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OT- What did you do for work before you got sick?

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Posted 2/25/2011 9:09 AM (GMT 0)
I've been sick since 2005 but it started slowly for me with panic attacks and fatigue. Every year I would get a few new symptoms but I was still able to function and work. I worked for a Chiropractor for a year and did billing and coding, then decided to go back to school in 2008. I went for Phlebotomy and EKG and graduated. At the end of that year, I started gettiing really sick again. My hands/fingers started hurting and I could barely use them at times. After a few months, I went downhill and fast. I never got to work after school and that was so upsetting to me. Here it is 2011 and I still cannot work. I stay mostly bedridden unless I take my pain pill and it helps me get out for a while with family and friends. The only thing I want right now is to be able to either work or go back to school. I was supposed to go to nursing school right after Phlebotomy and EKG and never had a chance. If I had one wish, that would be it.
Posted 2/25/2011 1:50 PM (GMT 0)
I no exactly what you mean I was going to start my course for teaching in October an got struck down with this horrible disease, my symptoms came thick an fast over the next couple of months an now I only last half a day feelin ok then the rest of it is spend in bed or on the sofa, just really wanted to let you no your not alone as all I want is my life back an to start doing the things I really enjoyed, hope this makes you feel a little better knowing you are not alone x
Posted 2/25/2011 2:09 PM (GMT 0)
I was sick before I graduated College, but I did manage to graduate and work in the computer industry for a bit. Then had to quit for a few years due to severe chronic pain (RSD). Was able to get back to work only to have my gut stop me again after 6 months...and haven't been able to get close to trying again since.
Posted 2/26/2011 12:59 AM (GMT 0)
I still work, unfortunately. I was off for 5 weeks but according to my doctor I'm not sick enough to be off being all my test results came back normal. I went back this week.

Anyhow I work as a machine operator in a local factory.
Posted 2/26/2011 11:39 AM (GMT 0)
Do you all feel like your mind still thinks you can do all the old things you used to do? I feel like my mind still wants me to do everything I used to do, but my body can't do those things. It's really weird. I don't know if this is good or bad, LOL.

Btw, thanks for posting. I'm so sorry you guys are suffering like this. I hope that one day, we can all do what we love the most.
Posted 2/26/2011 12:47 PM (GMT 0)
Hmmm, I have a long list!  I think I was born with lyme or became infected when I was a child..

When I was 11 I babysat until I got my working papers, then I worked as a checker at food markets (before computers were invented), then went to different colleges (mostly for computers), as for the exception of one job, I always worked with computers, now self-taught.

The most boring job I ever had was being a diamond cutter.  I worked with my family and faceted diamonds (sooooooo boring!)... I dislike diamonds after cutting so many of them...  It was a good experience though for I did learn much.

Even when I was sick I forced myself to work because I had to pay my mortgage, I was totally alone.

Denise

Posted 2/26/2011 3:53 PM (GMT 0)
Altho it's becoming a distant faint memory, I used to restore old houses in historic neighborhoods in Atlanta. I did cabinetmaking and woodworking all around that passion and became an opinion leader in my small area near downtown Atlanta.

People moving into the turn-of-the-century neighborhood would learn about my skills, knowledge, and willingness to share it all and come for advice. Kinda cool for a bumbling, scattered, frail geek who could could do nothing well.

We retired to a 35 acre old farm in the mountains where I did my best to start up a farmer's market and tried to be a market gardener until I just ran out of energy and the pain just got to bad.

I also have given up on being an artist, and now my music playing has just come to a halt.

What's next?

Herbert
Posted 2/27/2011 1:52 AM (GMT 0)
I got really sick in May of 2008 and stopped working the end of the following July. I've apparently had Lyme for 10 to 20 years though. So many of the undiagnosed problems and many joint issues I'd had were probably Lyme and not caused by work.

I was working as an emergency room nurse when my symptoms became severe. I had only been an RN for 4 years. But very grateful for that time!! Had I not went back to school to become a nurse, I'd probably still not be diagnosed. I was the one to put 2 and 2 together after my PCP refused to think outside the box. This forum helped tremendously with seeking that diagnosis. I heard of the IGeneX lab here first.

This summer I will have been not working for 3 years. That just really blows my mind. I know I will be back to work within the next year. It will be in a more mellow area of nursing though. And I have Lyme for a reason. If I don't go into the Lyme awareness and treatment aspect of nursing, then I will have wasted all that suffering for nothing. I feel a very strong ethical and moral responsibility to help change all of what's wrong with Lyme treatment, recognition, etc, etc, etc....

CG, we have to have the faith and hope of returning to work. And I have no doubt that you will make it to nursing school one day!!! If I can make it through nursing school with Lyme brain (all awhile thinking I was just a bone head and must have learning disabilities) than anyone can!!!!!

thanks all for sharing about your jobs. it's fascinating to hear what others do and if they enjoy it.

prayers to us all,
Lisa
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