Occupational Concerns After B.C.

SarahSchm

How has breast cancer and its treatment affected your capacity to do your job?  Some vocations have physical and mental demands that can be difficult during and after b.c.

SarahSchm

My interest stems from research I am conducting on women musicians, who are very athletic and need to be in really good physical/mental shape to perform.  http://www.musiciansurvivor.org

twirlgirl

Hi Sarah,

BC has been very difficult for me in my job. I am a self-employed jeweler, it is very physical work, using torches with precision, hammering, etc. I could not work through most of rads and am now in horrible debt. (I am also single with no family in the area) Running your own business is very demanding, with little time off at my stage of the game (I quit my day job to go full time in my business, then within literally a few weeks learned I had BC) so I find my energy reserves are just not there for the stress and the long hours.

feel free to message me if you want more~ 

cmharris59

I am a geologist and I worked for a mining company before BC. After dx, I could no longer work. Today, I was told by my chemo oncologist that my chemo can no longer continue due to heart damage from the Herceptin. She told me to get back to my normal life and go to work. My job required that I frequent mining operations with long periods of imte driving 4 wheel vehicles, strenuous hiking over uneven terrain, and incredible numbers crunching on a variety of computer platforms. Since tx, I have been unable to hike or drive a stick shift due to severe neuropathy that has not gone away and my mind is no longer able to perform simple calculations. I was a very organized person and now my life is in complete disarray.Fatigue is debilitating and insomnia is common.

Occupational concerns? I have lots of them due to the tx. I do not feel that I will be returning to my former position with any success for quite some time. I know that there are a lot of women who seem to breeze thru the tx and even work while taking them. I was unable to do that. The side effects from the chemo, radiation and the drugs used to counter those side effects have hit me harder than usual according to my onc. 

I still have recon ahead and I am sure that will be an issue with any future employment.

Since you say that you are researching musicians, I think you might find this information useful as well. One of my hobbies was belly dancing prior to BC. I have lost a lot of range of motion on my left side and gained 20lbs during tx. I am very concerned that I will not be able to return to my former agile and athletic self.

Right now, I feel like I will never be able to perform as I did prior to BC.

gracejon

I am a bit interested on how breast cancer has affected you and your career, writing and as a musician.  What kind of music do you do?  Do you play instruments or sing? What in your mind from treatment has affected you most?  What affected you the least? Since you are asking for sharing please share a bit about yourself.  Do I understand that you only want musicians to reply?  Is your stuy affliated with any university or medical research facility?

LuAnnH

I have always been a computer geek, I worked all through my sugery and tx upon original dx in 98/99.  My employer was very easy going and allowed me to work from home during that period and I had chemo Wednesdays and stayed home wed/thur/fri and was back the next Monday.  I did that throughout all my tx.  In fact, on the Wed of tx they had sign up sheets and people sent food to my house to get me through Wed thru Sunday to feed my kids which was wonderful.  Without that flexibility I would have never been able to hold down my job.  I went right back to work and seemed to do ok.

It wasn't til the mets dx and I was introduced to AI's and pain pills.  I think the mix of the two on the brain is really rough!  I had a hard time remembering anything and I couldn't rationalize and design spreadsheets and databases as easily as I used to.  I became more trouble than I was worth to the company and I was politely asked to go on disability.  I am now on disability and know I will never re enter the work world and don't think I could keep up the pace of it if I tried.

carolsd

Yes, I was an EMT which is a very physical job. Once I had my initial surgery I was on short-term and then long-term disability through chemo and surgeries. I never was able to return to my old job, and it's something I had to work through, grief-wise. It's not that I thought I'd be an EMT forever but the abrupt cessation of my career was something I wasn't prepared for. It would have been nice to have some say in the matter.