Reinvention

Disclosure: collaborative post

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been to-ing and fro-ing to a whole bunch of medical professionals, starting with the GP, and taking in physios, rheumatologists, an orthopaedic surgeon and most recently, an occupational therapist in the hand therapy team.

I’ve had xrays, blood tests, an ultrasound, nerve conduction studies and so many conversations about pain. I’ve tried a wide variety of painkillers, exercises, splints, neoprene bandages, balms, heat pads, cold water….

and the thing that has been most constant has been pain.

The pain is not always only in my hands. Sometimes it spreads up my arms and lands in my elbows. (Today my left elbow is particularly recalcitrant. This may be stress related. It’s been a bit of a monday.) From quite early on in the process it became apparent that continuing in charity retail wasn’t really an option. But there were debates over what kind of work I could do. If the issue was carpal tunnel then typing would potentially aggravate it.

But having dismissed osteoarthritis because it didn’t show up on the x-rays, the latest health professional thinks that it is that, and that we just x-rayed too soon. And as such working on a keyboard might even actually be good for me, because it will keep my hands active and limber without weight bearing.

And so back to blogging. And writing. I’m exploring technical writing as a career step, and it feels like it draws together so many strands of my working life. It pulls in my developer career and leans on my coding and documentation experience. It would involve my problem solving – you have to understand that which you’re going to explain. And it would require communication skills and creativity, to put forward the right versions of things to the right audiences, consistently, clearly.

I’m pretty sure it would be fun.

I’ve refreshed my CV, highlighted my skills, looked into software (things like MadcapFlare and Confluence, and read up on things like single source authoring. Now what I need is to find a role. The perfect one for me will be out there somewhere, yes?

Post 1 of #100DaysToOffload. The aim is to post 100 times on a personal blog within a year.

The good thing is that anyone can reinvent themselves, and it’s never too late. So if you are reading this, you may have already gotten your sign to do that thing you’ve kept aside for a long time. Maybe it’s furthering your education; fortunately, there are resources to help if you’re considering studying a PhD in the UK, so feel free to consider this. You can also decide to try a new job or career path.

[kofi]