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Change of career post diagnosis?

Keight
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Keight Enthusiast
Keight
Posted

I am finding, as I get to reset my body and start to know a gluten-free version of me, that my job is a place of stress and angst. I do not want this sort of life any more. I need a job and work environment more in tune with who I am becoming. 

Have any of you found the same happening to you, post diagnosis? How did you handle it? What changes did you make to suit the healthier you?

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Ennis-TX Grand Master
Ennis-TX
Posted

>.< Well since cooking all my own food and trying to recreate things from my past in a safe version became a passion I was good at I started selling gluten free baked goods at farmers markets to help pay for my new diet. Sorta evolved over the years to paleo and keto, and I make baked goods, almond butters, and during the market I now set up a tent and cook and serve meals and get chef jobs.

Oddly I also used to work at a Automotive Machine Shop....I ended up with another worker finding my diet and new found corn and diary allergies funny, sorta made a habit of exposing me for a while. I stopped working full time there, but I now bring food over and serve lunch there since it is next door...oddly I pay most my rent this way and still go over there for some odd jobs no one else can do (No one else there knows how to run the boring machine to bore blocks or hone them)

BTW as you heal you will have more energy and be able to do more. I will admit I have issues with HITT  and running/jumping makes me sick. But I go about 10miles a day between the stationary bike, elliptical, and walking, and do resistance and weight training daily.

Unglutenedlife Newbie
Unglutenedlife
Posted
(edited)

I love hearing stories how diagnoses led to life-changing career shifts. It ia the small business that really understand the celiac disease community needs. 

It has been around eight years since my  official diagnosis and before that it was over a decade of figuring out why I was sick. My wellness has always been time consuming and something I thought about making a career change for. Yoga instructor and health coach are two of the career changes that are on the back of my mind.  Recently I decided to test the waters and start writing about what I learned to share with the celiac disease community. Such a supportive community with so many resources and such a need for many more. 

Edited by Unglutenedlife
Removed personal link.
  • 3 weeks later...
BuddhaBar Collaborator
BuddhaBar
Posted

Didn't make a career change because there are a lot of benefits working in the health care system in Norway if you have a chronic disease. I get 24 days of fully paid sick leave each year and because I have a documented chronic disease my employee doesn't have to pay anything when I get sick. The welfare administration pay. There aren't a better place to work as a celiac.
However I changed other things. Like my style of clothes. And I generally stopped caring about what other people think of me. When I got diagnosed I think I realized for real that I can actually get diseases and that I'm mortal. 

Keight Enthusiast
Keight
Posted
  • Author

Yes, BuddhaBar, I can relate! I thought I was bullet proof til mid 2019. Was a rude shock to discover my frailty. 

  • 5 months later...
DJFL77I Experienced
DJFL77I
Posted
On 1/19/2020 at 1:59 PM, BuddhaBar said:

Didn't make a career change because there are a lot of benefits working in the health care system in Norway if you have a chronic disease.

i think i read norway has the highest % of celiac

  • 2 years later...
Kyndryl Rookie
Kyndryl
Posted

I got diagnosed 8 years ago with celiac disease and now recently with colitis and gall bladder sludge. Have been in the hospital 4 times this year. Point is I wish I had walked away from my retail management job when I first got diagnosed to properly heal and figure out this autoimmune disease. I didn't really understand it. I just pushed forward with constant pain in the mornings and just got used to being in pain. 

Now I have enrolled in college and finishing up my bachelors degree in my 30's and so proud of myself for doing a career pivot. Focusing on my bloodwork and health and weight. It's been great to be at a place where I can control the food I cook everyday and I walk 2 miles each morning. Before my schedule was like 11 hours of my day at work or commuting to work and I wasn't putting my health first and was too tired to cook. I wish I knew now what I didnt know back then. I struggled with fatigue for such a long time and it took something dramatic like a juice cleanse for 2 weeks to get my body sorted out and kick my cravings to the curb and stop my reliance on coffee. 

Now I want to help people. But I want to have the freedom to have a flexible schedule and always put my health first.

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