Changing Careers Pt 1... the generalities

When things took the turn in '08 who would have thought I could no longer work at a career I enjoyed? I was really struggling to complete all of my duties, but there were areas of the job that I was very good at. Actually as '09 was rounding the bend, it did not look like things were too bright about going back to work at all. It was a very difficult period of time. The sole benefit was that I did have previous clerical skills albeit 20+years old and I hadn't totally let them all go. And if I couldn't cut it at work all I needed to do was make it through 16 days to qualify for my retirement benefits. I received the MCI diagnosis in mid-November and by December 3 I was starting to take Namenda. It was making some immediate changes to the clarity of my memory. Just before Christmas I received a call from Bill, my Union Rep who wanted to get me in for testing for a position @ Behavioral Health in Psych Crisis as an Admission Rep, the job would be Clerical Assistant I... a pay cut of over $20K/year. Ahhh, but it was a job. I had already been set up for jury duty for when they wanted me to start. I managed to study especially EXCEL & pass the tests as well as get started by mid-January. It was rough, but at least I did enter a job that was still higher paying than the job I started at BHD 20 years ago. This position also provided me with some patient contact, but primarily completing clerical work.

It is a job I actually enjoy and is pretty active. There really isn't a lot of down time which is really good, but sometimes it does get overwhelming and if I am in a migraine cycle I am not able to focus, of put things in the proper order. This is a time when I really need to stop, ask questions and slow down.