The ME/CFS Society of NSW Inc.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you if you will for me!! I have to wait until the middle of January to find out if I get into uni or not.....if not, that chocolate-covered pity party better have a huge pile of chocolate (including some american ones!!)
Funny though, I thought I was the only one going quietly crazy at home!! And at least you do have your kitties to talk to, I'm all alone!!
I'm not sure what you should do about the whole explaining the gap thing. If you say you have CFS, they may not hire you. But if you don't explain, they may think you're just a flake or something, if you get what I mean.
I still have all my vet nursing books, not sure how useful they are now, and you might have the same ones!! But let me know if you want any of them.
(And I doubt I could do most of the prac stuff now!!!)

Amy - Secretary, ME/CFS Society of NSW

Hi Abbey good luck with your TAFE application for the course. I don't know what your finances are like but if they are OK can you commence by just doing the course PT and build up into it slowly to prevent any relapses. Then you could say add on either more course hours or the PT work.
With work does sound a good idea to start in an assistant type of role to a Vet assistant and build your confidence from there. Is vet reception another possibility?
Actually I just had another look at your post and was thinking more of what to do before the course starts and yes trying to get some PT work in the field would be good.
With the working out how to explain your career gap from the field it's firstly working out whether you feel health problems would be the way to go or alternatively the other option is to be creative in what you have been doing over the past couple of years. Or you could say that you'd been doing other work but now decided vet nursing is the way you want to go and thus as you're about to continue on with your course you'd like to gain experience.
Anyhow good luck with your application and continued studies.
Cheers DJ

Oh dear, I thought I'd replied here!

*goes off to cross "has great memory" off her resume*

Unfortunately, in order to be accepted into the course, I have to have access to a decent number of hours per week at work, so even if I start both slowly, it is still going to be a bit of a double whammy.

I'm hoping to get away with 6-8 hours working and 6-8 hours studying, but I think it might be a bit of a push. It depends on where I can get work though, because if it is very nearby, doing those hours will be less stressful than if I had to tack on 40 minutes of travel etc.

And this is assuming that if I get in, I get in to the part time, not the full time course. Otherwise it is a 12 hour minimum *shudders* I won't like that much at all, we'll have to live on pizza and wear sgoes inside so we don't stick to the floor, everything else will just have to stop for me to get anywhere near that level of study.

The OH and I finished my resume tonight, and thankfully there isn't that big of a gap. I was expecting it to be about 3 years, but the biggest one is about 14 months, which isn't too bad. He has over-embellished a bit, I think I'm going to go through and tone it down, try to lower expectations a little. Probably very counter-productive, but I'll feel better about it.

Job hunting starts Thursday. Eeeek!

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Abbey

I'll send you my willpower, but I'm not entirely sure how much is there!! *lol*
Plus some nerve, luck, and the bug spray once I find some!!!
Do not agree to a full time job!!!!!

Amy - Secretary, ME/CFS Society of NSW

Um, Ok, so there seems to be a lot to update on here.

I BOMBED. There is no other way to put it, I may as well have trotted into the interview with a foot pre-inserted, given it took me all of 30 seconds to get one in there anyway.
Suffice to say that being made to wait 20 mins, doing an interview on a stinking hot day and standing up (!!!) in a consult room while being peppered with questions about ME/CFS is not the path to a good interview. Given that I've spend X years learning to speak up about the severity of the condition in some individuals and to plainly put forth my needs so things can run smoothly, you can imagine the rubbish that I came out with. To be honest, it was awful.
I didn't mention CFS at all, but the very last thing on mt resume was ME/CFS Society, so she put 2 and 2 together and I didn't feel right denying it when I was asked straight out. She asked few if any questions about my nursing skills and was very dismissive at the end. I almost turned around and pointed out that, after asking me all these questions regarding my condition and physical abilities that she was putting herself on very iffy ground, but I'm a wimp so I just left.

I came home, moped, and called my OH who basically said to forget it and move on. And so I went out and presented to two other clinics and got 6 hours at #2

Now for the BUT. There is always a but.

I'm still waiting on the letter. I got tired of waiting and called the campus to find out and it turns out I'm on standby for both full time and part time. That isn't dire, but not what I expected.

And then I discovered why...

The state TAFE website and the local TAFE website differ in their requirements for applications. I went by the state requirements as I was unaware of the local page, meaning I left out some fairly vital pieces of information AND missed out on some course info myself. TAFE are no longer providing workcover, you have to provide private insurance if you are doing work practise. Full time is a minimum 12 hours study (which I knew) AND a minimum 15 hours at a workplace (which I didn't know). I was expecting to scrape by with 3 days study with a lightish workload and 2-3 half shifts work with the odd emergency etc, but those hours are almost impossible Even if I got the hours at the 24 hr clinic at night, I'd be royally stuffed. The last thing I want to do is damage someone's much-loved pet because I'm off with the pixies with exhaustion.

So my whine for the moment is WHY can't state, local and campus info pages on courses and course requirements be accurate?? Surely it is not that difficult.

And now I wait for the letter. Well, letters. First the one explaining I'm on standby, and next the one that says yes I have been accepted or no I've been ditched. The cut-off for first round acceptances is the 25th.

After reading that, I freaked myself out a bit too. Yes, I'm halfway through the course (but nobody can say if I'll get recognition or not until I'm enrolled so I may be looking at 2 full years regardless) but to be honest I was never brilliant at the practical side of things. I've never trusted myself fully because I'm often a bit blonde and it really can be life or death.

So I've picked out a back-up course, which is slowly becoming a much more feasable and attractive option than the vet nursing. Information Technology Website Design. It is a 2 year cert IV course that can be done by flexible delivery which means I can do it on campus/at home/at work/wherever In theory I can push through a few more smaller modules because I don't have to worry so much about travel. It also runs directly into a diploma course (web development) which looks very interesting indeed. It is run at the same campus that the VN course is held at which is lovely, flat and shady I'm a bit concerned that it'll be a tiny bit dead-end given that every man and his dog can build a website these days, but the base level know-how should be enough to get me in to low level IT anyway

If nothing else, it'll mean this site is an awful lot slicker, easier to use and and faster to load

So that is where I am. Stuck waiting for letters and considering a whole new direction.

EEEP!

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Abbey