Skip to main content

Navigating Job Interviews and a New Job With a Chronic Illness


I while back at my first appointment with my PCP he said how amazed he was that I loved a fairly typical life and my new adolescent medicine doctors expressed similar sentiments when I first saw them. The thing is, I have fought to live my life the way I do. I have taken some risk in achieving the  quality of life I have that some people or doctors do not want to take on such as a central line. However I constantly refuse to say no just because of chronic illness. For long time readers you may remember a while back I took up running, I mostly just did that because for the 1st time in years I was completely cleared for all physical activity.

When I started looking for a summer job I mostly looked for part time positions that could accommodate my doctor's appointments and even looked at office jobs that would be easier on me physically than the childcare ones I rather be at. However there was one job I applied to that is practically full time at 37.5 hours a week as a camp counselor at the local science museum. Perhaps not the best fit in terms of my medical issues but this was really the job I wanted. I applied, if I didn't I would be sure to regret it. I also applied else where.

After my interview I was told it would be at least 2 weeks before a decision would be made. In that time I had other interviews, for jobs that would probably be easier to handle with my medical issues, shorter days and more flexible hours. The week before I was supposed to hear back I received a call, I had gotten the job. All sort of thoughts ran through my head. I asked if I could call back the next day with my answer, telling myself I should really wait to hear back from the daycare I interviewed at that morning. However I soon realized what really held me back from saying yes was my concerns about making it work with all my health stuff. So the same day I called back and accepted the position. All of this took place in the time between my appointments at CHOP.

Exploring the Museum At Night
To say I had concerns and doubts about my choice was an understatement. In an appointment with my PCP I mentioned the situation and my worries but that I didn't want them to hold me back. Thankfully he agreed and let me cancel my next appointment with him since I was also going to see his colleague in adolescent medicine around the same time. And slowly but sure I managed to rearrange my other appointments and went from having 6 days of appointments in June to just two, which I am getting off. All I needed to do was email my boss saying what days I had appointments.

The other major issue I had was telling my boss about my medical issues. I legal do not have to disclose anything but I knew I would be less stressed out and more likely to stay if I felt comfortable running IV fluids and tube feeds at work. This was the first time I had faced some of these issues since I have pretty much had most of my jobs that I do during the school year pre-feeding tube. Going in to all my interviews I covered everything up. While I am legally protected against discrimination do to medical issues if I do not get offered a job there is a million other excuses that can be used but once I have a job it is a lot harder to be fired sue to medical issues. During training I informed my boss about my port and feeding tube and she was very chill about it and said I could use her office if I need to connect or disconnect at work. Overall everything seems to be working out really well and I officially start Monday and could not be more excited!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Swollen Wrist

This morning I woke up to a red painful swollen wrist. My right wrist was not happy or useable for the better part of the morning. Of course my mom wanted to make a rheumatologist appointment for this week but I really did not think it is worth it. Since I am now in the 2 week period before my hip surgery I can not take anything but Tylenol anyway (no voltaren or fancy cream), so there is not a whole lot that can be done. We finally settled on me going to my GP (for the 2nd time in one week as I had a pre-op appointment with him on Monday), and I took a picture so I can show my rheumy at my next appointment. I managed to get an appointment at 11AM because my GP was in the office this Saturday. By the time of the appointment my wrist looked pretty normal, although I had the picture so he could see something was up. He had it x-rayed just to rule out any issues non rheumatology related, and as we both guessed the x-rays came out normal. My Lovely Wrist this Morning I was left wit
Post a Comment
Read more

The Perfect Body?

Today I am going to write about a taboo subject- body image, and how living with chronic illness/pain has affected it. I get told how great my body is a lot, I am tall and fairly skinny. Not to be egotistic but I look pretty good in a bikini. I should love how I look. I should be confident of my body, after all I just bought a pair of size 2 jeans. Yet I still struggle with loving my body. My New Jeans! In middle school I thought my legs were fat, that was when I had muscles from horseback riding, today I miss my muscular legs. My thighs tend to be two different sizes, the left one is almost always smaller. The reason for this is simple, my left quad has atrophied from months of limping and being on crutches when I was 15/16, at one point it was so bad my doctor measured it and the difference was a good 2 cm in circumference. Today they are almost the same size, and probably look the same to anyone else, but to me they still look different. If you haven't guessed it yet,
4 comments
Read more

Spring Break!

Ok so my spring break may not of been the most exciting, as I think I spent more time at PT then anywhere else, but it was nice not to spend the entire time in bed because of pain. In fact my heat pad only came out like once, what is this craziness? PT has been going great since I stopped flaring! As of Wednesday I am doing every exercise I had to stop because of my knees during the flare, plus new exercise. I am finally done doing pillow squeezes and glute sets, I now have very few table exercises. As of next week I am down to only two PT appoints a week instead of three, which means I won't have to go before school anymore! I did do something besides PT this week, I went prom dress shopping! I found a gorgeous blue and white open back gown. I am not going to post a picture until after prom but I love it. It fit perfectly but if I gain an ounce it will be an issue or if my hips choose to swell prom night. I also have amazing shoe, they are silver stilettos and over 3 inches ta
4 comments
Read more