Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

Hi Lynn, believe me, I hear you about the hermit life and losing jobs.
Throughout my youth I've had bouts of lactose intolerance and always a senstive stomach, but it wasn't until I was almost 18 that I started to really be sick with IBS. I had just gotten over mono, when I had to give up coffe (my life blood at the time) because everytime I even sipped it I would become terribly sick. I also gave up dairy too, but I was still sick.
I graduated from high school and then got a job as a waitress, haha, that was fun. Mind you even now, if I'm on my feet for more than 6 hours, I start to get shooting pains in my thighs and lower abdomen, waitressing was not the best profession for my condition. But I needed the money for college, and fast and it was the only job that I could get paid enough. So I suffered through it, after six months my boss kindly "let me go".
Note, this was after several late arrivals to my shift due to attacks, stepping off the floor (waitress lingo, stopping the cycle of waitressing) to go to the employee bathroom and suffer through an attack (the worst!), and at one point on a busy Sunday collapsing at the hostess station from the pain of yet another attack.
After that job I got another one in retail, quit/fired after a month, and then got another job as a cashier at a food counter at my school, quit/fired that too, and finally found the job of my dreams as an assistant to the graduation audit advisor at my school.
She is the best boss anyone could ever wish for. She knows all about my IBS and completely understands when I'm late because I wasn't feeling well (mornings can be a little hard for me), and even pays me for days that I miss because I'm having attacks and I need to rest and relax.
So I think of it this way, if I hadn't quit or been kindly "excused" from my previous jobs, I never would have gotten this job. So maybe getting fired might be a way of the cosmos telling you this isn't right for you and you deserve better. Keep your chin up, it's not your fault that you are sick, and if someone is going to be so cruel as to make you feel guilty for being doubled over in pain, well then they are just insensitive, no good, dirty, rotten, terrible, selfish, inconsiderate, meanies!

And you are too good for them!

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