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Lost my job just as I was preparing to go back full-time

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  • Lost my job just as I was preparing to go back full-time

    After my surgery on January 23rd (T9 to sacrum with pelvic fixation) I was on short-term disability until April 23rd, when I started back to work part-time. Most of my work is done in telecommute mode, so is usually done right here at home.

    I had been cleared to return to work full-time, and was doing my best to work up to full-time hours when I lost my job. I wasn't the only one. The entire company shut down on July 25th and laid everybody off. It was business as usual that morning; I participated in a scheduled teleconference that morning. That evening, I received a strangely worded e-mail from a colleague asking me if I had "talked to anybody in the company". In reply to my response to her, she told me that everybody had been asked to clean out their desks and hand in their keys that afternoon, and that they were all laid off. So I called a manager's cell-phone, and found out that yes, I had been laid off too, along with everybody else, including him.

    Had my co-worker not sent me that e-mail, I would have continued working from home the next day, none the wiser.

    So now I'm once again back in the job market. But at least now it's at the tail end of a long recovery, which I suppose isn't the worst timing in the world if I have to be unemployed again.

    My 30th wedding anniversary fell in the week after the layoff, so my husband and I celebrated in style with a short trip to Niagara Falls, Ontario; until I was laid off we were planning just a dinner out at home. That was my first long car trip (about 3 1/2 to 4 hours or so) and first hotel stay since the surgery. Fortunately the bed I slept in was not too soft and not too hard; I managed to sleep as well there as I do in my own bed, though I still don't sleep all that well in my own bed.

    The day of our anniversary, my pedometers showed me walking about 14,000+ steps altogether. And I learned that I am now capable of walking both uphill and downhill, though downhill is harder.

    One problem I did have was with my neck. When we were at Niagara-On-The-Lake, I kept seeing stores that I wanted to check out from across the street. But once I was on that side of the street, I couldn't find the stores I was looking for, I'm guessing because I wasn't able to look up high enough to read the signs from the street below. I hadn't bothered to tell my husband which stores I was interested in checking out; had I done so maybe he would have seen the signs and I wouldn't have ended up walking right past both stores.

    My main course of physical therapy for core strengthening after the surgery ended in June. I started a new course of physical therapy for my neck in July. I now find it a little bit easier to turn my head when checking for traffic while I'm driving, but I still have quite a bit of neck pain every day. I don't know that the neck pain will completely resolve anytime soon, but it is definitely getting somewhat better. There is still a limited range of motion when I turn my neck to the left, but at least now I can for the most part check for traffic coming from the left without having to hold my neck with my left hand to ease the strong pain that I was feeling previously.

    And now I of course still have the exercises for core strengthening to continue with, along with a new set of exercises for my neck. There are so many exercises to keep track of now that I ended up putting them all in Outlook so that I don't forget anything. I won't have time for all those exercises once I manage to find another job, because I will most definitely have to start a new job in full-time mode from the get-go. But for now I guess they will help with the stress and give me something to do, along with job hunting.

    Had my old job continued, I would have soon started having to drive an hour each way to work on the next phase of the contract that kept me so busy right before the surgery. But now, given my field (computational linguistics) and the relative lack of local players in that field, I will most likely be getting another telecommute position, so will most likely continue to work out of my house. I guess that means I can use the various exercises as short breaks so that I'm not working too long continuously.

    But first I have to find another job.... I had a nice phone interview on Friday; hopefully that will lead to an offer.

    -- Mary
    -- Mary D. Taffet
    Lumbar curve 27 degrees in 07/2007 > 34 degrees in 03/2009 > 38 degrees in 02/2011 > 42 degrees in 09/2011
    Laminectomy L2-L5, Fusion T9-S1 (sacrum) with pelvic fixation 01/23/2012 w/ Dr. Richard Tallarico, Upstate Orthopedics, Syracuse, NY

  • #2
    Good luck and hope you find a job soon
    Melissa

    Fused from C2 - sacrum 7/2011

    April 21, 2020- another broken rod surgery

    Comment


    • #3
      Best of luck in your job search--hope the job you interviewed for, if it's one you'd like, comes through for you!
      Discovered scoliosis when 15 years old.
      Wore Milwaulkee Brace for 1.5 years.
      Top curve 85 degrees, bottom curve 60 degrees

      Surgery completed August 23, 2011 (during an earthquake, can you believe that?)
      Dr. Charles Edwards, II
      The Spine Center at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, MD
      Before and after xrays:
      http://www.valley-designs.com/myspine

      Comment


      • #4
        Hi Mary...

