Vocational Rehab
 

Background for those who don't know me: prior to my injury, I was a full-time high school English teacher. Lots of reading and writing, lots of classroom management (high sensory input and needing to respond quickly to input) with kids who sometimes would purposely try to push my buttons (potential high emotional stress), and of course the classic long hours on my feet and at work that all teachers experience.

Right after my injury, I was completely off work for one semester. I tried to go back part time in a more one-to-one setting the following school year but it didn't work out and I was medically terminated from that job last January (one year post-injury).

This year, I found a part time job teaching two small classes at a private school. My largest class has 10 students in it. With my improvements since this spring plus the light load, it has been going fairly well, and I was optimistic about being able to increase my endurance and tolerance and possibly return to full-time teaching at some time in the future.

Then I got this stomach virus over Christmas and had a couple days of headaches, brain fog, and PCS symptoms come back. I'm starting to feel better now, but I'm also really discouraged. It just doesn't seem practical to have a teaching job where I have to take a week off every time I get some little bug or sniffle that reactivates my PCS symptoms. I mean, what if I get a bad cold and get sidelined for three weeks or something? It's kind of ridiculous.

Just feeling pretty discouraged and wondering if I should start looking into vocational rehab and a different career path altogether.

How about looking for work as a private tutor, especially a tutor who works with those disabled by brain injuries?

I know that my need to do things slowly and quietly provides a unique opportunity and skill for working with others who need the same environment.

Hey There,

I know it is so discouraging when those symptoms come back! I have no advice because I am grappling with the same thing with my work. Did you miss a lot of days last semester or is this just a bad winter bug? Even non-pcsers get bad bugs. I have no experience with vocational rehab.
Good Luck!

I completely understand. I went from working with children with emotional disabilities in a pretty restrictive environment that resulted in my first two head injuries. However, I LOVED my job, as I felt like I was really making a difference and my life had meaning.

This semester I am supposed to take another grad school class, and also start an internship (unpaid, but required by my program). They have met with my doctor and agreed that 3 days a week, 4 hours a day is an appropriate accommodation.

However, after coming down with the stomach bug a week ago, my PCS symtpoms have been rearing their nasty head, especially feeling disoriented and exhausted. I'm now terrified that I will be unable to manage the 12 hours a week due to this setback.

Worse, I feel really depressed, because I felt like last semester I was finally getting somewhere, taking the two classes I took. That one day I'd finally get back to a job.... Now I feel like I'm inadequate again.... There is so much pain and sadness inside me that no one else understands... I just want to feel useful and meaningful again...

I'm in vocational rehab right now, it's an awesome program, they're sending me to cosmetology school after i get my headaches resolved (which they're also helping with). If you can get into VR definitely do it, a lot of times there's a relatively long wait but its worth it, they'll test you to see what your best/ most natural careers would be and then you decide what you want to pursue and they will back you completely, if you have medical/ vision/ dental issues etc they will pay for your doctors visits etc and help you get back on track with that as well. Also toward the career side its a good way to get in the door at a job because they reimburse the employer that hires you for the first 3 months, so that gets you in the door quick and after 3 months they usually will keep you as a permanent employee, unless you blow it by doing things like not showing up of course.
(my mom works for VR so if ya got any Q's about it i can most likely answer them, i spend entirely too much time with her and since im jobless go with her sometimes too lol)