I have not been able to work for the last year... before that I worked for a publishing company from home.. which I'd love to still be doing had they not been having internal problems that were quickly becoming external.... made me way to stressed...and they weren't paying on time.

That aside... I've instead gone back to school...which only works becaue THEY see me as disabled and work with me... even if the feds wont.

So.. .that said... did you already let them know you had issues... if so they should be somewhat understanding....

Make sure for the next month you make yourself # 1 priority... explain to family and friends (those that will listen) that you have no choice and for a bit thinkgs may slide while you get your training done.... make sure you get pleanty of rest...even if you can sleep... try to stretch, take your vitimins, eat as well as you can... and do little things to treat yourself.... your favorite bath salts, that piece of fudge... don't OVERinduldge... but induldge...

protein in hte morning... no simple sugars without good food in your system... that sort of stuff.... fibros have amazing rallying abilities...even if we crash hard... You can do it...

also..when it gets hard and you feel your're breaking come here or PM me...we'll get you thru...

That is very interesting to me Andrew because I avoid telling anyone at work about it and go out of my way to appear as pain free as possible (walking without a limp on bad knee days, for example). And I work for a very forward thinking company still there is a fear there... anyway, I'm glad to hear it's working for you! I think we actually do very similar types of jobs so that's encouraging.

Thank you everyone for the kind and supportive words. I just hope I can make it through. I have a hard time resisting the tendency to call off sick, but I know I simply can't do that... at least until I've been with them for some time and get some protection under FMLA at least. And, no, I did not tell them anything at the interview. I didn't want to risk a bad impression. Sadly, most employers will avoid hiring someone with any ongoing medical conditions. Yeah, it's technically illegal, but it's not like I could do anything about it. Even if I tried a lawsuit, first, who would want to work where you aren't wanted and second, they could just say I'm not a good fit or something generic like that.

The anxiety and worrying is tough. I try and try, but my thoughts keep running back to "what if." It's particularly bad because this job means so much to me.

As for the daily household tasks, well, I've been putting them off quite a bit already. But, I am going to try to go into "training" this week and force myself to get things done. Hopefully, that will help build stamina for the weeks to come.

Now talking about call centers, I could write a book. It can be such a terrible environment. You are pretty much evaluated by statistics alone - how many calls did you take, how much time were you off the phone, how well did you adhere to the schedule. I've seen people yelled at for going to the toilet. I had one job that took off points if you were five minutes late taking your scheduled lunch or break. During one bad time, I was using icy-hot ointment and was told not to use it because other employees didn't like the smell. I had a doctor's note saying that I needed to get up and do stretching exercises as needed. They refused to accept the note because it did not give specific times, as if I know I'll need to stretch at 10:15 or 1:45, ugh! At the same place, I had been on medical leave for several weeks and I wanted to return part-time because I couldn't stand not working. But, they wanted to give me my schedule the day before working, so I couldn't coordinate my physical therapy appoinments. It's hell. I even did a paper in college in human resource management and I discussed call centers. I had a quote from one of the top guys running one of the top companies. He said that it's cheaper and easier to hire idiots and work them until they burn out and just replace them, rather than keeping people and having to give raises and benefits. Like I said, I could go on and on. It's just sad. And here we are wondering what ever became of customer service!

Well, that's about all for me tonight. Hopefully, I can get a good sleep and start on my new routine in the morning. I plan to do my yoga and cut the grass. At least it's a start. And maybe by the end of the week, I'll feel up to the long days coming with the new job.