So many things - so few answers

[rschuck]

Before I begin - I would just like to say that I typically do not complain. I am the type of person who just sucks it up and keeps going. But when I found this forum I decided I needed two things
1- A place to say what I needed to say where people would understand.
and 2 - I fresh lease on life. I am hoping this might give me that.

Now I have to vent...

I have an unfortunate list of things that I have lived through over the past 31 years - since being diagnosed with Crohns, that I feel like I have a black cloud following me wherever I go.
Each passing year seems to yield a bigger set of problems and fewer solutions.
While leaving a whole lot of events out - In a nut shell the following is a list of the larger things I have had to cope with:
- I started having problems at the age of 15 with abdominal pain - which was diagnosed as everything under the sun from a nervous stomach to an ulcer. It wasn't until I had an emergency surgery at 25 that they found the Crohns while performing exploratory surgery.
- Because my girlfriend got pregnant at 16, I dropped my dreams of college and started working right out of high school to support her and the baby. Obviously I didn't make a lot of money because of that.
- Once diagnosed, the Dr. prescribed an entirely too high dosage of Prednisone which he left me on for two years. Those of you who understand this disease know what prednisone does to the body. I gained excessive weight, had to buy all new clothing, lost self confidence, and fell into depression.
- Due to the disease I have struggled through (and I kid you not) 23 kidney stones.
- I also struggle with depression.
- After 26 years of marriage my wife and I divorced.
- I have lost two jobs in the last ten years because of my disease.
- Because of the divorce, job loss and bad economy - I had to sell my house - which I lost $30,000 on - and had to clean out my retirement account just to get out from under the house.
- The new job I now have promised a lot and has delivered very little, so I now make 30,000 a year less than what I used to, have no way to pay the mounting medical bills, and the job I have does not offer medical, vacation or retirement.

I really struggle with even caring anymore. I just need someone out there to give me an opportunity to work a good job that pays a decent wage and understand that I can't always control the symptoms of my disease so I can deal with them as needed - versus being chastised and the let go from my position because of the disease is not understood.

I have five children and six grandchildren.
I live in Springfield Illinois.
I am a really good person and worker.
Why can't I get a fair shake in this life?

Is there anyone who can direct me? Is there an organization out there that helps people like us?

 

[Rebecca85]

When you say you lost two jobs due to the disease, depending on the circumstances they may have been breaking the law, as it is illegal to discriminate against someone with a disability (americans with disabilities act).

Were you sacked, or made redundant? If you were part of a round of redundancies it may be hard to prove that you were discriminated against, but if you were the only one, or you were sacked for having too much time off say, it should be easier!

Did they give you any 'reasonable accommodations' to deal with up your Crohn's (eg increased bathroom breaks, time off when needed). Again, if they didn't accomodate you and you ended up being unable to cope because of it, that would be evidence of discrimination.

Do you have citizen advice places over there? Because if so, I would go and talk to them, explain the circumstances and see if they think it's worth taking it further.

As for organisations, I'll let the Americans answer that as they (hopefully) know more about how things work over there than I do.