30 Day invisible illness challenge: Day 13

Day Thirteen: 

Regarding work and career: 

It's rough.

There's no other way to put it. It's hard to work and attend post-secondary with a chronic illness. But if there's one thing I am proud to say about myself, it's that I am a hard worker. While studying as an English Major full time at the University of Calgary, I was working 5 to 7 days a week at my job as a supervisor at a pet store.

I started studying journalism in 2013 and it's been so hard to keep up. I had surgery at the end of August 2013, and a couple weeks later started the journalism program. I remember walking around school with a sore, swollen tummy, and swallowing narcotic pain killers between classes. I've found that journalism has been especially hard while struggling with a chronic, debilitating illness. To produce good stories worth reading, I need to be out and about doing interviews and taking photos. So many days I feel too sore and tired to get up, so it's an enormous struggle to keep up on my school work. 

Me, over the past couple years:

I also work at a pet food store, so working and attending school is immensely difficult. I said before that I am a hard worker, but lately I have been feeling utterly defeated. School was especially hard while I was on Leuprolide. The cancer treating drug made me nauseous and sick, and it was tremendously embarrassing to duck out of class to vomit. I had a lot of minty gum in my bag, believe you me. 

I've been hospitalized twice after work got the better of me and my pain increased to the point where I vomited/fainted/felt like death would be a pleasant alternative to the pain I was experiencing. 

I've kept in touch with a lot of women who suffer with endometriosis on the Twitter. I like these women a lot, and I've learned that a lot of them cannot work because their pain is- surprise- debilitating. Part of me wants to apply for disability, because really, some days it's just so bad I can't do much of anything with myself. But in the same breath, I don't want to do that. I feel that if I gave up my independence though work and school, it would be like letting the disease win. I love working with animals, and despite the stress regarding work, I love what I do and I would lose a great deal of happiness if I stopped working. 

So yes, post secondary school work and working is incredibly difficult while suffering from a bad case of endometriosis. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I need to work to be happy. I need to work to survive, and I'm not ready to lay down and let this disease take over my life.

Thank you so much for reading, and I appreciate your support. It means the world to me, it really does.

-Captain Lakie