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By Crystal Lindell
How do I do it?
On my days off, I sleep for 15 hours, waking up only to eat and pet my cats.
I can’t get out of bed without Norco, morphine, Advil, 7-OH, and Tums.
And I have a super supportive partner who does all the house work, all the grocery shopping, and changes all the litter boxes.
That’s the short answer for how I manage to work a full-time job outside of the home while living with debilitating chronic pain. It takes a lot of drugs, a lot of sleep, a lot of support, and a lot of luck.
I also eat the same meals nearly every day to make food prep and decision-making easier. And I make zero plans for days off.
I started working again in April – my first full-time job in over four years.
Despite my years of experience as a professional journalist working in the corporate world, I took a job as a gas station cashier close to home. I was fed up with corporate culture and just wanted to see if I could even handle working full-time again in any capacity with my health issues.
I also needed health insurance and the gas station offered me that after just one month.
Now that it’s been a little over three months, it felt like a good time to reflect on how it’s going.
To be honest with you, I absolutely love it!
I love going to work every day. I love interacting with the public and making friends with my co-workers. I love getting out of the house. And I have already been promoted to the first level of management, with hopes of continuing up the ladder.
But it has taken a major toll on my body.
I wake up in so much pain that walking to the bathroom feels like I’m using muscles for the first time in years. And after my shifts, I only have enough energy to change out of my work clothes and get into bed.
I really don’t know if I’ll be able to keep it up if 7-OH is officially made into a Schedule One controlled substance.
I really, really want to keep it up though.
I want to keep working, being good at my job, and forming surprisingly deep connections with my fellow employees. I want to keep feeling productive and living like I have a purpose in this world – even if that purpose is just helping truckers get back on the road.
That’s because, despite all the stereotypes about people with chronic illnesses, I desperately want to work.
In reality, it’s the people constantly trying to take away my access to opioids and 7-OH who want me to be unemployed and bed bound.
They may soon get their wish if 7-OH is banned – a policy being pushed in the name of “protecting me.”
Protection I do not want and didn’t ask for.
If it happens, the anti-7-OH advocates and federal health officials won’t take any responsibility. They won’t even offer me health insurance. Instead, I suspect they will tell me to go out and get a job.
