Just when I was starting to feel sympathetic to BIL....

EliseB0323

As I've posted here before, my BIL is a nice guy, but really lazy and irresponsible, IMO.  He and my sister have a 6-month-old baby girl. He finally got a job a couple of months ago after more than 2 years of basically not working (he has a real estate title business where he made a little bit of money.) He doesn't like the job because there is a long commute involved, so I had originally given him about 6 months before he quit.

He was having pain in his shoulder last week and his doctor sent him in for an xray. They did an EKG too, and said he was having a heart attack. He spent 4 days in the ICU, and the doctors think the problem was an infection in the muscle of his heart, not necessarily a heart attack. Antibiotics cleared up the infection and all of his tests are normal now. Doctors said he could go back to work today, since his job isn't physical.

He doesn't have many vacation or personal days since he just started this job in March. But he decided his commute was too stressful, and is taking off work for the rest of the month and going on short-term disability. They are also going on a short vacation this week.

hopefulmom

I have a friend who had something similar (with her heart) and because it was in her heart and it was attacking it...the cardiologist classified it as a "heart attack".  How long is your BIL's commute?  I mean, is it like over an hour one way?  Does he have to drive or does he have to take trains, subways, etc. to get to his work?  I guess some of those things could certainly cause stress.  Not the driving though...living in MI it is very common to drive an hour (or more to work).  My DH used to drive 1 1/2 hours one way and he did that for 3 years (before they built a new freeway)!  I told him to make it a mini-vacation away from the kids.  lol  He really got into books on tape and classical music.  If you BIL is driving he should try something like that...less stress maybe.

EliseB0323

hopefulmom:

I have a friend who had something similar (with her heart) and because it was in her heart and it was attacking it...the cardiologist classified it as a "heart attack".  How long is your BIL's commute?  I mean, is it like over an hour one way?  Does he have to drive or does he have to take trains, subways, etc. to get to his work?  I guess some of those things could certainly cause stress.  Not the driving though...living in MI it is very common to drive an hour (or more to work).  My DH used to drive 1 1/2 hours one way and he did that for 3 years (before they built a new freeway)!  I told him to make it a mini-vacation away from the kids.  lol  He really got into books on tape and classical music.  If you BIL is driving he should try something like that...less stress maybe.

His commute is about 1 1/2 hours each way and he leaves the house at around 5:30 each morning. He drives the whole way. It's not fun, but you do what you have to do. I think he's looking for an excuse to stay home and collect disability.

hopefulmom

1 1/2 hours one way (plus driving all day long) can get really wearing on a person unless they can "do" something while in the car.  That is why the books on tape, favorite music, learning a foreign language, etc. can help.  Like you said, you do what you have to do.