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Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#121

Post by nikhizzle »

tgflynn wrote: post #111
nikhizzle wrote: post #30

First of all, I’m very sorry to hear about your situation. My wife has chronic pain and had to give up a career she loved so I have some second hand experience with this. Can you code? If so please email me and I may be able to give you some work paid per deliverable. You can work on your own schedule without pressure. Nothing huge, just enough to get you started. Email in profile

> Can you code? If so please email me and I may be ble to give you some work paid per deliverable. You can work on your own schedule without pressure. I'm not the OP, but I'm in a somewhat similar situation, and yes I can code, but my useful hours are very limited by chronic fatigue. Do you think that what you're describing is generalizable ? I mean do you think that there are enough people who could use the kind of…

Please get in touch if you are interested. I think there is definitely enough work, but I think you need very talented managers to enable this kind of work mode. I would argue there is a shortage of high enough quality managers, and no clear incentive to train up managers to this quality.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#122

Post by affgrff »

dang wrote: post #96
whitepoplar wrote: post #18

I'm not sure what the cause of your chronic pain is, but I would highly recommend reading John Sarno's "The Mindbody Prescription." I've dealt with chronic pain for years and it's the only thing that's had any effect. Please, please , don't write it off until you've read the book. Note that Sarno's work focuses on back pain, but it applies to all types of chronic pain (including migraines, which he discusses in the b…

Aaron's article was discussed here at the time: How I Cured my RSI Pain - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1269951 - April 2010 (75 comments) Lots of Sarno over the years: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

I read about here last year, and gave it a shot based on the many recommendations. It definitely helped me.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#123

Post by thrwtllwy »

ytNumbers wrote: post #72

I've never had a medical condition that took me out of the workforce. It's sad that you've been dealt a bad hand in life. It's got to be hugely frustrating. You seem to have (correctly in my opinion) concluded that given your current limitations, there is no point in you applying for jobs. Most people who have been out of work for a year never return to the workforce. The majority of them might enjoy a "retired" sort…

I understand where you’re coming from but, while pain is always present, it follows a pattern of flare-ups which aren’t easy to predict.

For example, I had a splitting migraine for 63 days straight, starting the day after Christmas this year. It took my neurologist designing a migraine-breaking drug cocktail to break it.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#124

Post by karlkatzke »

Lots of good advice already, but if I can make another one -- find a different type of company to work for/with. Not all companies are, can be, or need to be the go hard get big get out YC companies. I don't really like or work for those companies anymore. They chew people up and spit them out.

There's tons of small companies that have real products and that are profitable but are structured with much more realistic growth expectations and targets. I work for one that is largely homebound or disabled people. We work when we're able to, we don't stress much when we can't work, and we do good work.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#125

Post by murukesh_s »

poochkoishi728 wrote: post #104
flatline wrote: post #20

Can you write code? Plenty of places will hire part time, let you work from home, etc. Don’t look for big companies, look for small and mid sized private businesses. As an aside, I think this is an important reason to develop and maintain a social/professional network that you can lean on in times like this. I’m sure I have friends that would give me a chance at work under these circumstances. Maybe you have some of…

Would you have any suggestions for finding work in small-mid private businesses like this? As a developer (mobile with some web and backend), I would love to have ongoing part-time work to provide enough income and free time to pursue other projects.

Try https://remote.co/remote-jobs or https://weworkremotely.com. There are plenty of jobs to choose. https://hnhiring.com is also a good resource (which curates monthly HN job board). You should be able to land few offers soon.

Hang in there..

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#126

Post by geocrasher »

solardev wrote: post #35
geocrasher wrote: post #12

My friend, I am very sorry. Focus on what you can do right now . The first thing you can do is work hard to find joy in every day of life. Yes, it exists, and yes, you have to look for it. This will help you turn around your depression. My wife found joy every day even though she was terminally ill, and I'd be remiss not to point you to the same place where she learned to find it: https://www.jw.org/en/bible-teaching…

Hey, FYI, I initially flagged your post because I thought it was spam... thought JW had moved into the online version of door-to-door Watchtowering with drive-by evangelism. But I was wrong, and I'm sorry. You're just a regular part of this community and your wife happens to have religious beliefs that helped her through tough times. I apologize for jumping to conclusions, and I'm posting this response mostly so othe…

I appreciate that. I too hold those beliefs and they help me, but I'm not here to proselytize. I share what has helped, and if it helps somebody else that's great. We all hold beliefs of some kind, be they a differing religion or a philosophy that's helped us, and I see people share those all the time and that's all I'm doing as well. I appreciate your seeing it that way.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#127

Post by berberous »

brianwawok wrote: post #49
berberous wrote: post #36

Not to derail this thread or to sound like I am criticizing OP, but everyone should take this post as a reminder to look into having a disability insurance policy. Your megacorp may offer a policy, but look into getting your own guaranteed renewable non-cancelable policy, as it provides greater protection. The Bogleheads wiki has a good page describing what is important to obtain in such a policy.

It’s unclear to me that this case would be covered though? It’s not hard if you lose your legs or arms. Pain and related topics are likely excluded from your standard policy.

I am not an expert on disability insurance, so I recommend everyone do their own research and speak to a disability insurance independent broker to get tailored advice, but if you have a "true own occupation" and "partial disability" coverage, then I think you would be covered, e.g. if you are a programmer that can no longer code more than half time due to carpal tunnel, I would think you could collect 50% disability even if you could work full time as a waiter.

Of course, it's likely harder to prove such a claim, as the insurance companies look out for fraud. But if you have a clear and well-documented history, medical files, etc., I would think you should be eligible.

Note that your megacorp group insurance policy is likely more limited, e.g. it may not have any coverage for partial disability.

Happy to be corrected by those more knowledgeable.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#128

Post by oneepic »

Not to pry into OP's personal details, but I'd try some "moonshot" lifestyle changes if you haven't done so already, to see if anything helps fix your health issues. Keto diet is one everyone raves about, but it absolutely does have risks. (ex: one HN'er wrote about a relative going on keto and later having a triple bypass and chronic back inflammation, possibly due to way too many omega-6 fats)

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#129

Post by turdit »

it’s interesting that no one in the comments suggets maybe we as a society should try to find a place where we could plan how to implement ubi. considering TLAs are always going to infiltrate such a group of people to stop that from happening (on twitter or elsewhere) it would be reasonable for people to discuss the massive fundamental problems with our society and how situations like the one this poster finds himself in number in the hundreds of thousands if not millions. and most of them just kill themselves. maybe some people here might be able to make the mental connection that this is going to affect their own loves at some point even if you have a cushy software job at the moment
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