I've been in broadcast-quality film and video production for over 15 years, but I'm an editor. I wasn't diagnosed with CF until I was 29, so I was okay for all of my "paying my dues" years, but I did work long hours while I was. One year I worked for an advertising agency and it wasn't uncommon for me to work 24 hours straight, go home and sleep for 8 hours, then come back and do it again several days in a row.<br>
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More appropriate to this thread is what happened once I was diagnosed with CF. By that point I was freelance, which meant sometimes I worked 15-20 hours a week, sometimes 60+. Basically when you are freelance you don't turn down any work no matter how gruelling. I was a co-owner of a small production house in Oklahoma City, doing pretty well, but health insurance was killing us. There were only 2 of us on our insurance and we paid over $1000 a month and they rated us up every chance they got. My health was going steadily downhill.<br>
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I went to a CF Education day at our clinic and an insurance guy said if you have CF you need to go to work for a big company so that the healthy people offset your illness. Soon after that I picked up a new client which just so happened to be a large retail company with a very nice in-house film and video production department. This department produces several half-hour national TV shows and produces its own national advertising. Long story short, now I work for them. I sometimes have 12-hour days but they are definitely the exception, not the rule. Usually it is a pretty strict 8am to 5pm gig. I go to the doc once a month at least and I try to make up the time on the weekend when I can. Of course, there is stress with any job, but I really enjoy knowing when and how much my next pay check will be, and although the insurance isn't the world's best, it is definitely better than I could afford on my own.<br>
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If you would like any more info, feel free to PM me.