Charlotte's scratch post

[Stottie Girl]

Exciting times Charlotte!

[Lori Dee ✅]

Sounds like you are ready to go!
Don't worry about surgery, you'll sleep right through it. Just take a nap and wake up with bandages. Pay close attention to the details of your after-care plan. You will want to heal quickly with minimal scarring.

Good luck!

[Pema]

What Lori said. You sleep and then you wake up, and it's done. Just don't try to be a superhero afterward. No matter how good you feel, your body has healing to do, and it requires rest (and hydration!). Give that love to the body you're trying to coax into alignment.

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

Honestly not sure how much longer i can do these 14 hour work days with driving. I feel exhausted now, keep coming up in sores, bad skin and all sorts. Eating at 8pm is no good either.

Honestly I'm really not enjoying work or life at all. I wish I was much older and  didn't have this time left. I can't bare another 10 years of this existence let alone 20-30 years. I've no choice though cos i have a partner. Wish I'd stayed single  would have made this all much easier.

[Stottie Girl]

Honestly not sure how much longer i can do these 14 hour work days with driving. I feel exhausted now, keep coming up in sores, bad skin and all sorts. Eating at 8pm is no good either.

Honestly I'm really not enjoying work or life at all. I wish I was much older and  didn't have this time left. I can't bare another 10 years of this existence let alone 20-30 years. I've no choice though cos i have a partner. Wish I'd stayed single  would have made this all much easier.

14 Hour work days aren't fun, I feel your pain. When I worked for British Gas there were often 12-13 hour shifts (with driving) but then you had to be on call until 8:00 the next day and sods law those were the nights you would get called out! It actually triggered a mental breakdown and I ended up leaving and changing careers (again!). It's not an easy thing to do but it definitely helped me. Now I've found somewhere I love working again.

I've got 16 years left of work before retirement age but it honestly doesn't seem as bad now.

Maybe there's a better fit out there for you somewhere? I wouldn't jump until you have somewhere to go but maybe have a look at possible career changes, maybe you could work for your self even? I did for 15 years and it was nice to be in control of your own destiny. You're definitely not too old to retrain I'm living proof of that.

Chin up Charlotte and think about the FFS and the new you.

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

The main issue is I can't really afford a £20-30k pay cut to go into something else. I'm basically overpaid where I am. I've changed career a few times, can't say I've really enjoyed any of them. Tolerable maybe, but enjoyed never!

I enjoy a lot of things when there is no pressure or requirement to interact with people. I'd totally enjoy my job if the stress and people contact was removed!

I think the stress of self employment would finish me off for sure. I worry 24/7 about everything! And still would need to interact with people too much.

I'll see how the FFS turns out. It's a bit of an unknown variable.

[Northern Star Girl ✅]

@Charlotte_Ringwood
Dear Charlotte:
  WOW-zers.  Your profile picture is lovely,
showing a beautiful woman.
Many HUGS,
Danielle

[Stottie Girl]

I've gone from a highly paid job at BG to a very low wage job and frankly I've never been happier. As long as you can pay the bills there's more to life than money. Of course you're able to get FFS and I can't afford it so there's that! Maybe somewhere in the middle is your happy place?

I found self employment to be less stressful actually until COVID happened and I nearly went bankrupt but who could have seen that coming!

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

@Charlotte_Ringwood
Dear Charlotte:
  WOW-zers.  Your profile picture is lovely,
showing a beautiful woman.
Many HUGS,
Danielle

That's very kind of you Danielle. Thank you, means a lot. I only wear glasses to read and work so don't have them on in most pix. X

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

I've gone from a highly paid job at BG to a very low wage job and frankly I've never been happier. As long as you can pay the bills there's more to life than money. Of course you're able to get FFS and I can't afford it so there's that! Maybe somewhere in the middle is your happy place?

I found self employment to be less stressful actually until COVID happened and I nearly went bankrupt but who could have seen that coming!

Thanks and I definitely keep looking for sure. I'm still paying off my student debts so unfortunately wages don't go so far and paying my mortgage until I'm 65 as only got it in my 40s. I can probably take a cut in about 3 years after paying my student loans off and my debt for FFS and GRS.

My partner can't work so I'm also essentially paying for two people. Add to that my mortgage will go from 2% to probably over 3.5% next year.

I just don't know what I'd do that's not in my current industry.

[Stottie Girl]

Thanks and I definitely keep looking for sure. I'm still paying off my student debts so unfortunately wages don't go so far and paying my mortgage until I'm 65 as only got it in my 40s. I can probably take a cut in about 3 years after paying my student loans off and my debt for FFS and GRS.

My partner can't work so I'm also essentially paying for two people. Add to that my mortgage will go from 2% to probably over 3.5% next year.

I just don't know what I'd do that's not in my current industry.

We all have that dilema Charlotte. I've changed careers 3 times and it's always been the same. Who will have me, what can I actually do. Truth is you will have a very useful skill set if you break it all down. I just sat down and thought, what do I enjoy doing and then looked for a job that matched that. Once I decided that I looked into re-training. You don't always have to go to university to re-train either. It might mean starting at the bottom again though so you need to work out how low you can go. I am fortunate in that I own my house with no mortgage and come from an age when you got student grants not loans so it's easier for me I suppose.

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

Unfortunately I still got 12k of student debt, 110k on the house owning and 25k other debts. Student loan is costing me nearly 500 per month alone. Honestly I could go down to 50k a year at lowest if I stayed in and did nothing. But most entry stuff us below that and I have zero savings. Pay in this country is ridiculously low and stagnated!!

[Stottie Girl]

Unfortunately I still got 12k of student debt, 110k on the house owning and 25k other debts. Student loan is costing me nearly 500 per month alone. Honestly I could go down to 50k a year at lowest if I stayed in and did nothing. But most entry stuff us below that and I have zero savings. Pay in this country is ridiculously low and stagnated!!

50k? Come and live in the North East, You could live like a queen on that up here!

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

Unfortunately my ex left me with 18k of debt, so along with my surgeries I'm pushing 850 a month just to debt!

Then electrolysis and laser is about 150 a month at mo. Other is mortgage, bills, food for both of us, various insurances and such. Fuel to work, car costs and all sorts.

I'll be very well off once those debts are clear and I'm not paying 500 a month student loan. I just got to choose holding my stressful job with zero money worries or a lesser job with more money worries.

In 3 years I will have more options I think, as my student loan will be close to paid and my debts too. I'm getting as much transition stuff done now as I can, because business is really unstable, so I could be out of a job any time. Also have 10 years of  service so would get big payout if I was let go! I'd lose that if I moved.

It's probably more I need to hold out until my position is stronger!

I've considered a certain site where fans subscribe to see pictures, but I don't have the best looks! Although may still try when I'm more transitioned. Then I could take less hours!!

Charlotte 😻

[Stottie Girl]

Debt's a bitch I must admit. I've been in a debt spiral when I was young and daft, it's no fun. At least it sounds like you're making headway with it.

[Charlotte_Ringwood ✅]

I'm now stopping taking my oral HRT as it's a week before surgery now and to reduce clot risks. They asked me to do it two weeks ago, but no way I was stopping HRT that long. Thankfully have a little bit of spray estradiol left so going to switch to that for a couple of weeks.

Gonna pack clothes soon and it seems weather in Istanbul is similar to here so at least I don't have to think too much about what I take. Just my normal outfits are good.

Desperately trying to avoid all the ill people at work as scared they won't do my surgery if I've got a cold. Using gel and washing my hands constantly!

Got to sort the house as someone is coming to feed the cats while we're away. I'm not sure they'd even enter the house as it is. Been at least a month since hoovering or cleaning of any kind!

Charlotte 😻