        Sorry about the job. Hope a new door opens that is far better than the old one.

        If you're doing so many exercises that you can't remember them all, I'd urge you to talk to your physical therapist to cut the exercises down to a routine that you can do in 5-10 minutes a day. Unless you love exercise, you're not likely to continue the exercises for the rest of your life unless you can get them done as part of your everyday routine.

        Regards,
        Linda
        Never argue with an idiot. They always drag you down to their level, and then they beat you with experience. --Twain
        ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
        Surgery 2/10/93 A/P fusion T4-L3
        Surgery 1/20/11 A/P fusion L2-sacrum w/pelvic fixation

        Comment


        • #5
          Mary,

          You sound really good and upbeat despite the job situation. Maybe this will end up landing you in a position for which you don't have to drive so much. Anyway, glad you are doing well, and I hope your neck continuues to improve.

          Evelyn
          age 48
          80* thoracolumbar; 40* thoracic
          Reduced to ~16* thoracolumbar; ~0* thoracic
          Surgery 3/14/12 with Dr. Lenke in St. Louis, T4 to S1 with pelvic fixation
          Broken rods 12/1/19; scheduled for revision fusion L1-L3-4 with Dr. Lenke 2/4/2020
          Not "confused" anymore, but don't know how to change my username.

          Comment


          • #6
            Accepted a new job offer today; I'll return to full-time status on 9/24, and will once again be driving an hour each way every day to work at a customer site about 50 miles east of here. It will be for the follow-up contract to the one that I was working on right before surgery, only this time I'll be working for the primary contractor rather than through a subcontractor. And I'll be working with the same software that I am already familiar with.

            It will mean a lot of travel and a lot of walking (large building with very long hallways), but it will have me back to work full-time in my field working with what I consider to be one of the best software products formerly in the market for this type of task.

            Hopefully I'll find a comfortable chair among the selections available; if not, I'll request one.

            -- Mary
            -- Mary D. Taffet
            Lumbar curve 27 degrees in 07/2007 > 34 degrees in 03/2009 > 38 degrees in 02/2011 > 42 degrees in 09/2011
            Laminectomy L2-L5, Fusion T9-S1 (sacrum) with pelvic fixation 01/23/2012 w/ Dr. Richard Tallarico, Upstate Orthopedics, Syracuse, NY

            Comment


            • #7
              Glad to hear that all has worked out for you
              Melissa

              Fused from C2 - sacrum 7/2011

              April 21, 2020- another broken rod surgery

              Comment


              • #8
                Congratulations! Good to hear.
                Surgery March 3, 2009 at almost 58, now 63.
                Dr. Askin, Brisbane, Australia
                T4-Pelvis, Posterior only
                Osteotomies and Laminectomies
                Was 68 degrees, now 22 and pain free

                Comment


                • #9
                  Congratulations Mary! Great news.
                  Pam, age 49
                  Thoracolumbar curves 80 and 40 corrected to 20 degrees
                  April 20, 2012 surgery with Dr. Lenke
                  T-3 to sacrum

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Congratulations, Mary! It will be nice to be around people and making money.
                    I am stronger than scoliosis, and won't let it rule my life!
                    45 years old - diagnosed at age 7
                    A/P surgery on March 5/7, 2013 - UCSF

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Wonderful, Mary! Congratulations. Janet
                      Janet

                      61 years old--57 for surgery

                      Diagnosed in 1965 at age of 13--no brace
                      Thoracic Curve: 96 degrees to 35 degrees
                      Lumbar Curve: 63 degrees to 5 degrees
                      Surgery with Dr. Lenke in St. Louis--March 30, 2009
                      T-2 to Pelvis, and hopefully all posterior procedure.

                      All was posterior along with 2 cages and 6 osteotomies.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Glad to hear you almost have your old job back. The comfort of knowing what you are doing is probably helpful.

                        Regarding chairs. You may have to bring a pillow to work and use it with whatever chair you are offered. I cut a regular bed pillow to a smaller size so it's not so prevalent on my office chair....and it's softness and "give" help me sit a bit longer, although I still have to get up and walk around a bit just to get things moving, spinewise.

                        Congratulations!
                        Discovered scoliosis when 15 years old.
                        Wore Milwaulkee Brace for 1.5 years.
                        Top curve 85 degrees, bottom curve 60 degrees

                        Surgery completed August 23, 2011 (during an earthquake, can you believe that?)
                        Dr. Charles Edwards, II
                        The Spine Center at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore, MD
                        Before and after xrays:
                        http://www.valley-designs.com/myspine

                        Comment

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