Who is able to work with Chronic Pancreatitis

[Guest guest]

Hi Debs,

I have CP, and have had a total pancreatectomy, without islet cell

transpant, so i have insulin dependent diabetes.

I work 30 hours / week. I'm a staff nurse and i work with sick children. My

job involves working shifts, including nights.I have had quite a bit of time

off sick over the years, having had several operations, and had to fight hard

to get promotion. I did start to feel i was being discriminated against

because of my time off sick.

Sue (UK)

[Guest guest]

Hi

Its along time since I wrote and I am curious as to how many of you

can continue to work with Cp whilst taking strong pain emeds etc.

I have been back at work for 4 years mainly due to ANTOX and I still

take a host of drugs to do this

I basically have to take a pill to do everything for all bodily

functiosn eg eating sleeping etc.

..

Just intersted to know, its hard as this is not a disease that is

visible to somone looking at you, and I have purposely not told

anyone with whom I work with to protect my job

Cheers

debs

[Guest guest]

Hi Debs,

I work full time in a hospital testing blood and body fluids for

abnormalities. I work alone while managing the lab and

performing the tests so I am able to conform my day to what I am

mentally and physically capable of doing. On my good days I

function with 10 - 20 mg oxycodone. On my bad days I usually

double this (will take about 40mg / day then). I have noticed that I

tend to get " spacy " when I have to double up so I have developed

lots of tricks to make sure things do not go catastrophically

wrong (I have checklists, color coded test tubes, back-ups for

back-ups, etc). No one that I work with knows to what extent I am

not feeling well or what meds or how much I take a day. I figure

that if problems are occuring they will let me know and that I do

not want to give them any reason to look for problems. I am also

fortunate that on the days when I am less than optimal I can just

lay my head down on the desk and respond only to phone calls

or pages......I put off routine work for another day. Basically it is

an arrangement that works for all because they get what they can

out of me when I am able to work (as opposed to giving me an

all or nothing ultimatum) and I get to keep my insurance which

pays for my $2,000 / month prescription cost. I know that if I had

a " real " job with bosses and expectations that I work the 8 hours

a day that I am on the job, there is no way I would be able to work

full time - or maybe at all. But seeing that the doctors I work with

are the ones that created my health problems they really can't

complain too much when I need my " down time " . !

Laurie

[Guest guest]

Debs-

I had to write in...I have worked for the last 4.5 years with this

dreaded disease..but I cut my hours back in January, and I am now

down to 10-12 hours a week. Yep, I know it isn't much anymore, but I

didn't feel right getting full pay when I was sick so much. I have

to say that I take WAY too much Advil...as I would rather take Advil

than painkillers when I have boys to get to school and drive to

work. Sometimes I cut a Vicodin in half and try to make that work,

basically, as long as I am not doubled over in pain (and " tossing my

cookies " ), I tried my very best to keep a normal life and get to

work. My boss is fully aware of my angry pancreas, and he is very

supportive. Some days I come into work, and he just sends me

home...he knows the look. I have so much respect for you and your

ability to be able to continue to work. It is really hard to do...

and keeping it quiet..WOW!! I couldn't do that.

BTW, I don't recommend taking a lot of Advil...my Doctors have

pitched a fit over how much I was taking just to take the edge

off...I told them they need to come up with a drug that doesn't make

me drowsy or loopy...until then my husband says he should have

bought stock in Advil!!

Good luck!

Hugs,

Suzi B.

Colorado