FReepers I Need to Pic Your Brains - Help!

me

[GrandmaC]

I know I have not been on for awhile. Many of you have written to me and asked what is going on. After Jarbidge in July 2000 I moved up to Idaho to be closer to my daughter. As many of you know I am disabled. Since I moved here I have been having a major nightmare with doctors. Without boring you with details, I am ready to quit the whole lot of them. But I have a ball and chain around my neck, social security disability, and long term disability from my employer. I am not looking for sympathy or instant cures with herbal medicine, but I am a good conservative and I want to remove this ball and chain! I also am not looking for charity or people to feel sorry for me!

This is where I am asking for help. I need a way or means to support myself from which I can do on my computer from home. It needs to be something that does not require a lot of reading. I have my computer set up at my bedside. Then I can quit the doctor thing, and just go once a year or so to my doctor in Reno for my meds.

This is a brief synopsis of my working history.

• Secretary for 3 years
  
• CNA-for 1 year while in school
• RN &/or Charge Nurse– for 19 years (Primarily Pediatrics, but also Adults and L&D)
  
• Started & Ran a Maternity Home for Pregnant minors while a nurse
  have gotten 501C3 status for the maternity home and another organization
• Authored Matty’s Heart a Child’s and Parents Guide to Open Heart Surgery (I donated these books to Kids with Heart many years ago and do not receive anything for them.)

  I have been disabled since 1996 with Myasthenia Gravis and Adult Onset Stills Disease.

  I must also say I am a very conservative Christian so anything I do has to be in line with my Christian Values and Love of my Lord.

  I need approximately $1500 a month to support myself: medications, utilities, house payment/rent etc (does not include medical insurance which I will loose my Medicare). That is the trade off. But I do not know what else to do. I need a business that can generate that kind of money and is not physically taxing. Oh yeah, I am 54 years old. Been disabled since I was 48. Was in the middle of starting the Medical Storybook business when I became ill and lost it all, infact still paying off some of it. I believe in honoring my debts, so I did not file for bankruptcy.

  Well it seems like an impossible task to me – How about you guys, any ideas to help me get off the taxpayers dime.

[GrandmaC]

Thank you for the information. I will be careful.

[GrandmaC]

Hi there,

I have thought of web page design. But I need to learn alot more.

[GrandmaC]

Believe me I have wrestled with this expecially since I will probably be loosing any medical insurance. But feel this is the right thing for me to do. Thank you for your concern.

[GrandmaC]

Thanks, but I would not do well on a radio. I just don't have what it takes. I wish you great success at it!

[GrandmaC]

Thank you so much. Wasn't it a wonderful suggestion. I am already starting to work on it. Thank you so much for your offers too. I will definately keep it in mind.

[Humidston]

Hi again, Grandma C! I am excited about your post 99(?) - The one where you got the note from Sherri regarding your children's book, and I definitely think the Lord is sending you clear encouragement!

With your medical background, I'm betting you could write booklets about all procedures children are about to face, not just heart surgery. (Fingers crossed that I'm right...:) If you feel you may be rusty, spend some time with nurses who deal with kids on a daily basis.

If you feel inspired, GET CRACKING and crank up the old computer! Hopefully, you can network and find someone with artistic skills to complete each one. (Maybe an art student? Pay them a cut of the sales price?)

I dunno. All I know is the timing of Sherri's letter is mighty amazing!

[Revolutionary]

I would look into utilization review. Basically, you are the person in between the insurance company and the doctor. The insurance company wants the people out quickly for financial reasons, but the doctor wants the people to stay longer for legal reasons. There is two areas in this field. One that makes the decisions and one that later reviews the decisions. My mother used to do this both in a hospital and by traveling to several hospitals to do reviews for Blue Cross and Blue Shield. I think this is something that could be done from home (with a trip to the hospital once and a while to know the staff). Usually there is only one person to do this work in a hospital and they are overloaded. All it would take is a scanner on the desk to send you the case to be reviewed. Thus you could be an assistant initially until you learn the job and then you could do it on your own. This job pays pretty well if you can get them to make the appropriate accomidations. If I remember right, it was paying $70-75K a year 7 years ago in the greater Dallas Texas area.

Check with your church to see if there is a craftsman that could build a set up where the computer monitor was eye level, maybe even set up were you could lean back just slighly in a high backed chair with proper head and kneck support. The desk should have an L shape so you can put you arm on the desk and operate the mouse without reaching forward.

If you are good with numbers, look into becoming an accountant's assistant or an auditors assistant. As more and more baby boomers go over 50, they are going to create a demand for reasonably priced assistants to take a little bit of the load off.

