Hmm, I got the job. Making 10 bucks an hour as well, which is pretty sweet. I'm not sure I have to take a drug test actually. On the application, and I believe from my brothers experience - who used to work there - they usually drug test. Also, being in the meat department where there are potentially dangerous equipment, it wouldn't be too surprising that they would. However, in the interview, they mentioned nothing about a drug test, even after they offered me a position. Granted I still need to complete all the book keeping work, but if they didn't bring it up in the interview or after they gave me the job, I'd be surprised if they wouldn't mention and still plan testing me. They do really need another employee in the department, so they could be rushing through the usual processes - I'm fine with this
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I'm not working full time though. Part-time wasn't what I was looking for, but receiving 10 bucks an hour makes up the lack of hours. If I was working around 35-40 hours making say 8 bucks an hour, that would be pretty much the same as working 28-32 hours. So with hopefully working around that range of hours, I should be making around the amount of money I was at least hoping to make, but with some extra free time. I've worked full time many multiple times before, but man, with low-end non-career jobs like food, retail, etc., I always start to get driven a little bit crazy. I hate working so much doing the same ol` thing over and over again for an extend period of time, especially without breaks (I'm sure my AD(H)D doesn't help at all).
Note* amphetamine induced story telling, read if you interested in my experience with colitis/gastrointestinal issues.
I also know about some digestive issues. I had indeterminate colitis in April. My colon was so inflamed that there was a complete block, with stool from the blockage all the way up into my small intestine. By god that experience was nuts. I started to noticed some unusual feelings with in my intestinal tract, distinctly below the stomach, - some sort of creeping bulk, with a determinable location, causing a feeling of occasional sharp yet relatively (note relatively) light pain as it moved through the GI track. I was watching TV, smoking weed I just picked up, and was in just a bit of discomfort. This was around 5:00pm. My roommate at the time came home with a Jimmy Johns sub that he bought for me (complete surprise), and stupidly I ate part of it, probably because I was pretty blazed. I stopped eating it because the pain start to get more noticeable - 6:00pm or so. As the night went on I started to experience a greater increase in pain, and the pain was continuing moving through the GI track. I started to get restless, sitting in my chair, lying in my bed, and walking around the apartment. I was thinking it was just some sort of impacted stool that would eventually pass in the next few hours once it moves all the way through my system, well I was wrong.
Around 11:00pm, the pain became isolated a little below my belly button - not to the left or right, but essentially center of my body. At this point, the pain started becoming the most excruciating pain I've ever experience in my life - above breaking two bones in my wrist, or anything related to my blood clots. I continued to smoke weed for the pain, but had such a hard time doing so. I essentially was rolling around in my bed, only getting up to try and use the restroom. Eventually after midnight I started throwing up, even though nothing would really come out, just some white mucus looking liquid. Weed wasn't helping with pain, nausea, or giving any sort of GI relief (supposedly cannabinoids are good for GI track issues). I was essentially rolling around in pain, grunting, screaming (loud enough for my downstairs neighbor to hear me), and trying to take a shit. I felt like a hot rail road spike was being impaled into that isolated spot every time there was a contraction, which happened every 5-10 minutes (closer to 5). I also experience a lighter pain that was a pressure or duller pain, which was sustained.
Well, around 4 am I called my father, who is the insurance holder and would be paying for my medical bills (still in college), and told him what I was experiencing. I wanted to make sure it was appropriate for me to go to the hospital, and if there was anything he suggested I'd do since he has had constipation issues in the past. I tried his suggestion of seeing if I could removed some stool from the rectum, but there was nothing at all in there. So, I smoked one last bowl, took a shower, and woke up my roommate around 4:30 am to get him to take me to the hospital. I had to deal with an addition 30-45 minutes of extreme pain in the hospital while filling out initial paper work, waiting for an available nurse and doctor, and a few initial examination procedures. Finally got 5mg of morphine IV, which did hardly anything but stop me from screaming/grunting. After a CT they finally got an idea of what was going on, confirming the intensity of the issue as well as pain. They noticed large inflammation, but were having trouble isolating the location of the problem/cause due to the extent of the stool with in my GI tract. After that I managed to get 1mg of hydromorphone IV, which I got up to 2mg of hydromorphone every 2-3 hours to relieve the pain down to a tolerable level.
Long and short of it, they ran me through another CT - getting a better idea of what was the problem -, did blood tests, and preformed a minimal invasive surgery to see if a blood clot was a potential cause - injecting dye through an artery around the colon allowing for radiologist to examine the veins for a clot. After almost a week in the hospital the inflammation was gone from anti-biotics, and I managed to have bowel movements. The determination of what caused the colitis wasn't found with in the hopsital. I went back for a colonoscopy a month later, and I came back with a healthy colon. So as a result they concluded indeterminate colitis.
Opioid induced constipation and resulting GI issues after use, were exacerbated from previously seen. Not sure if these has something to do with the colitis, or potential unknown causation. I experienced some discomfort 2-3 times after the hospital, but only lasting a short period, under a day.
Recently I had some liver enzyme elevation (ALT), with no other liver abnormalities, so I had another set of tests done a few weeks afterwards. This initial test kinda got me wondering if there was a connection to the colitis and to potential liver problems. However, no more liver issues were seen, but the tests noticed a Fe storage issue, with excessive Fe being stored. So I'm becoming more interested in the possibility of a connection between this problem and the colitis, which doesn't seem like it would be to farfetched. I'll be going to my old hematologist that I used for my blood clot, to figure out what the potential problem is and if there is a connection. Having genetic clotting factors, with Fe storage issues, and the colitis seems like there could be a larger issue. A little scary, but I rather figure out what is wrong with me while I'm experiencing isolated incidents, with recovery to a state of minimal issues. If I can catch a major health issue before it turns into something that can effect my life-style and health in the future, I'll be happy in the long run.
