blugreenh2o

Esme thank you for that link. After reading it, it gives me hope that I'll be able to qualify for my diagnosis of lupus should I need it ever. Times are tough right now with work, and I'm trying to get out of the ER into something else, along with changing treatment i.e. meds.

I was given a full license, no problems.

I disclosed to the Texas BON when I was moving there, and the only thing they required was a letter from my psychiatrist. Just make sure that once your psych sends the letter that you confirm that the BON has in fact received the letter. They won't just tell you if they don't get it.

I'm a nurse with lupus. I was first diagnosed May of 2013, and I'm 36 years old. When I first went into remission, I thought ok, I can handle this, work will be fine, no problem. But now I'm not so sure. I'm currently having a flare up, it's my third one since being diagnosed, and this one is the worst one yet. My joint pain is so bad, I am having extreme fatigue and weakness, I'm having headaches, and something I've never had before which is this burning pain in my chest and back when I breathe in, which is weird. I decided I had to take off work for the week to rest and recouperate. On top of all of that, I have bipolar disorder and I'm having a pretty bad depressive episode, which is being made worse by how I'm feeling physically. I'm starting to question how long I'm going to be able to do bedside nursing, but I don't really know what else I would do. I still need to get my BSN, so that limits me right now on jobs. It won't take me long to get my BSN, but I'm also wondering if I shouldn't just do the whole RN to MSN. I don't know. What I do know is I feel miserable, and I hate it. I'm already burned out as it is at my job. I'm just lost. Sorry to vent and be so negative, I just don't know what else to say and I don't really have many people to talk to in my life, certainly not many that understand.

I hate my job right now. There I said it. I truly do. I've got every symptom of compassion fatigue and burnout that there is. I've even dealt with discrimination at my job by employee health and management about my bipolar disorder. They tried to get rid of me but they lost. On top of that I have other chronic medical issues. Most of my days off I'm so exhausted that I spend most of my time vegging in front of the tv and sleeping. The days that I do work, I sometimes am in tears at home before I have to leave to go to work because that's how badly I don't want to go. Thank goodness I have a great group of supportive coworkers. I try to just get there and concentrate on my patients, but I've gotten to the point where I really don't give a crap about their headache or abdominal pain or whatever damn complaint they are there for that pales in comparison to the things I have going on in my life. Sorry, I know it sounds callous, but this is where I am right now. I wish I could just take some time off, but I can't afford to. I'm reaching my breaking point here.

I too was discriminated against at my current job by management and our occupational health. They tried to get rid of me, but I won that battle, and I will continue to fight. There does need to be more compassion about mental illness among nurses, and not discrimination and negativity. We need to support each other. "And they think I'm mad!".

I've lost my "why". I've become so burned out that I'm thinking about talking to our EAP.