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Irritable Bowel Syndrome
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Posted 10/12/2008 3:23 AM (GMT 0)
I just need to vent: I'm so frustrated with feeling like a bad employee. Work can be so hard--I never know wen my stomach is going to blow up or be in pain or what it will do. I hate calling in sick, but sometimes I'm in too much pain r my symptoms keep me in bed/close to the bathroom. I had to go to the ER the other night (another obstruction from scar tissue) and I called the wrong "calling in sick" number. The bosses were angry--although they couldn't say much More than anything, though, I just wish I felt okay. I am a hard worker and really responsible and my body just won't cooperate. I hate it!!

Thanks for listening.
Posted 10/20/2008 6:14 AM (GMT 0)
I know how you feel about the work issue birdiem....I have an awesome career and have worked with this company for 21 years and the last couple of years I started to have health issues i.e. thyroid and IBS...I missed alot of work in the past 2 years but have been doing better with that lately. What really had me upset is that I feel they thought I was faking it cause when I am at work, looking at me from the outside I look fine but am not on the inside...I said to them, what about the 19 good years I gave this company without any sick time and the past 2 years I get sick and now your jumping on my back....thanks for caring and being supportive to me..they don't care about you personally they just care about production and making money...at least thats how they made me feel. Since then I adopted the " I don't care attitude" cause I use to worry about my job and care about it but now I do what I have to do and give no extra effort because I feel they didnt treat me accordingly while I was sick so why should I give them the extra mile. My health is number one now and thats what I have to focus on, if I make it to work..great and if I can't...oh well ..I dont sweat it no more.

Ok I vented a little too LOL
Posted 10/28/2008 4:50 PM (GMT 0)
Don't you feel bad when they count up the number of days off sick you have had and you just know that none of them could be helped because you were either in hospital or in agony. Then you feel like you should give up work because you are just not reliable anymore. But hey if you do that you won't have any house to live in. Like you say no one can see the pain you are in because you look normal to them. Why and how could you fake such pain. You try your best at work but feel so tired and can't concentrate because of the pain. All you want to do is go home to bed but like you say you have work on your desk which you know is your responsibility and you feel bad that you can not work to your full potential. Things which were so easy before take such great effort.
Your career is going down the drain but what can you do. The hospital and the doctors don't care and have no time to listen to you. They give you pills that don't work and make you into a complete zombie. Is this living I wonder?

You are in pain and then they deduct your wage on top so that you have no money to live on or to buy your medicine.

I too feel angry and frustrated
Posted 10/30/2008 3:12 PM (GMT 0)
You all sound like me on the job. My co-workers & Supervisors complain about me "going" so often. I'm suprized I have'nt been fired yet. Sometimes I have to wear diapers so I can actually go somewhere & do something. I hate wearing them but I really don't have much of a choice. Good Luck all.
Posted 10/30/2008 6:30 PM (GMT 0)
Back when I was still a stay at home mom but needing to look for work, I lamented who would ever hire me (person who spends so much time in the bathroom) to my colon surgeon. She sighed, she smiled and said - work here, we'd hire you, in fact many of us have colon issues!

I didn't want to work for the people who had seen my naked rear end high in the air (for some reason my colon doc likes this one table, almost like a reverse stirrup type contraption a GYN uses, she can see better for doing digital exams she says)......

So of course I didn't apply there but I have looked at her staff in a different light now. LOL Trying to guess who has a situation similar to my own.

I ended up working part time in a middle school cafeteria. The pace is fast, loud and we never have time to eat the food we prepare. It's worked out well, I work mid-day hours, and can fart all day long (no one can hear it over the students, ovens, exhaust fans, milk coolers, going....).

The other set up that would ideal for this situation would be to work for a Vet. There'd be so many smells and dog/cat hair, that anything I smelled like would get blended into the work atmosphere.

But I do hear you.......it's hard if you have a boss who's not understanding. Mine does. I've had to call in sick a few times but only twice in 3 years. I'd told her I may have to run the bathroom and she says - go ahead, do what you have to. I think just hearing those understanding words puts my GI tract at ease and I never feel stressed out about my colon at work.

Now I had to work 40 hours a week, then it would be a whole other story.....I do not know what I'd do then. Probably drop down to one meal a day. And even then, I'd be dragging, with low energy.

Mary/marsky
Posted 10/30/2008 7:12 PM (GMT 0)
No wonder so many people go on disability if the employers are going to have attitudes like you all describe. You should go to my gastro Dr. he has never touched anyone that I know of in his office. He just looks at you and says we need to do "whatever" and that is where he puts you out. I swear it is a joke among his patients. The only thing he touches is your hand when he shakes it when he comes in every time. He has never poked my stomach or gut nor any of my friends. We think it is very strange.
Posted 10/31/2008 5:01 PM (GMT 0)
I got laid off back in August and am trying to get into business for myself. Right after that, I messed my guts up from eating too much junk food (I was still trying to establish my at-home routine). It was... well, I won't say nice, but I would just get up, go to the bathroom, then sit back down and pick up working again. There was no stress of using a shared bathroom, of being seen going to the bathroom too frequently, of being stuck answering the phones while my guts were tore up--nothing. I could just use the bathroom like a normal person, and go right back to work.

