Would I be able to work as a nurse or GP? Health struggles!

[CFS_for_19_years]

There are very few jobs in medicine/lab work where you can sit at a microscope all day. I can only think of cytologists who read Pap smears all day. I'm speaking from the experience of having been a medical technologist for 16 years before becoming too sick to work. There were no jobs in that field where one could sit down all day.

If you are in biochemistry or biomedicine you are typically in a laboratory setting where you are mobile throughout the day. I worked in a variety of settings, but I was always on my feet a lot, whether it was in a research setting, a hospital or outpatient clinic. "Bench work" sounds enticing, like maybe there might be a chance to sit down, but you still have to move around a lot and be on your feet in order accomplish the bench work.

When considering the options, I hope you will consider a career that can be conducted from an office. In that way you can count on being able to sit for most of the day. Speech therapy, which requires a Master's degree, might be one option, as long as you don't have to work in a hospital or nursing home, and just work with outpatients.

Have you thought about doing social work?

 

[caledonia]

Just FYI, beta blockers can deplete melatonin and thus cause insomnia. If that happens, you can supplement with melatonin to compensate.

This happened to my mom who had ME and tachycardia, and was on a beta blocker. Unfortunately, I didn't know about this at the time so I was unable to help her. She had bad insomnia for 20 years.

 

[Manganus]

Hi and welcome to the forums!

I'm one of them who tried to complete medical school despite ME. I didn't succeed.

It's hard to try giving you advises, but neither demanding studies nor demanding work are optimal. ME has a nasty habit to aggravate in connection with stress. Once you've made a career choice, it's not that easy to switch. Particularly not if one isn't well.
(In retrospect I almost regret my attempt to become a physician.)

For a couple of years I worked as a stand in for (registered) nurses. But that turned out to be too stressful. I'm not aware of having done any serious/life-threatening mistakes. Many times, though, it was a close call.
After that, I managed to work as a night shift psychiatric aide for, like, 10 years, despite not being well. I enjoyed it. But...

 

[ScottTriGuy]

Since you value helping people, and you enjoy social interactions (I think you indicated you were quite social before ME), you may consider psychiatry / psychology / social work - very little movement required in those vocations.