Would you choose a different career path if you have know more about dialysis?

[st789]

Dealing with dialysis and kidney transplant, work, dr. appt. and constant tiredness, Would you have choose a different career path?  I am very sure many of us one in a while ask ourselves this question.





EDITED: Topic moved to proper section - Sluff/ Admin

[kitkatz]

I like my job and they are adapting to my illness.  I hate being tired all of the time.  Maybe if I knew how tired I am now I would have changed my mind about teaching. 

[Adam_W]

Actually, since I started dialysis, I've wanted to become a dialysis tech. I want to be able to help people just like me (although I would try to promote self-care dialysis as much as I could).

Adam

[Stormmey]

I applaud anyne who can be on dialysis and work, no matter what the job. To me, looking from the outside in, dialysis itself is a full time job so those who can't work, shouls also be applauded. I don't think employeers realize what it is like for the employee who is on dialysis. I am trying to get the word out in my community by attending awareness groups and speaking in all the schools.  i wish there was more I could do. I always say, I would be dangerous if I didn't have to sleep. I loose 8 hours a day that I wish I could put into community awareness of the disease of kidney failure.

[Rerun]

I would be a Nephrologist.  What a job.  You go around and say "hi how are you doing" and get $500.  No risk involved.  All the patients are just happy to be "kept" alive so if something goes wrong.......oh well.  Mark another one up to "Complications of Dialysis."

I worked the first time on dialysis and then with the transplant.  I didn't want to do that again.  But, now if I get a transplant I have to find a job with benefits within 1 year.  That is scary.

[Meinuk]

I have my job because of my kidney disease.  I needed health insurance.  As the time came closer to dialysis, I grew up, stayed at a job that wasn't my dream, but I have good health insurance and I am alive.  So, I look at it as an intelligent sacrifice.  I globe trotted for 15 years.  Now, I am grounded and I have some amazing memories.  Once I get my transplant, I will be off and running again.

[st789]

Yep, people with dialysis continue to work full time are amazing and bravo, especially in teaching like Kitkat, thumb up.  Also, I totally concur with Rerun on being a Nephrologist, just another patient in the list of casualty.  I enjoy your sense of creativity humor more and more eveytime.

[George Jung]

Shouldn't this topic be moved since it is about dialysis ?

[Sluff]

Thanks George for noticing. Topic moved.

[brenda]

My job is perfect for being on dialysis. I work at a place that sells power tools, nuts, bolts, etc. I have slowed down in the past year and prefer inside sales to outside sales now. I have always worked full-time and always will until I just can't I guess. It takes me away from dialysis, I see lots of people everyday and really enjoy my customers. Most people around me don't know that I do dialysis so there are no reminders around at work. It's my "free" space during the week.

[Chicken Little]

Oh, yeah.  The stress from my job, and stress I placed on myself, really took a toll on my health.  Now that I can't return to it I'm trying to find a new kf friendly career. 

[George Jung]

I am looking into new careear paths since being presented with dialysis but I would never give up the choices I have made.  "Hind sight is always 20/20".  I can't live my life with a "what if" attitude, I would be trapped in my bedroom if that were the case.

[stauffenberg]

Since I was a university lecturer when I started dialysis, and so only had to lecture for six hours a week, it seemed as if I had the perfect job for a dialysis patient, since I could easily fit my dialysis schedule into my work schedule.  However, I quickly found that I was simply too exhausted all the time even to show up for just six hours of lectures a week, so I had to quit work while I was on dialysis.  I was able to start working again, however, within two weeks of getting a kidney transplant.

[Chicken Little]

I was able to start working again, however, within two weeks of getting a kidney transplant.

Woohoo!  That's great!  I hope it's that way for me. 

[Deanne]

I'm not on dialysis yet, but chose the career I did in part because I know someday I will be on dialysis or need a transplant. I need good insurance, so I stay in the corporate world, and in case I can't be very active someday, I moved to a career in technical writing.

[st789]

What a gig you have there Stauffenberg as a university lecture.  You can work few hours a day and get some rest.
Again, it is amaze that some dialysis patients can work full-time outside home.  Most patients are wipe out after a dialysis section and it is very hard to have the stamina and energy to continue unless you can work from home and allow you to rest at appropriate time.  Even for healthy people, 9-5 is grind to them.

[esperanza1]

I'm currently in college and I have to decide what career I'm gonna get into.  Anybody who work from home could you share what fields are you in???

thanx

[Deanne]

I go in to the office every day but I could work from home easily. For a year or two I worked from home a couple days/week (same job). I'm a technical writer. Some people on my team work from home full time, some work from home part of the time.

[twirl]

no, I was born to teach

[idahospud]

 have alwas bin a hava caergiver I took caer of my mom whin she wint on diyaliss tell she died i was 15 . but i do thnk I would  have become a mentl health tec  10 years sooner insted of being a CNA . its nice to help and not have to do all the lifting .But I know i was boern a caer giver.

[502Blues]

I was working at a manufacturing plant when i started dialysis. My job required me to lift these 100 pound bags of sugar and i had a 15 pound limit after i got my fistula put in, so I had to quit, plus it didnt fit into my schedule and the health benefits were crap. i wish i wouldve chosen a different line of work. Maybe Medical Coding, which Im in school for now, it can be done from home.

[kimcanada]

I rack my brains everyday trying to figure out how to make a living on dialysis

I was a drafter about 8 years ago, and a small business owner ( which I had to give up) because of dialysis
I often scan what people are doing (work) and try to imagine if that would fit in my life, it rarely does

[G-Ma]

I don't think I would have done anything differently....the only thing I now do not like is the corp that I worked for also put me on disability and will not allow me to do any kind of work as long as I get their disability...this would be ok however they also feel that they can tell me where and if I can travel or not when I want to visit family etc...so I am home on dialysis and disability and feel like a prisoner...depression is a huge part of this.

[Wallyz]

I was working as a Marine engineer when I lost my kidenys, so that was probably the worst field to be in.  I've gone back to work in sales, but that is only workign because of home hemo.

[Lucinda]

I am really lucky to have had so much time to organise how I will work my career once I start dialysis.  There is no way I could have kept up the job I had.  Started at 6am and had my last meetings at around 10.00pm.  I was pretty high up in a company of 350 people and one of just a few on the executive team.  I had a huge responsibility and I loved my job but I think my boss and I both realised that I wouldn't be able to keep up the pace when I started dialysis.  Even when I had my graft put in I took off just one day and they couldn't see themselves clear to give me more than one day off when my father passed away.  I even went back to work after his funeral.  One day a perfect candidate surfaced for my job and with 14 months to go on my contract the company paid me out and I moved on.  I have now started my own media company - was in the press over here for years - and I am publishing an e-zine on property.  It is perfect choice for me with dialysis and I can work my own hours and for myself.  My busiest day will be Saturday when all the auctions are on and that works well as that will be my only day I will not be having dialysis.  I am just really grateful that I have had all this time to get organised.  I admire all those working because I don't believe I could work in any other environment other than one where I could control my own hours.  I would need the freedom to lie down when I needed to etc etc.  I don't know how members like Kit do it.  I think you are amazing. xx