Scrap Girls Digital Scrapbooking Forum: MrsCropper - Viewing Profile - Scrap Girls Digital Scrapbooking Forum

Good Morning Scrap Girls,

I have reached a place in my life where I have to make a hard decision and I would appreciate your positive thoughts and prayers. I have worked for my company for 18 years (this July) and most days I really love my job. But due to health issues, my husband and I both feel it is time for me tolook into disability benefits, which of course would require me to quit. I have had serious health issues for 10 years now and have never even considered disability, even though I have had a number of doctors over the years who assumed I was on disability benefits and not working. I just never wanted to be"one of those people" that abused the system.

A little background on myhealth:

I have had severe asthma since I was 10. Most of the time it is under control but I do get pneumonia very easily and it takes a number of weeks for me to recover. Right now, I am on week six of a leave for pneumonia. I was in the hospital for a week in February because I had double pneumonia. My husband says they almost lost me this time. I am still doing breathing treatments every four hours and get exhausted very easily. I am due to go back to work on April 1. Although my boss would never say anything to me, I can tell in her voice and emails that her patience is wearing thin regarding my return to work.

I had a stroke in 2003 at the age of 32. I lost the use of my arm, had a bit of a drag in my right leg and my speech was slurred for a while. I went to physical, occupational and speech therapy for months. The hardest part was learning how to write and type again. It would be eight months before I was able to go back to work full time(I am an analyst so all of my work is computer and/or writing).

In August of 2007, I fell down my basement stairs (old house, steep stairs, cement floor) one morning while going down to get clothes for work. I got up and brushed it off, even went to work. Over the next couple of months, I began to have some really bad back pain that ran down my right leg. I went to the doctor and found out I had two herniated discs in my lower back (L4/L5 and L5/S1). Being the foolish person I am at times, I did not want to miss work to take care of my back so I continued to go in every day. By the end of October, the pain in my back and legs were almost unbearable and I was using a cane. One Sunday morning I went to get up and literally could not move my legs. After a four hour ordeal, my husband was finally able to get me into a wheelchair that we had at the house.I missed work that Monday and Tuesday and finally agreed to go the ER onWednesday. My husband, brother-in-law and nephew had to carry me down my porchstairs in the wheelchair to get me into the car. I ended up having emergency surgery the next morning but unfortunately, a tremendous amount of nerve damagehad already been done and I lost feeling from the back of my buttocks all the way down to my feet. I went through months of rehab, learning how to walk without feeling in my feet and trying to get some of my balance back. I recovered as much as I could and went back to work in February. I ended uphaving to have a second back surgery in April of 2009 to really repair the damage that had been done (the first surgery was really just to relieve the pressure on the nerves). Rods and screws were put in my back and this time the recovery was much quicker, I only missed about 10 weeks of work.

Since my back problems, I have endured nerve pain and neuropathy in my feet and legs. I have a very high threshold for pain but when the neuropathy kicks in I cannot sleep. There have been a number of nights I literally got no sleep and had to call in to work.Unfortunately, there is no rhyme or reason to the neuropathy - I constantly have the burning pain in my feet, which I can live with, but sometimes for whatever reason the pain and burning are kicked up a few notches and I just can't sleep.

Through all of this, my boss has been very accommodating and understanding. She is a great person and a fantastic boss but she does answer to higher powerswithin the office. There have been a number of times she has mentioned my attendance - she understands my situation but the work still has to be done.She was even able to get me a laptop so I could work from home occasionally if I had an issue with my sleep. But I can tell a big difference in her attitude about my leave this time around.

I am so torn on this decision. On one hand, I do find it very difficult to work 40+ hours a week and keep up with the house, laundry and cooking. In fact, when I am working, we probably eat out three nights a week. Simply because I am too exhausted to cook and clean up the mess. My husband does cook but he also works and twice a week he works a 16 hour day. Since I have been on leave and once I got over the big hump of not being able to breathe if I did ANYTHING besides rest, the house has stayed clean, the laundry is kept up with and I cook most nights. It is almost like I have to choose between working and taking care of my family. However, it would certainly be a financial hit if I quit work and disability would only be about half my monthly bring home.

Thanks for listening; I would appreciate any prayers and positive thoughts to help me make the right decision.

Barb

Good Morning, Purple Pals! I have a question about printing layouts. Do any of you print your 8x8 layouts for framing and if so, what size frame do you use? I want to print some of my favorites and hang them in my home but I am not sure how to go about it. Thanks!

Am I searching wrong or there really not any military themed kits in the boutique??

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Has anyone ran into this problem? What am I doing wrong?



Thanks!

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I have tried editing the comment and removing the code, I even tried changing the font color of the code to white so it doesn't show - nothing works.


Its really just an annoyance but iit is been drving me craazy!