I focused myself on my other key priority: that of planning the future direction of my career. My thinking began as follows: The hardest thing to come to terms with when dealing with Crohn’s would be that it does not go away. Hence, my life was most likely going to be a series of ups and downs where, in the down periods, I would be juggling the options of drug regimes, surgery, putting up with feeling ill, or sometimes all three simultaneously. It would clearly be a mistake to add to this burden by over-stretching myself in the workplace.

Having had a few weeks to think about things, and bearing in mind both the prognosis on the probable future course of my health together with the advice from my anonymous advisor in Ward 8, I came to the conclusion that I would be foolish to continue my immediate career path as a brand manager in the marketing department.

Jobs that depended for their success on lots of doing – and brand management was a good example – would just be setting me up for a fall. Stress makes illnesses worse and being a brand manager was close to being one of the most stressful jobs in a company like Cadbury. You initiate things and have to follow them through to execution, usually multiple projects at once – plenty of ball-juggling. Also, the advertising agencies were in London, so that meant every week there would be one or two long days’ travelling together with heavy-duty lunches. If, in the future, I was to feel as ill as I had done on the sales force, then these responsibilities and punishing schedules would just pour fuel on the fire.

When feeling ill, I would feel compelled to struggle into work if my absence would mean things grinding to a halt or going wrong. I did not want to do this as it would, I was now convinced, ultimately shorten my life. Conversely, if I took the time off when I was under the weather, I would ultimately fail in the job.

The question that was top of my mind was: given that Crohn’s Disease was for life and had already shown the level of disruption it could bring into the workplace, was there an alternative career path where I would be better able to shield the company from the new limitations I was now probably going to face? In other words, assuming the worst health-wise, how could I prevent my illness from making my employment a problem for the company and consequently for myself? But if not marketing, then what? I had been pondering these questions almost since the day I had left the hospital, but the direction I needed to take was increasingly clear.

Tip #47: You Need to be Able to Work When Feeling Ill
Look for a job that you can comfortably do when you are feeling well and get by in when you are feeling ill. Do not get into jobs where you are fully stretched when you are feeling well as you will surely fail when your health is poor. It is better to over-achieve in a role you are comfortable in rather than fail in a too demanding role.

The best kind of role for me was one that depended primarily on the quality of my thinking rather than the energy of my doing. No matter how bad I was feeling, and whether I was in the office or tucked up in bed, I could still think. This inevitably led me back to the area where I had started my career, which was much more of a thinking role. In the market analysis department, the key areas of added value were gleaning insights into reasons behind past sales performance that could be applied by colleagues in the marketing department to positively influence the future. I felt confident that I could definitely do well in that role whatever the state of my health. Plus, going back into an area I was familiar with would enable me to ease myself back into the workplace once my sick leave had run its course. So I called the personnel department and set up a meeting to discuss options for my return.

The bottom line was that I was prepared to take a step back in my career in the short term to have more control over its direction, no matter what the illness would throw at me. I was only 25 years old; I needed a long-term plan that would enable me to build a career for the next 35 years while avoiding having to choose between health and career.

Tip #48: Be the Tortoise, Not the Hare
With Crohn’s, you have to plan much further ahead than you did in the past and than do others. I have met countless people for whom Crohn’s has effectively taken control of their future out of their hands, simply because they carried on as before they were ill and hoped for the best. Plan for the worst and treat anything better than that as a bonus. Stay in control of your destiny.