Well, I was out because I had to have emergency gallbladder surgery and then I had pancreatitus. I almost ended up in the ICU. This was last July. One of the educators, after hearing my story, was shocked and said, "Oh my god, you could have died." But luckily, I went to hospital by ambulance thinking it was a heart attack. That was last July and I still get sick pretty regularly, not with pancreatitus, but with after effects of having a gallbladder out.

I bet if I'd had to go for an episode they would have fired me. At the time I only had 12 days on my FMLA because I'd had my baby 6 months before and used almost all my time. So, the HR person was threatening to fire me if I didn't get back ASAP. I went back to work before I was able to walk more than 10 feet without pain and getting winded. But I was scared to lose my job. I even lied to the surgion that I felt okay so that he would clear me. So I just sat at my desk a lot.