swollen ankles....this is long.....

[Guest guest]

Vicki wrote: I work as a cashier at a grocery store.

Ardeith writes: I've watched the cashier's at our local grocery store, and I fail to understand why one couldn't use a stool to sit on while passing items over the scanner. The only time I see them have to move around is when they start bagging groceries before a bagger gets there to help. One cashier in our local store had a spider bite on her leg.....they said it was a brown recluse spider....and those bites cause big sores, hurt a lot, and take a long time to heal......and this woman was allowed to use a stool for months while the bite was healing. Her doctor had to write an order for her to be allowed to use the stool......maybe your store would be more flexible if your doctor "ordered" you to sit?

I'm assuming you've tried "pressure hose" to keep the swelling in your ankles down. Have you tried changing shoes three or four times during the day? Of course, you aren't wearing spike heels....but maybe going from very flat, like sandals, to a one inch heel.....changing off over the day would help? Last place I worked I had to do some walking, some sitting, then some walking again.....and every time I had to take a walk, I changed the heighth of my heels.....one time flat tennis shoes, the next the inch and a half pumps......and changing the angle of my foot did help a bit.....not greatly....but a bit.

Not being able to work an eight hour shift on my feet is one of the reasons I was declared disabled.......that and my clutzy fingers. I'm limited in how much my hands can pick up, and can't type fast enough for most job requirements. The Florida job service sent me to vocational rehabilitation to see if I could be trained to do something different.......I had done clerical type work, cashier, ....switchboard work....radio dispatch......so they were looking for something I could do sitting down that would pay what my last job had paid.....$8.00 an hour. But the final verdict was, "Hey, you're a genius, woman.....but you are also a total clutz when it comes to re-training you. You'd better apply for disability." So, I did....

I could still do radio dispatch work...that's a sitting job....but both the sheriff's office and the local cop-shop hire relatives first.....we're a small town here.....but I couldn't do anything that meant being on my feet more than a few minutes at a time....and my feet aren't the problem....my back's the problem. My doctor said x-rays of my spine reminded him of a dock post that was covered with barnacles....nice guy, my doc. Last time Pain Management tried to put an injection in there, they couldn't find a space between the "barnacles" to fit the needle through. And oh how much those shots helped!

After I was laid off my last job, I spent months searching for work. I began to think there were no jobs for a woman over fifty, a woman who was no longer an "office decoration," or a woman with any sort of medical problem. The company's insurance carriers don't want them hiring anyone with any problems at all. Even the local schools didn't have a place for me after I finished college at 48, and had my teacher's certification. The only people hired from my class were under thirty. I guess I can understand that.....younger people aren't likely to have medical problems, and I'd had RA for 18 years by then. I'd thought that if my body couldn't do the work to support me financially, I'd educate my brain and use brain-power to support me.... but I hadn't counted on the reluctance of employers to hire anyone with physical problems.

"Hire the Handicapped!" Yeah, right. If you are a military vet, that might work for you. But it didn't help me a bit. So, now, I'm 63, overweight by forty pounds, still handicapped, still clutzy.....but I can still create beautiful things with my cross stitch and embroidery and crochet work.....it just takes me a long time to finish anything.

Ardy