| Meredith Dixon 2006-03-25, 11:02 am |
| On Fri, 24 Mar 2006 02:02:39 -0500, you wrote:
>So this is what I want to know, what year did you completely crash?
Sorry to send multiple posts, but I'm rethinking what you might have meant by
"completely crash". I definitely got CFS on September 7th, 1987, and I had my
first CFS crash that day. But I did not reach what has so far been the low point
of my illness until 1990. It took that long for me to go from being able to put
in a 70-hour work week (as I'd been doing in August 1987) to being able to manage
no more than 4 hours a week, and then only if I took a taxi in to work and back
(so I didn't have to walk to the subway and I could be sure of a seat).
This decline was hastened by a bad auto accident I had in 1989, but before that
happened I had already been fired from my full-time job that spring. At the time
of the accident I think I might have been able to work half-time, though it's
theoretical since I was out of work. After the accident I did steadily decreasing
temp hours for Manpower for another year.
I haven't been able to work for pay since 1990. I wish I could get SSDI, but I'm
not vested. I worked it out once and even if I could prove that I was truly
unable to work on the day I called the temp agency and quit, which is impossible
sixteen years down the road, I would still be one quarter short of the number of
work quarters required for vesting for someone disabled at age 28. (I knew my
mother should have let me take a job when I was in high school....)
--
Meredith Dixon
dixonm@pobox.com
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