What type of jobs do people have?

I was in customer retention, sales, and sales training for a large internet company when I got sick. When I first got sick and was going through my surgeries they were really hard on me because of their third party insurance company that handled short and long term disability. They would fight tooth and nail on your short term disability approval until I finally got a firm diagnosis and was hospitalized. They actually turned me down both times I had surgery before my diagnosis despite me being hospitalized for emergency appendectomy and gallbladder removal. I appealed both times and after a year I was finally paid for time off but FMLA saved my job. Then after being hospitalized for a G.I. bleed they told me that I needed to be on long term disablity and eventually paid a law firm to put me on SSDI. I could not figure out why they were so helpful until I found out that the company(Unum provident) had just lost the biggest classaction lawsuit for turning down legitimate cases for short term and long term disability. Being forced to go on SSDI and long term ended up being a huge blessing in disquise because the company I work for outsourced our call center out of the country and sold our call center to another company. The new company retained many of the employess but their pay was cut in half due to cancelled bonuses and their health benefits dropped. I am the last employee of about 700 still being paid. Someone was looking out for me.

I work for a small custom home builder and have been there for over 11 years. I have no problem getting to the bathroom and the only issue with time off for being sick or doctor appointments is that I have no sick time, so when I'm not there I don't get paid.

I do HR & payroll in an office at a University.  Desk job that I can be away from for a few minutes without any problem, but I wish I had the option to work from home (that won't happen though).  FMLA protects me and my boss's daughter has Crohn's, so she is very understanding.  The University has policies in place to where I couldn't be fired without really good cause and probably without being given at least a month or so to improve attendance, performance, whatever the issue is.  I get 401(k), $ in a flexible spending account since I use my husband's insurance and not my employers, free schooling, etc., but yet I don't really like it here.  Just sticking around until a better position opens up within the University.  Don't want to leave here since I'm eligible for FMLA and don't want to have to start over with that somewhere else.  Trying to figure out what I want to do in life, but have no idea what would be best for my health.

I am a Paramedic in New Orleans and I keep my employment status at Part time so I only work when I am feeling well. Due to a shortage of medics in the region, I am able to pull full time hours but have the convenience of picking which days I can work. The down side is no benefits but I am lucky to have a husband that has health care benefits with his job that cover me also.

Post Edited (pmedic) : 10/27/2010 4:26:10 PM (GMT-6)

FMLA is NOT available to employees of US companies with fewer than 50 employees. That means there are a lot of us out here who do not have access to this benefit and our employers can let us go for missing work.

I work for a university in public education. So far, I've been able to work flexible hours and even work from home. Despite that, I've used 80 hours of sick leave this year. Lucky, I had some built up. I have to get a resection next week and I'll use up most of my sicl leave and some of my annual. I had to fill out FMLA forms. One of my bosses hates me so I am worried this is gonna end up badly for me, even if I file FMLA. If this surgery gets me in remission, it won't be a problem. If they find more than just garden variety colitis, I am worried. It is sad that despite FMLA, ADA, etc...... people still lose their jobs over being sick. Like some have said, employers can find something to fire you if they really want to. I am lucky that we decided to put me on my husband's health insurance policy a few years ago when I got sick. He has a good job and has been there forever.

see, this is the kind of thread that would come up in the distant past, helping people to see that you can still do things with the disease..great post!

I was amilitary policeman in the airforce, they discharged me medically but not retired me medically so I got no benefits.. but the veterans administration took over my healthcare and has been very good at getting me the care I need..
then I went to work at the post office for 15 more years until the end of '99, when I lost all the guts and went on TPN. so they did retire me medically. so was able to keep my health insurance for my wife etc.. but the cost ( thanks Obama) has now gone up to take more than my pension for medical and insurance. I use the VA care as I cannot even begin to pay all the super high new deductables and co-pays that we did not have before Ocare. just devastating. imagine copays on TPN and gattex and all the infusion pumps ( that ocare put in a DME)

Betty Sue, I've run out of FMLA several times now and have been able to take time off from work because of an accommodation. I work for a large medical system and have had no issues with my medical leaves; you're correct, the legal protection does extend into the working world. The only exception I'm aware of are companies that employ less than 50 people. I was shocked after reading how many people on this thread have been fired due to their illness.

As far as colleges go, I don't feel like all of them treat crohns the same way or have the same level of accommodations. I was lucky to get a lot of very understanding faculty over the years and that is how I got by but I was told by Disability Services on campus that it was totally up to the professors whether they would accommodate me or not and likened crohns to "getting sick like everyone else, everybody gets a cold and they deal with it" if I had had more energy I would have fought for more since the campus is huge and treks to classes are enough to wear anyone out. I went to each professor individually and discussed it with them since DSS was not very helpful and they were often much easier to work with.
As for jobs, I have mainly worked at the university I go to and usually ended up telling my boss at some point Pretty early on and luckily she was understanding and would even let me work from home some days. My coworkers and boss even did one of the CCFA walks one year as the annual fundraiser. I eventually left it because I couldn't do that and grad work and manage my health. I can only hope to find an environment like that when I graduate. I have had others that I had to leave though because of illness as well which hurts because I loved what I did but I had a hospitalization at a crucial time and was not invited back the following semester.
I had been told of a surgeon (who was friends with a professor I knew) that has crohns and some how managed to take enough time off to take care of himself and still be successful as a surgeon, I always keep that in mind that anything is possible.

Post Edited (Labradorite) : 7/25/2016 12:09:57 PM (GMT-6)

I am a Pharmacist but haven't been able to work in about 4 years due to crohns & other illnesses. I really miss the interaction with my patients & having a purpose u could say. I have tried to find a at home job part-time but haven't found anything I would enjoy. My previous job was supposed to b a part-time fixed number of hours but it ended up being too many hours & the independent pharmacy took advantage of my clinical background. It became way too successful & needless to say I started to flare & had to quit. It left such a bad taste in my mouth that I am scared to try to work again. I really still haven't recovered because I have developed CFS too. It's really challenging to go from a nice income to just a little disability income. I wish all of u the best of luck.

I boxed for a living and retired at age 26. I owned a sports bar but sold it. I've bet prize fights since I was 16. I still do well betting prize fights but did especially well in the 1990's.

Im an engineer for a medical device company (power wheelchairs in my department). Perianal CD is making life difficult right now but I still manage to make it to work. A perk with my company is that they seem to be very understanding of diseases that associates deal with.