However, I do think that the change would be good for my mindset and perhaps even start to bring back some of my confidence, which has been lacking the last six months, which has an effect on many things.
Change for mindset and confidence, a good reason to explore new avenues. Looking back when I had to step out of my comfort zone from floor ops to office to supervisor, I think it was all about prepping for the biggest change in life, retirement. At the time I was not really thinking about retirement, I knew it was on the horizon, but like you illness hit, I was simply not ready to roll over and start drooling, so changing mindset was not an easy thing especially going from floor ops to office ops mostly due to my attitude and other coworker attitudes to the office staff. I got over it, and started the study and prep like you, and in the end found it to be pretty fun and satisfying. We can sometimes be our own worse enemy when it comes to change.
Did you carry the floor attitude into the office with you - and were your "ex-colleagues" able to accept you in the new role?
It was a different job, so no I did not carry my floor attitude with me. I did see and understand in just a few days my previous biases. Surprisingly my ex-coworkers thought I did a much better job than the previous person and they did accept me in my new role rather quickly. When I advanced to being a supervisor, they did seem to respect me in that job also.
I think this is common(ish) as you became a bridge between, understanding both sides, being a voice for both.
I worked with a guy who was brilliant at both his floor position and then in a supervisory role, but it took him about two years to be accepted as supervisor.