Originally Posted by
Jason Hyatt
So things have been a struggle for quite a while now. When we first moved back to Minnesota over the summer, the state government was fighting over the budget. That led to a government shutdown. Well, as a respiratory therapist I need a license to work. No state, no license; no license, no job. So the job that I thought I had lined up when we moved fell through. After a few months of struggling more than planned, I finally landed a full-time hospital gig. Not the best job ever, but certainly comfortable.
Well a couple days before Thanksgiving I was working a night shift. I had a terrible Crohn's attack and ended up down in the ER for the rest of the shift as a patient. I got drugged up and sent home. A few days later my boss fired me for leaving my shift early. Because I was still in my probationary period there was really nothing I could do about it.
I've been unemployed and broke as fuck since then. I got a part time job for a few hours a week just to try and stay above water but we've been sinking slowly but surely each week. Another month and I don't know how we could pay rent. It was getting that close.
You all know I'm a huge geek. Big time science nerd. Well I interviewed for the ultimate geek job as an RT a little more than a week ago. They had originally posted the job incorrectly so when I went in for the interview I didn't have big expectations. I was dead wrong. It's the Taj Mahal of cardiopulmonary departments. They do very serious work here. They do work with civil and criminal legal implications. They are one of the few labs in the country pulmonologists go to for pulmonary function studies when they enroll their patients in research programs. This is playing for real at the high end of academic medicine at one of the premier heart hospitals in the country -- and they hired ME!!! :D
It's everything a dork like me could ask for. Monday through Friday, no weekends or holidays, in a GORGEOUS lab, in an amazing hospital, doing really incredible work, for way more money than I have ever made in my life. It still doesn't seem real.
Nobody gets through this life alone. I know this opportunity is precious and so many of you have been supportive of me through the struggles. Thank you so much for being such good friends and family. I don't know what I did in this life at least a few others to buy this opportunity, but thank you all for being a part of it. Really. My 10th Planet brethren are important to me and I want you to know how thankful I am to have you all. We share in the victories and the defeats -- on the mats and in life. Thanks again. :)
