Living with Disabilities: While Working and/or In College

I am starting this thread as I nervously am starting a new chapter.

I have multiple disabilities and receive SSDI. I plan to begin working part-time (ticket-to-work), while attending college, likely full-time. I graduated with my first degree 17 years ago. I’m mainly nervous because a big part of my depression symptoms is procrastination. I will likely fill up the accountability partner thread. Lol

I will also have an empty nest this fall. My youngest graduates next month (May 2024). He is attending college out-of-state.

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Congratulations on starting your new chapter! I have a tough time with procrastination too, I have been dealing with a long time especially when trying to write my book.

I have been working with my disability for a long time, but not enough to validate the ticket to work program, because I think after about 10 months of doing that, they re-evaluate your disability and see if you are ready to work full-time. I work way under the cap amount, but I still report my earnings every month.

I wish you luck on this journey, and also congratulations to your son too. I will check back in on you here on this thread to see how are you doing, but how exciting for you! Can't wait to see what comes out of all of this.

I live with a rare disease and multiple (unpreventable) autoimmune diseases and decided to be proactive.

Why Nursing—My Why

I took initiative and began attending trainings, workshops, education events, and webinars. I have had many experiences of being ignored, experiencing medical racism, a lack of continuity of care, and misogyny.

I'm not interested in attempting to change a system that has fought hard to normalize its harmful existence.

My goal is to help create another lane for marginalized BIPOC, Two-Spirit, and Indigenous people. I want to help create care in marginalized communities by marginalized providers.

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Last week, I signed up for Ticket-to-Work through the Social Security Administration. My youngest son turns 18 this month, and my income will change. I need to at least work part-time. I am happy to report that my new HAE injection treatments seem to be working. My HAE attacks have slowed down a lot. I received hospital bills from my last few HAE attacks. Working will help me get them paid off.

I have an assigned vocational case manager. We had a phone conversation this week and discussed resumes. I have been dealing with a lot of anxiety over how to explain the gap in my employment history. My case manager explained that I should list volunteer work and explain during interviews that I took time off to raise a family. My kids are all grown, and I am returning to work. Being disabled is very hard, and I understand that it varies greatly from person to person, depending on the type of disability (disabilities) in addition to the severity.

I have a very close relationship with my youngest son, and that’s mainly because I started receiving SSDI when he was in fourth grade. He’s a senior in high school, and I still take him to school and pick him up. I have been able to attend all his school events, band concerts, band competitions, open house events, and parent-teacher conferences. I participated in school carnivals, bake sales, and helped chaperone events. I dropped him off and picked up him and his classmates.

I found a few articles that discuss returning to the workforce. I hope others find the articles helpful too.

•Stay-at-home-mom valuable transferable skills.

Just a moment...

•Finding a job/reentering the workforce after being a stay-at-home-mom.

Just a moment...

•Finding a job/reentering the workforce after a long absence.

Just a moment...

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Over the last two weeks, I have tried to donate blood to the Red Cross twice. Each time, my iron was too low. I reached out to my primary physician to report and explain other symptoms. I was struggling with fatigue and procrastination, and I could feel myself slipping into depression. My primary physician ordered labs and said low iron could trigger my depression. I’ve been eating foods containing iron and hope to not need another vitamin or supplement. I learned that iron is not part of the usual autoimmune disease lab panel. I don’t understand why, since vitamin deficiency is very common among people who have immune diseases, such as myself. The standard lab panel checks for vitamin deficiencies except iron deficiency.

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In June 2024, I signed up for Ticket-to-Work through SSA, and started working part-time.

In Aug 2024, I started working full-time with the goal of gaining access to private health insurance. I signed up for private health insurance this month, October, and my plan is much better than Medicare. My specialist copays cost half the price!!!!

I never thought that having a rare illness, Hereditary Angioedema, would help me land a job. It turns out giving myself IV infusions came in handy. I work in blood collections.

Lupus SLE: I received a second opinion on Aug 16th, 2024, which confirmed a second time that I have Lupus SLE.

Food and Wellness: My rheumatologist also recommended I adhere to an anti-inflammatory food lifestyle. I walk a lot for mental well-being.

On Saturday, I completed a DRS - Career Planning assessment, which is a step towards returning to school.

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