the money may come to your spouse or family after you are gone.
You will want to detail in your will where you want settlement money to go, should an award come when you are no longer able to state what you want to do with it.