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Ulcerative Colitis
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Posted 4/3/2009 12:35 PM (GMT 0)
Tell us about your career!  When we come on here with our troubles we can sort of relate to each other because we are going thru the same things, but what we don't know is what do you do for a living.  I like to create these sort of posts so everyone can relate to each other on a more personal level.  So let's start........

After I graduated from high school, I went to business school to become a Payroll Accountant.  I worked as a PA for a large engineering firm (1,500 employees) for about 2 years and then moved on to work in the Administrative Assistant/PA/Human resource department at a fairly large medical facility.  I worked there for about 5 years - 2 years of which I had UC.  Finally I had to quit because I couldn't handle a full time job, flaring and caring for my then 2 year old son - at the time my husband was working 18 hours a day just so we could survive.  It was rough but we managed after I quit. Now, I don't work anymore because I found that my Uc is highly stress driven.  I have tried working several temp jobs in the past but I had to quit because it would cause me to flare.  My husband has a decent job now so I have that luxury of staying at home. 

I want to say that I don't really work now but as most mothers can say - that is not so!  Being a full time mom is indeed a full time job - I just have the benefit of being closer to the bathroom! smilewinkgrin

Posted 4/3/2009 12:49 PM (GMT 0)
Great idea, Sherry!

I started in the hotel industry as a receptionist straight out of high school, and over the next seven years, I worked my way from receptionist to sales assistant to executive assistant, and finally in my last year in that industry, I took a promotion to be a catering manager. A year in that position was more than I could handle. There was a lot of stress involved, and I started having issues. I left there in Oct 2006 to take a job as a sales assistant for an automotive supplier. But it was too late - w/i a month of starting the new job, I was diagnosed with IBS. Then when conditions only got worse, I was finally sent for a colonoscopy and diagnosed with UC.

But this job as a sales assistant is great. My bosses completely understand my condition and they were MORE than flexible with me last summer when stress in my personal life caused a major flare. The stress level is very low here, and if I'm not feeling the greatest, I can just hide in my cubicle and only get up to use the lady's room. It's perfect. (Not to mention the job is mostly computer related so I can be on line quite a bit too, shhhhh....).
Posted 4/3/2009 12:56 PM (GMT 0)
After high school I danced professionally with a ballet company for about 5years and then decided that I preferred teaching dance. Now I am the associate director of a non-profit youth ballet company. I am also a full time mom of two children ages 5 and 2 1/2.
Posted 4/3/2009 1:11 PM (GMT 0)
I worked in the residential construction industry, working my way up from administrative positions to Production Manager. I had always planned to be a SAHM so that's what I do now (6 years). I didn't get c.diff/UC until I was pregnant so I only had to work a few months with having the disease.

Now I do part time work from home doing proof reading and quality assurance for a market research company. I love being able to work from home and I have no plans to ever work outside of the home. My DH owns a drywall business so I help manage that too.
Posted 4/3/2009 1:13 PM (GMT 0)
I'm a stay at home mom to my almost 3 year old and 3 month old daughters. It's nice to be able to use my own bathroom, but it's a lot of work taking care of 2 little ones. Prior to children I worked in the mortgage industry - glad I got out when I did!
Posted 4/3/2009 1:32 PM (GMT 0)
I have been married for 4 years, and have been working since 2000. The whole time it has been with children in different settings. In 2004, months before I got married I went from the School district to child care. I managed in Child care pretty well until this past year. I just stepped out of a classroom due to total and complete burn out. I am now the cook and full time van driver. I drive around town for about 4 hours dropping kids off at school and picking up. That's a NICE break. I am working on switching to Sign Language Interpreting in the school district. My husbands and my goal is for me to be a housewife when he graduates college which will be in December. My heart is at home, and I can't wait for the day I get to stay home and not worry financially about us.
Posted 4/3/2009 3:14 PM (GMT 0)
After high school, I went to college and got a BS and MS in Horticulture and then a PhD in Plant Breeding and Genetics/Horticulture. Yeah, I like to torture myself! Just after I finished my PhD, I started my first "grown-up" job, which I've been in for a little over three years now. I'm research director for a company that farms about 1200 acres of small fruits (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries), has a processing plant that handles all of our fruit plus fruit from other growers in the area, and has a nursery division that produces strawberry plants (mainly for the California strawberry industry) as well as blackberry and raspberry plants.

My husband and I had our first child in October, so I'm a mommy, too!
Posted 4/3/2009 3:31 PM (GMT 0)
I got my Bachelor's in Communications.  Worked for a production company in DC for 5 years.  Went back to school for accounting.  Worked as a accountant for a bank and a title insurance company.  Passed the CPA exam in 2008.  Got my CPA certificate the day I went into the hospital with my first UC flare. 

I now work at a global bank as a Senior Financial Analyst.  I started the new job in October 08.  We had our second child in December, when she was 2 weeks she got RSV and was in the hospital for 8 days, then 2 weeks after that I went into the hospital for UC.  That was a ROUGH couple of months.

Now I'm going back to school AGAIN to get my MBA in Accountancy.

Posted 4/3/2009 4:06 PM (GMT 0)
I'm unfortunately still a student. I have 2 more years of classes and then a year of clinical training and after that I'll graduate with a BS in medical technology. I'll basically be analyzing bodily fluids and tissues for abnormalities.
I still have my high school job working at a movie theater over the summer. After I started working there I realized that I am SO not cut out for daily people interaction so I that's why I chose the lab profession.
Posted 4/3/2009 4:06 PM (GMT 0)
I got my B.Sc. in biology, then my M.Sc. in plant molecular biology. I'm currently working for the federal government (in Canada) as a Research Technician. I've worked as a technician for about 6 scientists in the agriculture department over the past 8 years - in the fields of taxonomy, pathology and genomics. I'm hoping to finally become a permanent employee by August.
Posted 4/3/2009 4:08 PM (GMT 0)
Hi

I started working as a child and youth counsellor 20 years ago. I have worked in group homes, foster care support, family preservation, and the school system. I have loved and been honored to work with children and their families to keep families together, to support healing and growing and to provide for children and adolescents who are adrift or alone.

I started with a college diploma. I went back to school and earned my BA CYC in 2005. That was a challenge as I was a single mom, working full time and studying part time but I did it.

Presently, I am working in a slightly different capacity. I provide consultation and support to licensed child care programs for children with challenging behaviours. I teach the teachers how to help the children. I have also started back at school. I have been accepted into a Masters program in counselling psychology. I am busy but I miss the work with the adolescents. They have so much to teach us. They need the best from us.

Tara, I am in Ottawa as well. My partner is a scientist with PHAC. Maybe you have crossed paths?
Posted 4/3/2009 4:11 PM (GMT 0)
Laid off from a factory I worked in for 15 years. Impressive aye?
Thank goodness I have some other income from investments besides unemployment. Losing insurance is a killer though.
Posted 4/3/2009 4:31 PM (GMT 0)
I graduated high school and went to college for a degree in civil engineering/surveyor. Attended two years, but was to immature to be in that setting. I had trouble going to class. At the time I was breaking, training, and showing horses in the evenings and weekends. Basically I was having a blast partying and playing with horses. I also had a job working for a local zoo taking care of the animals and training camels to ride.
Eventually i dropped out of college and came home. After a year of greasing garbage trucks on midnights, i decided I'd better get back to school.
Started taking night classes and got a job as assistant manager for a lumber company. Next I spent 3 years on the production management team and doing research and development for a company that makes dog collars, cat collars, and other pet products.
All the while I was still showing horses. And had started breeding and raising them. Finally decided to go to shoeing school and learned to be a farrier. Have been a full time farrier now for almost 15 years. My body has been beat up pretty badly over the years either from getting thrown off of horses or stomped on by them when I am shoeing them. I just recently went back to college part time. Working on, of all things, a civil engineering degree... same thing i did over twenty years ago right out of high school. But this time I am older and more mature. Am actually attending classes and currently carrying a 4.0 average. Will take me a few years to finish... but I still have my job as a farrier so....
Posted 4/3/2009 4:42 PM (GMT 0)
Awesome! It sounds like many of you have some really interesting jobs :)

Sam, my son wants to go into the medical field too. But not in the lab. I don't think he has the patience for something like that! (He has ADD/non ADHD). Have you ran across any students that are in Bio-Engineering? If so, do they say if it's challenging? My son mentioned that he wants to be a Perfushionist (sp?). He graduates next year and I'm trying to educate myself on his major because until this year I had no idea what it even was!
Posted 4/3/2009 4:48 PM (GMT 0)
Sherry I'm going to start a new post so I'm not hijacking yours :)
Posted 4/3/2009 5:27 PM (GMT 0)
Have always worked in the medical field for the most part (allergist, GP's, orthopaedic surgeon) for 15 years I worked a county job (still worked in medical field as an EKG tech which is what I am now) my county job was very interesting I was a secretary for the Detective division for the Sheriff's Dept. for 8 years and another 6 years worked in the jail. I did this so I would be able to retire and have medical insurance coverage for life. Which is so important so now I am still working PT as an EKG tech. I have one son who is a police officer in another state.  I forgot to state that I make greeting cards and my little business name is Kardoodles

Post Edited (mollymcbutter) : 4/3/2009 1:32:27 PM (GMT-6)

Posted 4/3/2009 5:29 PM (GMT 0)
Fruitgirl

I understand the name now
Posted 4/3/2009 5:49 PM (GMT 0)
Molly, yeah, it's definitely tied to my career. I do love fruit, though! Berries especially. It's great having access to free berries all summer long!
Posted 4/3/2009 6:26 PM (GMT 0)

Alli, I've haven't worked at PHAC - only agriculture, so I probably don't know your partner. You never know though...

Tara

Posted 4/3/2009 6:51 PM (GMT 0)
Well, I am still in high school but I work 10 hours a week at the library. I am a page so basically I get to put books on shelves, make the shelves look pretty and in order and a bunch of other stuff. I will be starting college in the fall and will be going for childhood education (possibly go into special education). I have also toyed around with the idea of becoming a children's librarian or a speech pathologist.
Posted 4/4/2009 1:08 PM (GMT 0)
Bratcat - just think! You won't have to worry about running to the bathroom twenty million times a day either! :)

Fruitgirl, you say you still eat fruit? Does that every bother your Uc any?
Posted 4/4/2009 3:14 PM (GMT 0)
After high school which has been to long ago to remember, I went to work in a factory which made comic books yeah, worked there for about 8 years.Then went to work in another factory which made records-lp-45-music if anyone remembers them. worked there for about 8 years, Seems like 8 years was my limit. anyway after that just stayed home let my hubby work. Now my husband and I have a Gun store at the world shooting complex. Which I only work at a few weeks out of the year when the big events is going. But I now have a 2 and 1/2 month old granddaughter which I keep 5 days a week, but I have to admit it is more fun then work. nothing in the world like becoming grandma.
Posted 4/4/2009 3:30 PM (GMT 0)
     See if I can remember that far back..lol.  After graduation from high school (along with George Washington..so my grandkids think), I went to a school for laboratory technology. Worked as a lab tech, first in a hospital and then for an Internist/Endocrinologist for the next hundred years (or so it seems).  Quit in 1995 to care for ailing parents (I am an only child).  Dad passed in 95 and mom in 96.  Decided to just stay at home.  Thank God we had the means so I could do so.  Husband retired in 2000.  I developed UC in 98.  Don't know whether this stemmed from the stress I endured since my mother became ill in the early 90's or a combination of that and heavy antibiotic usuage in my early years.

     My GI doctor said that since he has been in practice most of his UC patients are highly driven perfectionists who are very hard on themselves.  Yep, that sums it up for me.

Posted 4/4/2009 3:34 PM (GMT 0)
Well I am an attorney in India with my own law firm. Had very well established firm prior to the surgery. I am still trying to get back into the flow, though travelling has been reduced. I was working 18 hours a day and travelling within India and overseas at least 20 days a month. Oops. this UC (under current) has caused this technical snag and grounded me for quite some time. But still strong. Don't laugh I have been instrumental in legal documentation for lots of Healthcare Companies and software industries.
Posted 4/4/2009 3:46 PM (GMT 0)
This reminds me of something I read about attitude.

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she only had 3 hairs on her head.

"Well, " she said," I think I'll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only 2 hairs on her head. "H-M-M, " she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." Sso she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up and looked in the mirror and noticed she only had 1 hair on her head. "Well", she said, "Today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YEAH" ssshe exclaimed. "I don't have to fix my hair today"!

Attitude is everything

SO WHAT DO YOU SAY THREE CHEERS
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