Hello everyone, I just wanted to share my story and get some advice. I was working at Target after I sold a family own grocery store that I operated for a few years. Target was a fun whatever job until I was figuring out what I wanted to do since I just received my degree in finance. I was eventually promoted to a Team Lead and found out that I really loved the job, I guess retail is just in my blood. in 2022 I got covid and took a LOA from work for about 2 weeks. While I was home I got really sick from the covid to the point where I became nauseous and ended up passing out in the bathroom and hitting my head. I woke up in a panic and then proceeded to hit my head a second time. I was dealing with post concussion symptoms for a long time. I ended up never going back to work and just quit a few months later. I've been working on managing/reducing my symptoms for the past two years. Even though I'm not 100% healed I have come an extremely long way from the initial incident. The only symptom I have left are really bad tension headaches that flare up with mainly stress and strenuous activities being a trigger. I'm also working on a permanent fix for this issue as well, at least I hope. I have such a large gap in employment and I never really was given a chance to build a career to be competitive, so the job market has been brutal on me. I also have to find a job where I can take breaks due to my tension headaches. So, I'm just looking for suggestions from you guys on how to approach this. I loved working and it made me extremely happy to get up every day with a purpose. I ran my own business ( grocery store), have a degree in finance and have leadership/logistics experience. I am a 33 year old male living on the east coast in case anyone was wondering. Thank you all in advance and hope you guys had a great holiday.
TLDR; haven't worked in 3 years due to post concussion symptoms. Was formerly a team lead at target, I have a degree in finance and operated my own grocery store for years. Looking for job hunting advice/ways to approach looking for employment.
First off collect as much government money as possible and get disability status if able. Then ask yourself if you think you are healed enough to do the same work again. I’d start slow and apply for things you know you can handle. Take it from there. TBIs are tough. You might not realize it first but long hours and stress of work can bring on symptoms you weren’t expecting.
Unfortunately I was denied disability. They stated that they believe that I will have a lot of limitations but dont meet the qualifications of being disabled. I would have to go down the route of getting a lawyer and attending a hearing which is something idk I want to do. I do agree though that working 8 hour shifts might make my symptoms worse. I just miss working.