If I Could Do My Job, I Would Do It. I’ve Tried To Get Better.
Having chronic Lyme Disease, you hear it often. “Well, you look good.” Or, “You don’t look sick.” How am I supposed to look? I mean yes well I was bedridden and could not take care of myself, I was a chalky and gray pallor, but once I began to regain my strength and no longer bedridden, I pretty much looked normal. Some people said that I looked a bit “frail” others, of course, the first thing they said: “Well, you look good.”
The thing is, you may look perfectly fine. However, once you’ve gone through a chronic and disabling disease or illness, you just know to really look at the soul. I often find myself looking at people and photos of people differently. Now, I seem to catch what others don’t see. Oftentimes, it is that they are feeling as well as they look (their eyes told it all) or they are just going through a stressful time. So, next time you run into someone that you have heard has been ill, take the time to say, perhaps, “I hope you feel as great as you look”. Or, “You look great; I hope you feel that way too.”
While you look good and people see you that way, they just don’t know that it’s taking every ounce of strength and energy to appear that way. I guess, what I’m trying to say is that when you hear that someone hasn’t been working due to a chronic illness or disease; believe me, they’d rather be working. Hence, the title: If I Could Do My Job, I Would Do It. I’ve Tried To Get Better!
The following is a blurb in a monthly publication from the Southeast Massachusetts and Cape Code area. It made me think of all those that are still trying to gain the trust and belief of those that are close to them that they are doing everything they can to get better. They also continue to try to gain the credibility that Lyme Disease can be disabling and derail your life.
Changes for Board of Health
PembrokeExpress.com by Becca Manning, November 11, 2010
The Board of Health has experienced many changes over the past two years, from new membership to adjustments in the way they do business, including handing over control of the town’s solid waste and recycling to selectmen.
With one of the board’s long-standing projects, the landfill capping, set to move forward this summer, the board is going through another transition. On Monday, the board met with selectmen to jointly appoint a new member, Donna Bagni, to fill longtime member Lisa Cullity’s seat. Cullity stepped down in October.
The board also is searching for a new health agent after former agent Fred Leary was let go on Oct. 19. Leary, who served as the town health agent for 17 years, had been on sick leave since about last November.
Town Administrator Ed Thorne said Building Department employees and Board of Health members have been pitching in to do much of the work, including perc testing for septic systems and water samples at the local ponds. He also hired outside contractors to do food service inspections as needed.
“We’ve done it, but it’s been rough,” Thorne said of filling in for Leary. “I think we were lucky the economy was slow [and there was little new construction].”
The board is accepting applications for the agent position this month and hopes to have someone in place by December, according to Chairman Tom Driscoll.
Leary said, though he knew the town needed someone on the job, he was disappointed they couldn’t find a way to keep him on. He met with Thorne to discuss his options a week before receiving the termination letter. One option was to look into retiring early, but Leary said he did not want to use up his pension early.
“I want people in town to know that if there were any possible way I could do my job, I would do it,” he said. “It’s not just for the money. I loved my job. I miss doing it. This whole thing is through no fault of my own. I’ve tried to get better.”
Leary said he started experiencing trembling fits and suffering from muscle aches and joint pain around December 2008. His doctor initially diagnosed him with Parkinson’s, and he began treatment for that, but the symptoms worsened.
Leary changed doctors about three months ago and was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease and mercury poisoning — both of which he believes he contracted through his work for the town. He is currently being treated for both.
“There’s no question in my mind that they both came from work,” Leary said. “The Lyme disease thing is hard to prove, but the only time I was ever out in the woods was doing perc tests or doing something else for work. The mercury poisoning isn’t hard to prove because I got that from a box of thermometers that were under my desk.”
Since about 2000, the town has offered a service where residents could turn in their broken thermometers for disposal. The thermometers were wrapped up and kept in a collection bucket in the office until the annual hazardous waste disposal day, Leary said.
“I knew as a health agent that you don’t handle mercury, but I found out from my doctor that it actually gives off a vapor all the time and, over a long period of time, you can eventually get mercury poisoning,” Leary said. As soon as I found out that there was a high level of mercury in my blood and my hair, I let Ed Thorne know that that box was under the desk and that he should not only get rid of it but also have other people in the office tested.”
Thorne said he had discussed the issue with Leary but did not know of anyone else in the office who had come down with symptoms. He said he did not believe any thermometers currently were being kept in the office.
Driscoll, who was elected to the board in May, said he was surprised to hear the thermometers were stored in the office at all.
“At no time did we authorize or advise Fred to keep thermometers under his desk. We had numerous hazardous waste disposal days while he was there,” Driscoll said.
Despite believing he became ill on the job, Leary said he has not pushed for aid from the town.
Instead, Leary said he is focusing on getting healthy, though he does not believe he will be allowed to return to work in Pembroke.
“I’ve managed to keep up my licenses,” Leary said. “”I want to return to the industry as soon as I can get better.”
Meanwhile, the Board of Health is moving forward as well. Donna Bagni, a local real estate agent, will be joining Driscoll and Liz Cytrynowski on the board.
“I have been a resident of Pembroke for 26 years and have come to a point in my life where I want to really get involved in the community,” Bagni said Monday. “I knew that the seat was available for the Board of Health; I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m a licensed real estate agent, have been for 10 plus years in the town of Pembroke. I have experience outside of the box on septic systems, because it is part of my daily business as a Realtor. I also had years of working in different restaurants, being not only in the service end of it, but also in the training aspect of it.”
Bagni raised two children in Pembroke with husband Gerry and was active on the PTO board when her kids were in elementary school. This is her first position in town government.
Bagni said she hasn’t decided whether she will run for the seat in the spring election.
“Right now, I want to see how it goes, if this position works for me and the Pembroke Board of Health,” she said.
Bagni replaces former Board of Health member Lisa Cullity, who said she decided to step down, in part because the landfill project — which she helped work on for many years — was nearly complete. She also said she is looking to pursue new career opportunities, including applying for the health agent position in Pembroke. To be eligible for the job, she must be off the board for at least 30 days.
“I think I would probably apply for it,” Cullity said of the Pembroke job. “Being unemployed for as long as I have, it would be ridiculous not to pursue it as an opportunity, but that’s not the only opportunity I’m pursuing.”
Cullity, a licensed electrician, has been out of full-time work for about two years.
Residents Gary Fine and Vince Flaherty also applied for the open seat. Flaherty ran for an open Board of Health seat in the May town election but lost to Driscoll.
Flaherty said he plans to run again for the open seat in the next town election.
Rebuttals: