Good day everyone! I hope you are doing well. So far so good on this end. In this post, I will tell you my experience trying to work a full time job with Crohn’s Disease. Not an easy task! I worked, worked, worked until I could work no more!
Once I graduated from college with an Associates degree in Medical Laboratory Technology, I got my first job 3 hours away from home in St. Louis, MO. There, I worked as lab technician in a hospital. Loved that job. I then went to a pharmaceutical job working in quality assurance. It was here, at age 25 that I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. At that time, I had never heard of Crohn’s Disease and I thought okay, I will just have to take medicine the rest of my life to control this. I thought you could control it like high blood pressure – just take a pill! Boy, was I ever wrong! I eventually ended up at an aerospace company working as a chemistry technician. While I was working there, I had my gallbladder removed, a fistula surgery and my first and second bowel resections. I also had to apply for their Family Leave program. This program would allow me to go to my doctor visits and have bad Crohn’s days without it counting against me (supposedly). All was good until I reached the age of 40. Then all hell broke loose! My body was falling apart and soon I was greatly relying on the Family Leave. Eventually, after 10 years of working at this company, I was laid off. That’s when the stress really took over and I was looking at another fistula surgery, multiple abscesses and another resection in which I ended up with a permanent colostomy (another story).
It was then that I decided that I can no longer hold down a job because every time I turned around, I was in the hospital for something else related to Crohn’s or I would have many bad days linked together where I would feel like I couldn’t move no further than the couch. I talked to my husband and we decided to try for disability for me. This was a really hard decision for me because ever since I graduated from college at the age of 22. I have been providing for myself and moving forward with my life. To this day, it is still very hard to imagine not being able to do so and having to rely on others to provide for me. Some days it gives me a little bit of anxiety when I think about the future. I’m still wanting to move forward with my life but now I have to think of other ways to do so besides work. Who knows, maybe one day I will get better and be able to work again?
Anyhoo, I started the process of applying for disability. I was denied the first time, I was denied after I appealed, and finally I had to get a court date for the hearing. During this process, our family went through some major financial hardship. Since we were living on one income, I had to come up with some creative ways on how we could cut corners on our spending. My aunt was telling me that she sometimes makes her own laundry detergent. I looked it up and it makes an entire 5 gallon bucket. That saved us bunches right there! Also, we started staying in more to eat instead of going out, which was probably better for our health anyways. I also started cutting coupons and becoming one of those people who wouldn’t buy anything or eat anywhere that we didn’t have a coupon for. I hate to say this, but I sometimes miss those days where everyone was working together for the same goal – survival!
Our extended family was phenomenal to us during this time. They would help us as much as they could without us even asking for anything. If it wasn’t for them, I believe we would never have made it through. One of them paid my vehicle off for us, one of them told us we needed to take our kids on vacation so he paid us to schedule a family vacation in which was the furthest from our minds at that time! Another would give us random money to pay some of our bills even though we didn’t ask for any. It goes to prove that we can always lean on our family when the going gets tough and of course we would do the same thing back when we get on our feet again tenfold. We ourselves had just been married for 6 months when I was laid off then my health went sour and has been that way ever since. Sometimes I wonder if my husband has ever thought he married a lemon. He needs his money back on this one because she is a broken one!
To sum it up, I did end up receiving disability after a 2 year battle, and somewhere in the midst of all the chaos, I managed to receive a Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice through an online college. Someday, when I get better, I want to be able to work in a crime laboratory. Why not? I’ve worked in every other type of lab! I am adding a link to the right of my side of my page to the Social Security Administration so that you can receive more information about disability. I’m not saying it is for everyone, but there is help out there for the people who really need it. Remember to stay positive, keep smiling and we will all get through this one day at a time!
Chow for now!