Do you have chronic pain too?
Yes.
oh no.
that's a high dose hun. are you in pain all the time?
Every day, all the time. Started out as Plantar Fasciitius in April 2023, saw the doctor a couple times, took some short breaks from work. It's persisted, and developed into Plantar Fibroma (a large knot of scar tissue on the arch (internal), and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm dealing with a mild case of Gout as of late. Rest off my feet, barefoot/socked is the only relief I get. I get intense charlie horses in my calves, glutes, that wake me up in from a dead sleep in the middle of the night, can't move my legs to use the bathroom for at least ten to twenty minutes.
My job requires me to stand all day, wear construction grade work boots with steel toes (warehouse work). Today the pain was so bad, I'm looking into filing for disability, but it's not going to cover nearly enough as I've never made over $42K at any job, and my living expenses are $2500/month...just basic stuff like rent, phone, food...necessities in 2025. And from what I've learned, disability only covers a percentage of your highest pay, and it wasn't that high for very long. Most of my jobs have been near the State minimum wage (multiple States). And because I was unemployed for long stretch, you need to have worked a minimum of five years out of the last ten to have earned enough "working credits" to even qualify for disability. think I may have just crossed that threshold. It'll be a little easier once I turn 50 this year, but it's still a long shot.
I'm looking for a desk job, as I know I can handle the stress of customer support/service, I used to do software support years ago, and actually liked it, but then the Recession hit in 2007, and I was laid off. Never could get back into the field. There's always somebody who's just a tad better than I am.
Tomorrow, I'm going to redo my resume yet again, and hopefully apply to some more jobs using this new ATS style resume I found. It's a long shot, because seemingly EVERYBODY is looking for a job right now, and despite the experience I have, I still need to start back at square one because I've been out of the office world for more than a decade. In fact, on Reddit, somebody said my long departure out of the office world is considered a red flag, so I may just be grasping at nothing.
I'm burnt out, depressed, and feeling kinda hopeless at this point. I just want the pain to stop, and I know it'll be at least a year of rest before I'll maybe fully recover, maybe not. who knows anymore.
