Devastated and scared with results- Help

I got the results of my small bowel follow through. It showed that my disease has spread since feb. My boss is being a jerk because she thinks I should be better. The probelm is I am better, but I am not "fixed". She said that I was sick last year and she's not doing that again. I am a special education teacher. I can have a disabled body and still be effective. I reach children's minds. I can do that sitting or standing. I have a special connection with my students and their families. I am a very effective teacher, but all my boss sees is my disability. I am currently filing under ADA to protect myself. I am so sick of people thinking they have the answer. My dr wants me to go on Imuran and I don't want to start another new drug at the beginning of the school year. I am finally feeling ok, one or two rough days a week, and I am learning to deal with my disease on a day-to-day basis. My boss needs to lay off and keep her opinions to herself. She only knows about my disease because I missed a lot of work last year and I have remicade treatments every six weeks during school hours. My dr worried me becasue she wants to pull me off all meds, except pentasa, and in a couple weeks start me on Imuran. I feel like I am a trial and error hamster. Any thoughts of comfort or opinions? I think I am a little sensitive, but anyone who has had the year I have had would be sensitive and tirede. I just slept my summer away going to the dr every week. My boss aggravates me and judges me for being disabled and I can't stand people like that. I know it isn't just me. I teach children with disabilities and when a general education student was beating up (physically hitting) one of my students, she brushed it off and said, "it's no big deal). It happened multiple times and I finally went to the parents and got them involved. People with disabilties should not be picked on no matter what. Thanks for listening to me rant.

Thanks,

Kgirlie

As a now "disabled" middle school teacher, I don't need to remind you that people in education can get apathetic very quickly. Your boss has lost the "spark" of what education is all about. All she sees is that she's "running a business" and you're a wrench in the works. When my boss called me in and had the talk about me missing so much work I was offended - afterall, I was sick, I couldn't help it. BUT... I had to stop and see it from her side. There I was teaching a specialty subject (foreign language) that not just anyone could fill and I was missing work. She was in a bad spot. I hated to think that I wasn't pulling my weight because I was truly doing all I could do. The truth was, that just wasn't enough. And in the long run it worked out in my favor because her nasty letter to me and her threats to fire me were exactly what I needed to prove my "inability to work" in my disability case. Not saying you'll end up on disability. I'm just trying to help you to not take it so personally. There are jerks out there who don't get it and they don't want to. Your boss sounds like one of them. Can you talk to the teacher's union? Maybe they can offer you a way to protect yourself. In the meantime keep your chin up.

this reminds me of the story someone told about parking in the handicapped spot and getting chewed out by some random self righteous jerk- and then collapsing and going to the ER.

anyway, as far as feeling like a trial-and-error science project, well, sadly thats the only effective way to determine what treatments work best for your particular flavor of crohns, at least that i know of.

As offensive and hurtful as it is to endure, unfortunately, stef is right. people that do stuff like that are 99% of the time not trying to be mean, they just havent taken the time to look at it from your perspective. i lost my job because i missed a week of work. but i couldn't blame them, because i had seen what happened when people skipped work, regardless of the reason. there were a couple days where one of my coworkers was sick, another was on leave, and i was the only one used to working at that station there. it slowed us waaay down. I got lucky though, because despite the end result, the people involved were very kind about it.

That being said, just because their concerns may be justified (or in your case not), doesnt mean their method of expression is.