Question for those who work

Support
1

I am fortunate that I am still able to work and I have almost 7 years invested in my job and don't plan on leaving. I work for a major company so there is no human element involved with taking time off or being sick. If there is time available for vacation you can take it, if not too bad. If you take time off with no vacation, you take a point. A full day is 1 point. 8 points and you get fired. I have 6 points currently. I make very good money and I can make very good commission if I can do my job and do it well and can be at work. This time last year I was working tons of overtime also. I'm doing good to make it thru 40 hours a week now.

When I got sick my doctor filled out paperwork for 8 hours a month of FMLA. I can't really afford to miss much more than that, especially not with all my prescriptions and doctor visits now (I do have great benefits, once I meet all the co-pays). But for the last 2 weeks I have felt awful. I deal with upset customers all day so it takes every bit of focus and energy. My manager understands my pain and my foggy brain but there is only so much he can do for me. I can't just take a break when I need to. Just today I left work after half a day because I was just so completely exhausted. It was the brain fog, legs feel like lead, head hurts, can't think straight exhaustion. I've been that way for several days and I just had to leave work.

My question is, how to do others get thru work. I can deal with the pain. The brain fog makes me say crazy things to customers because I mix up my words. The exhaustion just takes it all out of me.

I can barely get thru 8 hours of work, much less laundry and eat and forget about housework right now. I use the crockpot to cook everything, there are always dishes to be done, I struggle to go to the grocery store and pay the bills. My 19 year old son lives with me but he works 2 jobs, 70 hours a week to pay off his car so he can go to seminary in the fall so he has no time to help.

Is there anything I can do to get thru my work day easier? I sleep alot. I try to space out housework and laundry so I don't do too much. I exercise by walking my dog everyday. I need more FMLA hours but I don't really want to miss that much time from work!

I'm so down and out about feeling so bad. Its been too many bad days in a row!

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Hi MrsK, I have not worked in one year now, but I can remember all to well the struggle… My heart goes out to you & I can so empathize !!!
Looking back I’m not sure I would have taken any advice about what I should have done during the final year I worked, I cut my hrs, taking FMLA, but I knew as that year went on I struggled more & more… I had a great job and loved every day I was there, but my life became nothing but working & resting to work, I got to the point that I had to take an FMLA day on wed because 3 days in a row was to hard … After a bad bowel infection I was out on short term disability… Still thinking that I could just go back part time…every time I went to the dr to get my note to go back… I felt so exhausted I couldn’t do it.
I hope for you that you can cut back enough to be able to continue, prior to that final year I didn’t want to cut back because the money was good, now I often wonder if I had cut back would I maybe still have my job ?
It’s great that your employer understands, perhaps a few more FMLA hrs would help you manage better.

Hugs &
Blessings
dee

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Dee is right on with what she says. If you push yourself beyond your limit, the fibro might worsen significantly. From what you say, 40 hours is too much now. So maybe you need to reassess your needs and cut back on your hours or ask for more FMLA time. Like Dee, I worked while sick with fibro (didn't know I had it while working at my full time job.) I did a lot of overtime then spent many weekend hours hunting down supplies needed for my job. Plus I did a ton of heavy pushing at work. I went from having bad pain in my back to bad pain in my neck, hands, wrists and fingers too. Full blown fibro. Do I think working too hard made my fibro worse? Yes yes and yes! So I'm trying to spare you the same fate, but if you're like me, you're stubborn and will keep on keeping on (as I have with a physically difficult part-time job.) But if you want to extend your work career, please consider cutting back again on your hours because it seems to me that fibro is progressive and working just makes it spread faster.

Here are some suggestions to try and make your home life better:

Laundry: can you pay a laundromat to do it? If not, can you ask your son to reuse his clothes one time if they are still clean and odor-free at the end of the day, and wear them again on another day? I would also suggest getting a spare package of underwear and socks and throw away heavily soiled items, replacing them with the spares. You can't do it all of the time, obviously, but if something is messy, it might make more sense to toss it than spend a heap of time trying to get the stains out. Also, ask your son to carry the load of clean clothes upstairs when he's home. Easy peasy for a young person to do. Much safer that way, too. And try to steer clear of wearing denim - harder to wash, dry and carry.

Groceries: try using the mobility scooter. I do and it helps me to complete the task without collapsing. If you're feeling well on a particular outing, buy more than one of something you need, so you don't need to go out for it again when you feel lousy. Try to stay one ahead of your non-perishable items that you use a lot, like toothpaste, toilet paper, etc, I like to buy 2 of the items when they're on sale so I have enough of the product and save money on it. And if you run out of the first batch of the item, you can wait for it to go on sale again before buying it again if you have a spare at home. Ask the baggers to bring your groceries out to the car for you. Get groceries double-bagged because they take less muscle to carry them, leaving you feeling less exhausted. Also make sure to tell the baggers to make each bag light. Buy smaller cans/jars of an item if you can do with less, as it helps you with carrying them. When putting the food away, go home and rest a bit first, just putting away things that must be refrigerated or frozen. When you feel better, do a bit at a time, then sit down and rest for a bit Works much better this way than forcing yourself to put away what seems like an army's worth of food all at once.

