fibro-what job do you have?

[dolphinrescuegirl]

Hi all, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 3 years ago. Since then, my disease has gotten worse and I can no longer work. Those of you who work, what do you do? I want to work but can't stand on my feet for long periods of time and only have an associates degree in child development. I'm also burned out on kids so I don't want to work with them.

At Christmas, my mom suggested medical billing and coding. She said there are on-line schools that I could get the education for and then do it from home. Does anyone have any experience with this? I would like to hear the good and bad. Thanks in advance!

 

[ireland_nicole]

I am a home health nurse. It works well for me because I don't have to be on my feet very long, but move around enough to not get too stiff. I will say that the typing I do is one of the more difficult tasks for me. I do find that I have more numbness, swelling and pain in my wrists after I've been typing a lot. That being said, the rheumy said I have some other auto immune issues, so that may be why the typing is so much harder for me.
Good luck in finding the right career path!

 

[cosine4]

I am an engineer. The majority of my time is spent at a desk and I have a good ergo chair and a very ergo minded company so that works well. The things that give me the most trouble are:

1. Long Meetings, some days I have meetings all day and that will ruin my whole week. Not only are the chairs less comfortable but it is usually required to sit at an angle to the screen. Plus I don't have time to do my things (stretching, walking, mind wandering (kind of like a lazy version of meditations )

2. Long periods in the lab. Keens has yet to make steel toe shoes And it is loud.

3. People who need things done on their time, not mine.

4. Loud neighbors when I am having a bad day.

 

[brighteyes]

Hi all, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia about 3 years ago. Since then, my disease has gotten worse and I can no longer work. Those of you who work, what do you do? I want to work but can't stand on my feet for long periods of time and only have an associates degree in child development. I'm also burned out on kids so I don't want to work with them.

At Christmas, my mom suggested medical billing and coding. She said there are on-line schools that I could get the education for and then do it from home. Does anyone have any experience with this? I would like to hear the good and bad. Thanks in advance!

I have found that if I am on my feet for a long period of time, once I sit down, it is over. I used to work in a medical clinic on my feet for 6 or 10 hours a day. I was fine then, just my upper body gave me pain. Until I started college, then the pain set in my lower half.

I guess for me, it is strue, to keep moving, cause once I cut those shifts down, the pain set in my whole body.

Currently I am in college, but do a placement at a school as a child/youth worker. I am on my feet most of the day there, but by the time I get home, I am usually limping.

At the clinic if I typed longer than 3 hours, I had excrutiating pain that night.
But I could switch off and walk patients to rooms for a few hours to get a break. When I did that, there was no stopping, so that was tiring too, but not painful.

I hope that is not too discouraging for you, but the typing would be painful for you. But if you can find somewhere and do it from home, then you might have more control over it.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

 

[Momelie]

I'm a Humanities professor. The worst part of my job is the "publish or perish" end of it. I love the research, but typing up the results can kill me! Of course, my fibro is secondary to an auto-immune arthritis, so keep that in mind, LOL.

Also, the fatigue and fibro fog make it very difficult to do things on a daily basis. I only teach part time, two days a week, so I'm lucky in that respect. No way could I stand up through two 75 minute class periods every single day - and I just can't teach sitting down, believe me, I've tried! I jump up and point stuff out on the slides, demonstrate the posture of a statue or figure in a painting, and one memorable occasion explained the social relevance of the Time Warp (while throwing my back out!). Nope, the day I have to sit still to teach, they can just turn out the lights in the lecture hall!

The days I don't teach, however, I do have to relax in the hot tub, do my water aerobics, rest, and generally recover from the stress. It really is a trade off, but I'm not ready to retire to the sofa just yet!