Modified jobs are such a joke. Well...not the jobs themselves per se but the way companies use or come up with these jobs. My employer handed me a list at one point of 7 things that they felt fell within my work restrictions (this was way back after I was first injured before the RSD diagnosis) and there was one I thought I wouldn't be able to do but the rest were fine. They said, well that's the one we want you to do, and then sent me home saying I refused to do the work they offered me. I have never done that to an associate as a manager but apparently that's how the company handles these sorts of things. If that's what they consider "acting with integrity" then I guess I am just the rare person who has a higher standard for the word "integrity."

Despite all this though...I am really excited at the idea of returning to work. I miss working...hate staying at home and not being able to do anything. When I was able to return to work for almost a full year (before the RSD got worse)...even though working made the pain worse I was able to cope with it better at work because the work itself was such a great distraction. I wasn't consumed with thoughts about the pain constantly even though I was IN pain constantly...there were other thoughts and things that I had to do that distracted me while I was at work. And just the fact that I felt more normal...oh how we take that for granted when we have our health. I hope to get that feeling back once I return to work. I know I have limitations but I do not want to let this stupid thing beat me...I'm 28 years old and I am just not ready to give up on my life yet...and working is a part of that life. So I really, really hope that I meet my goal of going back in January. I am SO ready (mentally) to go back and have been for a while. Just need my body to catch up and then I'll be good to go.