Advice for working with chronic illness?

7 Comments

1. AnonymousNovember 3,2025 at 10:50PM UTC

   You got this - try not to focus on what you cannot do. Search for hybrid and remote jobs to take health breaks, modify your desk space, and try to get expert health care advice to align your efforts, and have a small medical team/support by your side. Try not to speak to HR about accommodations. Try to manage it privately with your health care team.

2. AnonymousNovember 5,2025 at 6:43PM UTC

   I have multiple chronic illnesses and my husband has stage 4 cancer.

   I work remotely for an insurance carrier. This way I’m able to sit on a sofa with comfy pillows. I have a fan/ space heater and a heating pad and i can take baths on my lunch to beat back the pain. I’m also able to take time to go to doctors and make up the time if needed. I am grateful and fortunate. I have been an adjuster or trainer for 25 years.

   I highly recommend checking out the big insurance companies. They train you for your position. I had no background experience when I started.

   They have good health plans and are still hiring remotely.

3. AnonymousNovember 10,2025 at 1:26PM UTC

   I am so sorry to hear about your situation, and the awful difficulties that you and the other ladies are going through.

   However, what interested me about your post was your 2nd paragraph. When you say "big insurance companies", what are you referring to? Companies like Allstate, GEICO, etc? And what kind of position are you doing?

   I work in data management but am currently unemployed for the second time this year. So I am thinking outside of the box as I look around desperately for my next role! Thank you.

4. Aurora PNovember 6,2025 at 1:23PM UTC

   ((Hugs)) I truly understand. I have Hypermobile Ehler Danlos (hEDS), Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS), POTS, Sjorgrens Syndrome, and Limited Scleroderma. Remote is where you want to be. I would not do freelance because not only do you have to do the work, you're constantly having to find clients. We're already exhausted. For me, there are days I go to bed after dinner because I am 'done'. I am in tech, in data services, particularly. I don't have any accommodations, but I did for a previous job because they wanted us to travel in the summer to locations that had high heat. My current employer does not require travel, so something to keep in mind. I don't feel like my job is necessarily low stress though, I feel it with different projects we do, but I don't think I will find anything lower stress out there. I just do things on my end for self-care to lower stress and ground myself. ((HUGS)) You are NOT alone, there are many of us out there with a variety of issues just trying to live.

5. AnonymousNovember 6,2025 at 2:09PM UTC

   Following

6. AnonymousNovember 6,2025 at 7:35PM UTC

   I am in this same club, particularly with the issues of balance and horrible pain, I have days where I can hardly walk. I have to use a cane and/or a walker, I have many days where I cannot walk around stores anymore, so I either have to use the motor carts or delivery apps for groceries/other needs, etc. And I'm literally facing termination come the beginning of next month when my FMLA exhausts, because my doctor says I still need to be out until at least the end of the month of December. I wish I had some suggestions for you. I'm trying to navigate this myself! I'm looking for a lot of remote jobs so that I can sit or lay or change positions and not have to try and navigate offices, etc. And hoping that I can get better and be able to go back to traditional work at some point.

   I don't know about you, but I feel a lot of anger, depression, anxiety, fear, and a LOT of different emotions about my self worth right now because of these chronic health issues that are making work practically impossible for me.

7. AyianNovember 6,2025 at 8:08PM UTC

   I was hit by a car going 55 mph while I was on a bicycle some 6 years ago. Thanks to being medically unique, I can't break bones, and so I tore all of the ligaments in my left foot all the way up to my knee, plus I lost a fist sized chunk of the fat on my glute exactly where I sit. Physical therapy is ongoing, atrophy has set in, and being upright for 10+ hours a day (time spent going to & from work, lunch break, plus the actual job) is incredibly difficult on me. My position is reluctantly semi-hybrid, but it's still too much when I'm in the office. I'm an accountant with almost 25 years of experience, so ... I'm leaving. I've started a nonprofit in my state and am waiting to hear back from the IRS on my application for 501c3 status so that, as an employer, my org can pay me a wage plus healthcare. Employers still get better rates than are ever available on the marketplace.

   In my state, the filing cost is $25. Federally, if you expect your first 3 years to gross 50k or less, the filing fee is $275. They rely on you to guesstimate your org's income, so do with that what you will. Nonprofit doesn't mean no wages. It will mean that I can recline and do my work with copious amounts of pillows and, as a bonus, all my cats. :)