If I end up having to take a job outside the house, I realize now how careful I will have to be. I can't take a job answering phones because I can't be stuck somewhere when I need to go, or be forced to constantly ask someone to cover for me. I can't work a cash register anymore--like I did back in college--because that also leaves me stuck. When you start thinking about jobs which do not give you immediate and frequent access to the bathroom, your job search narrows quite a bit, actually.
Posted 11/6/2008 1:26 AM (GMT 0)
What you can or can't do is relative lol. There are usually sneaky ways to get to the bathroom but of course it is best if you just had open access. I have hung up on someone before, used the bathroom, called them back and said "I don't know what happen, we got disconnected some how. Seems like the phones are working again." Or I will just say, I'm sorry to interrupt you but I have to step out for a second. I will call you right back. Or I make a joke about drinking too much water. Pee just seems less gross than poop. I'll get up for the third time from a meeting, push my water bottle aside and say "guess I shouldn't have drank 3 of these this morning."
Posted 11/8/2008 7:06 AM (GMT 0)
You can apply for FMLA as this is a chronic condition.  Under FMLA, your work cannot penalize you for being off work.  You can get up to 12 weeks a year for a serious health condition.  It can be taken intermitently.  Talk to your HR Manager for the appropriate forms.  Your doctor must complete the form and you may be asked to "recertify" as often as once a month, depending on your companies FMLA policy.

Posted 11/8/2008 2:20 PM (GMT 0)
I've always wished I could have qualified for disability.

I was a stay at home mom when I got rectal cancer. By this stage - our two daughters both in college at the same time - I just always presumed I'd be working at least 30 hours a week and if I could manage it, 40 hours a week.

As it is I'm working 18 hours a week. And I need to make more money! But I don't see how I could manage a 40 hour week job. It would just about kill me. I'd have to drop down to one meal a day. And it would probably have to be my breakfast, as it is now, I have to get up 3 hours before I start work and eat right away. So I have time for all the bm's to exit my body. Then I somehow get thru my 3.5 hour work "day" before needing a bathroom again. And so I can eat a light lunch (6 to 7 hours after my breakfast was consumed).

It is a real challenge to manage all of this, in a work environment, with people who have normal colons.

On the days I feel things are overly active, I wear Stayfree maxi thin overnight sized pads that go way up in the back and have wings. They give me that added comfort in case anything starts up. And if I feel ill, people think it's just my stomach acting up.

I let them think it's my stomach!

I then hurry home to my bathroom, 5 minutes away from work.

That's another comfort, a job near my home. I don't know people with GI issues commute either! I guess we all have to do what works for each of us.

I often joke I'd be normal again, if I could just somehow give up food.

Sigh....
Mary/marsky
Posted 11/10/2008 2:07 PM (GMT 0)
I guess I don't understand Mary why you can't use the bathroom at work? I know it is embarassing but once you get comfortable with it it gets easier to work/eat with this disease. I'm in class right now and have left twice to use the bathroom. I just don't care what people think. I have crohns and it is acting up, people just have to deal with it. I am not saying any of this is your fault but if you need more money and want to work more hours go for it! If it means you have to use the bathroom at work, so be it. That is what it is there for!
Posted 11/10/2008 6:24 PM (GMT 0)
Once I start with bm's, they never stop. I can't tie one bathroom up that 10 people use. I'd rather just stop eating before leaving for work, but several hours before. That way I'm not even using the bathroom - at all. It would help if we got breaks and/or had a bathroom available with several stalls but we don't. There's just one.

In another part of the school, there's a bathroom with many stalls but 7th and 8th grade students it. It's rare when a woman uses it (teachers have their own bathrooms too). In theory I could use it but then I wouldn't be working. So it's a no win situation.

It's really not a problem since I time when I eat. If I had to do this for an 8 hour day thought it just would not work.

I prefer using bathrooms with many stalls. We just don't have one like that for cafeteria workers.

Post Edited (Marsky) : 11/10/2008 11:27:22 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 11/11/2008 12:17 AM (GMT 0)
Gotcha - I totally understand now. And I didn't realize you were a cafeteria worker where you can't just take a break whenever you want.
Posted 11/11/2008 12:40 AM (GMT 0)
Oh that's okay. Most of us have kids in the school district so we like that school calendar (no evenings or weekends, holidays off, etc.). And mid-day hours, which works so well for my situation. The work in itself is exhausting though, it's so busy. It's odd though, the days I report to work when I worry I'll have trouble, if I just put some Rolaids in my apron pocket, I never need them. My system settles down and I get thru another work day. It never fails to happen this way. I show up for work, worried I'll have D or lots of bm's, but I never do. I think the fast pace and hecticness of our cafeteria just takes my mind off my GI tract. If I had a very quiet, somewhat boring type job I'll probably stress over my gut all the time. This way I do forget about it for almost 4 hours. And we never have time to even eat. So my no-eating rule is a non issue too!

But I never thought I'd work in a school cafeteria at this stage or age. I just expected to do clerical type work again. Which I may end up doing again but for now with the economy so bad and people getting laid off, I'm staying put.
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