I got a PT job!!!!

I spoke with my social worker on Friday, b/c I've been going nuts, being stuck at home the last two weeks, and he said that I can work while on disability, I just can't bring in more than $1000. a month - which never happens anyway, b/c I never seem to be able to work that many hours.  So, I re-typed my resume and cover letter, and headed out.  I've worked visual merchandise for the last four years, retail for the last eight, so I headed in to the JC Penney's (that's where I worked in GA) and filled out an app.  I went to hand in the app, and asked if I could leave my resume, and this guy behind me asked if he could see it.  Turns out he was the ASM, and he took me straight back to the store manager, who hired me on the spot, and asked where in the store I would like to work.

I wanted to go back to visual, but there were no openings right now, and I think it would be too much for my body to handle quite yet, so I'm working in the Jr.s dept instead.  It's a long way down the pole from being a manager, but I'm getting a little better at accepting where my limitations are at the moment.  He said I could start out in Jr.s, and if I didn't like it, I could switch to any dept. I would like.  Cool, huh?

One problem:  I didn't get much of an opportunity to speak, and so I didn't tell them I have seizures.  So my question to everyone is this:  Should I?  And if so, HOW?  I want an opportunity to prove myself, but I'm still working with my doc on trying to get the seizures under control.  Most of mine for tonic-clonic happen at night, but I have a lot of absence seizures during the day, and what I call "twitch and glitches" where I stutter over words, and my head and arms jerk on their own at weird times.  It's been a long time since I've worked with customers, and I'm kind of nervous, b/c I don't want everyone in the store knowing, but I don't want to let them to suddenly find me on the floor one day and not know what's going on either.

Any advice?  I'm supposed to start later this week.

Thanks, Mandi, you're so groovy!  Okay, that's totally lame, but I'm in a good mood, and my quirky humor is coming out. 

I was really worried about having to close tonight, b/c I was afraid I'd have one of my three guaranteed catamenial seizures (which always happen at night).  But I ended up getting it out of the way yesterday (it was a waste of a perfectly good day, but I had friends with me, so I didn't mind too bad), so now I'm not too worried about it.  I'm just happy to be able to get out of the house, and this weekends supposed to be really busy, and I love that.  It gets my mind off everything else.  I've been getting depressed off and on this week, b/c of going from being a full-time manager, with a fiance and a two year old son (my fiance's), to being a peon at the bottom of the work food chain, only able to work 2-3 shifts a week, single, no longer a mommie, moved back home with no money, no car, no house, and my mom dealing with her third bout of cancer.  Ugh!  It's been a rough month!

But things are looking up, and I know that this, too, shall pass.  One day at a time.  Are you doing better?  I know you've been having it rough lately, as well.  You've been in my thoughts a lot this week.  You and Jennifer, actually, seen I haven't seen her post much this week.

Well, as they say in the South, "I'll holla' atcha later!"  There's that quirky humor again! I gotta go to work.

Thanks Babs!  I didn't mean to blab so much on this site, but it really helps.  I worked last night until 11 pm.  I didn't think I'd make it that long, but it went really well, and a lot of people were impressed by how hard I worked, which was really nice to hear, even though it was all easy stuff to do.  I told the women's manager about having seizures, and she was really good about it.  She called the loss prevention manager over, and guess what?  He has a mild form of epilepsy, and takes Depakote and Lamictal!  He let me know that if I ever had a problem, I could page for the loss prevention team, and they would be able to help with whatever I needed.  That way, I don't have to let anyone else know the details, but I don't have to worry about having a seizure at work. 

It's still been a bad seizure week.  I was supposed to work tonight, but started having seizures again this morning - tonic-clonics, no less.  Ugh, they make me hurt.  I had a friend over again, but it was really annoying to have to deal with seizures instead of being able to go out and have fun with other friends.  Plus, I was having a REALLY hard time breathing for some reason.  I ended up calling my boss, and let her know I'd been having seizures throughout the day, and wasn't sure if they would let up in time for me to get ready for work and get out there.  She told me not to worry about it; they had doubled up the schedule to begin with, and though she'd miss my hard work, it was okay, just get to feeling better.  She scheduled me for thirty hours this coming week, and I'm going to try my hardest to work all of them.  After this week though, she's just going to put me on for 15-20 hours until I can get the med levels where they need to be.  That will be good, b/c it seems if I work five hours one day, I spend the majority of the next day sleeping, so maybe if I only have 2-3 shifts a week, I can get out of bed for something other than work.

Anyway, just thought I'd update.

It's just frustrating, b/c I want to make the most of every day, and when I have a bad seizure day, it just seems like such a waste.  But I know it'll get better. . . it always does, eventually.