Dishes - use paper plates when you're tired. No mess and quick clean up job.

Bills - either have them automatically deducted each month or else call their customer svc line to pay the bill. Usually it's free to do and easy peasy.

I'm out of ideas at the present time, so good luck!

Petunia

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Thank you for your ideas. I do have most bills on autopay currently so that has helped with the little bills. But I did manage to screw up a claim for medical reimbursement TWICE from my medical spending account thing because of brain fog!
Unfortunately with laundry, for both of my sons jobs he is stinky and can’t wear again. I do ok if I just do one load at a time. He works almost everyday from at least 8am to 11pm so he isn’t here to help even though he will gladly do it. Same thing for groceries. My daughter goes with me when she can but she has a 3 yr old and that sometimes makes it worse! I only go twice a month. In between trips are just too much.
My job isn’t hard physically but very demanding mentally and sometimes dealing with one customer for 30 minutes just wipes me out. I guess I do need to check back with my pcp and see if she will allow for more fmla hours. She wanted me to see the endo doctor before doing anything else for me. Its only the 2nd week of the month and I’ve used almost 4 of my 8 hours and I have a doctors appt that will probably take the other 4 :-(. I’m wondering if I should try to increase my fibro med savella again and see if it helps. I had trouble with the higher dose but I just can’t handle this fatigue and exhaustion.

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HI MRSK IM STILL WORKING 4-7:30 OR 7:45 PM 3 DAYS A WEEK ILL WORK WHEN SOMEONE WANTS ME TO BUT NOT IF IK WORKING 4 CONSECUTIVE DAYS IM LUCKY I HAVE A WONDERFUL SUPERVISOR DIRECTOR AND WORK PARTNERS ITS HARD BUT I REST DURING THE SHIFT BUT IM SO EXHAUSTED WHEN I GET HOME ILL BE GLAD TO SEE THE NP ON JUNE 17TH BUT NOT THE 29TH THE WLJ HREARINGS THAT DAY I LOVE MY JOB BUT DONT KNOW HOW MUCH LONGER I. CAN WORK I SAW A WORKPARTNER WAIT TOO LONG SHE COULDNT WORK FINISH THE SHIFT MY OTHER WORKPARTNER LEWRNED FROM THAT AND RETIRED ILL DO THE SAME HOPE THATVHELPS

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I work 2 twelve hour shifts at a time over the last 3 years I have had to take 6 weeks of fmla at a time. I do online bill pay I found a lady who cleans my house twice a week I use paper plates I have been lucky enough to change the area I work in but after 2 days I still spend the 3rd day mostly in bed. My elderly mother has moved in with me and I have about decided my health is more important thinking of going out on fmla and not going back. I hope you can find away to balance things soon. I almost forgot I thru out everything I didn't need and downsized to a smaller house.

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I left work early again today. I lasted 2 hours. Today it was my spine that was hurting so bad. I couldn't sit and my arms were weak. I can work with leg pain but the back pain was something different. I went to my PCP and she referred me to a rheumatologist. She was able to get me in soon to a doctor who is about 45 miles away so that is the 27th. She gave me a shot of Toradol (sp?) I think and it helped my back. My hips are still bothering me and it hurts to walk much but better. She gave me a muscle relaxer to help with the sleep. I took half of one just in case it makes me too groggy. I'm going to increase my Savella and see if that helps also if I can tolerate the side effects. My doctor said she felt my pain was just too severe to be fibro all by itself. I was running a low fever again today so we talked about that and my left arm gets a weird purple red color to it when I am in pain and she said that was very disturbing. She said she was fine if I needed to get more FMLA hours. I cried when I was in her office and she again assured me I wasn't crazy, it wasn't in my head and its not caused by depression so it made me feel better. I worry that it is all in my head sometimes. She at least believes that it is all real and I hope the other doctors do too. I think my next step will be the paper plates so I can avoid alot of dishes. I've figured out how to cook tons of stuff in the crockpot so that has helped alot. I am in a very small place, my son and I share 700 ft so not alot to clean and he really never notices if the house is a mess or not. I have to manage to work 9 to 6 tomorrow. I don't have a choice so I hope the pain is better tomorrow. I was so sick when I came home from the doctor I must have taken my pants off by the dining room table because I just found them and I don't remember even doing it! yeah, its a rough day.