Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hi there,

You're not alone, lots of people seem to have trouble figuring out a job that will accomodate their health - especially something like IBS that is sometimes constant, sometimes can jump up out of the blue!
That being said, there are good employers out there who will be understanding and it just might take some detective work to find that job/employer!
I found that waitressing did not agree with my IBS, so okay I don't work in restaurants anymore. Being on my feet, and having to let someone know if I had to run to the loo made me uncomfortable so I think one thing that is important to me is being able to use the washroom whenever you need to, without having to broadcast it. That means any job where you would need someone to 'cover' you for any reason might be out.
I have had the most success with office jobs, even telephone jobs. I worked for a travel agent in the UK where I just booked holidays over the phone. I was close to a bathroom, and could just put my phone to 'not ready' when I couldn't accept calls. Since it was a busy call centre, nobody ever had to know when I needed to sneak off!

Also, being able to sit for the majority of the day was nice as it allowed me to be less obvious when my tummy was all cramped up.

I am going to start a new reception job on Thursday, and the only thing that concerns me so far is the commute - it is about an hour away. I am pretty stable right now, though, and have doing a lot of driving lately so that freaks me out a lot less than it would have 6 months ago! Then, when I was pretty unstable, I worked a ten minute bus journey away for a while and it was perfect. That job also helped because my boss had IBS! She was very understanding when I had to come in and out of the office a lot, when I had to leave a bit early or even when I called in sick.

I thinking working from home would be awesome, I just haven't found anything yet that would be good for me.
I think being a novelist would be PERFECT! If I could be any job in the world, I think that's what it would be. I just don't have the talent, unfortunately! I get writers block after about 3 pages, hee hee.

If you've got the good novel brain, I'd totally do it!! Although maybe have a back-up income whilst waiting for your millions, hee hee.

By the way, if you are getting attacks once a week that is quite often. How are you handling your IBS right now?

Good luck!
--Steph

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~~I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell-I know right now you can't tell~~Matchbox 20
IBS-D,pain.

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