The main reason that I decided to retire was that work had stopped being fun. For over three decades I’d loved my work, it provided me with friends, status, accomplishment and lot’s of laughs and excitement, but gradually that changed. Conference calls replaced face to face interactions, strangers replaced friends,...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. This is a difficult post to write, I’ve been in paid work in some form or another for over 40 years, 30 years in traditional employment and...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. I’m resigning and retiring tomorrow, so this post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life. It’s a perfect time to...
This post is part of a series reflecting on the end of my traditional working life as I prepare for retirement this week. I’m 52 this year which many might consider a bit young to retire and it’s not like I didn’t have other options, but in the end I...
Over the last 11 years I had quite a few helpful meetings with my occupational therapist, this post documents the first visit, when I was full of optimism: I had my first visit from an occupational therapist today. I have been referred to her to assess the type of work...
This is the fourth in my series of posts looking back on my first 10 blog posts. This post continues the theme of looking at Still’s disease, explaining my early insight into the importance of keeping records: One of the things that has really helped me with AOSD s keeping...
This is the third in my series of posts looking back on my first 10 blog posts. This post is actually quite fascinating (to me) as it describes how my relationship with Still’s started through the earliest flares, I’d forgotten some of the details. It describes the defining moment in...
This is the second in my series of posts looking back on my first 10 blog posts. My second post was also incredibly short, quoting the Adult Onset Still’s Disease website’s description of Still’s disease: AOSD is an inflammatory condition that attacks internal organs, joints and other parts of the...
My family and I suffer from several health conditions, which means that I have to live with a lot of unpredictability in my personal life, so wherever I have control I strive for predictability, or anti-fragility. I like to sail through life without a care in the world and I’m...
The first 40 years of my life were experiential, dominated by doing, innovating, building and learning on the job; but when I became ill, the focus shifted to an intellectual life, one dominated by reading, strategizing, planning, coaching, reviewing. It’s not as much fun! The challenge is that at work...