Another growing demand area is imagery analyst. I am not sure how much demand there is for this in Idaho (I lived there for 5 years), but if you wanted to start a business where you had a remote secure site, you could link up with a company in the DC area to receive secure imagery by satellite or fiber optic line. You would need to get clearances and some training.

If you started a business and had a few employees, you could fall into the small disadvantaged (disabled?) business area where there are several government contract and sub-contract advantages.

Just a couple ideas. I hope it helps. Good luck!

[dadwags]

If you can e-Mail and Madame Axe can edit, you may be able to work something out "on line". Of course, you may need snail mail and friendly witnesses to work out any legal lawerly type details .
Anyway, I will also pray about this ,interceding for you both .

[Genaro]

With your background you might want to consider healthcare case management. You can do this working for a case management company and even strike out on your own once your develop the skills and connections. This can all be done over the phone. Try the lesser known insurance companies for leads. (Fireman's, Mail Handlers, Carpenter's union etc.)

Good luck!

[GrandmaC]

LOL Not sure about the brain part, but I have most the rest. Thank you good idea

[GrandmaC]

Good to see you too swampfox. I agree, I feel the Lord can use that. There are so many great suggestions here. I have not given up all royalities to that book. If there is ever another run of it, I will have those. But she helped me out and it is one of the ways she supports Kids with Heart. I think that book would of been lost forever, if she had not offered to take them. It was I who offered to donate them. I wanted them where they could help most. I was tooooo sick to deal with them in anyway at the time.

I have also run into some problems with the medical field, that say it is best not to let the parents and children know what they are facing. One hospital told me they were afraid the parents wouldn't bring the children in. So we had to go directly to the parents and give them the option. As you can see in reply 99, some parents are very appreciative. My Grandson still shows the book to his friends and teachers. He is 11 now.

[GrandmaC]

Hi there good to see you again. Thank you for the bump

Have the fires gotten under control down under?

[GrandmaC]

Oh I am sure it would be enhanced if I could go out to work, but that won't happen. I never know from one time of the day to another how I will be. I can be fine at 4am do some stuff and feel terrible by 8am. Then feel better for awhile in the late morning early afternoon, and feel bad by late afternoon. It is a roller coaster all day. I can maintain better if when I need too I can rest. Working outside I can't do that. So I think that is why working from home is the only way this would work.

I will check into those suggestions, thank you. Jean

[GrandmaC]

Hummmm, those are interesting suggestions. I never thought about that. Thank you very much.

[GrandmaC]

Thank you so much for your prayers. I know this is all in the Lords hands.

[GrandmaC]

Oh I love this heart

Thank you for the encouragement. I am working on the Resume now. We will see what HE (the Lord) provides. I also went out and bought a new front page today, mine went bad, and am going to clean up my web site, at stopfedlandgrab. Don't go there now it is a mess since my program went down. I will include that on my resume too. Thank you again.

[GrandmaC]

I no longer have an active License, and I can't reinstate it without going back to school and taking boards again. I could only renew it if I was working, and I couldn't work.

[GrandmaC]

Thank you, have missed you too.

[GrandmaC]

I appreciate your words. I know that is probably what I would tell my friends too. But I really feel this is the path the Lord wants me to take. It is hard, I am walking away from security. I will be relying on our Lord not our Government. I think Our Lord is a much more secure place to be anyway. It is my plan not to cancel the Social Security until I have something lined up, unless they cancel it because they see I feel I am able to work. That is why coming on Free Republic I am making this known and public, had its dangers. But I have gotten so many great ideas.

I don't have a GrandpaC to fall back on and that makes this even a scaryier road, but I do feel the Lord leading me, and I cannot ignore that. It is in my prayers if I am going the wrong path to show me, and he has not at this time. Thank you so much

[GrandmaC]

I like "g" rated people, they are my favorites.

I don't think I can be much help to you, except for some prayers. I myself got "temporarily" placed on layoff status (indefinately). I too am hunting for a job. Maybe God will bless both of us.

No maybe's about it. Blessing can come in many forms. My Doctors problems are a blessing. I wouldn't be doing this now if it wasn't for the problems with the doctors.

My Grandson's Major Heart Problems were/are a blessing, it is through them my daughter and her husband grew in their marriage and in the Lord. And through that my first book was written. Blessing come in many forms. Today I entered a poem in a poetry contest. Here is the Link then type in my name Jean Clabough http://www.poetry.com/Publications/display.asp?ID=W4775605&BN=999&PN=1. Prize is $10,000 so I had to try. This is actually only part of my poem, they only allowed 20 lines. I will pray for you too.
Jean