How do you manage to work (full time especially) if you have an illness that disables you at least part of the time?
If you have debilitating migraines or severe mood disorders, as examples, and you are disabled several days a month how do you handle that plus work responsibilities? Do you just go in, does your employer understand, do you work from home?
I have problems with chronic pain from arthritis in my back. When it’s bad, it feels like someone is stabbing my left hip and leg with a hot sword. At least once a week, it gets so bad that I can’t sleep. I’ll finally fall asleep an hour before the alarm, which isn’t enough for me to function on, so I call in and let my office know that I will be coming in late, sometimes not until the afternoon. Fortunately, my staff is very understanding. They know that I have often worked hard in spite of pain when absolutely necessary. I realize how fortunate I am. So many folks don’t have the flexibility that I have.
Good treatment has reduced my migraine-disabled days from 15+ per month to maybe one.
I still get migraines, but they respond to treatment far better than they did before the medication cocktail, the trigger point injections, the Botox, and the regular massages.
So, if I can go in to work, I do. I might go in later than usual, but some of my team roll up at 10 or 11. We don’t punch a clock, so it’s no biggie.
If I can’t come in to work, but can still work effectively at home (for example, with, say, earplugs in to help the noise sensitivity), I telecommute. No one thinks twice, since everyone in my office telecommutes at least once a week. My bosses actually live in another state, so they telecommute more than they are physically in the office.
If I can’t work at all, either from the pain level or because I’ve taken all of my meds and won’t make good decisions, I will call in a day of PTO. I’ve only once had to ask someone to cover a meeting for me, and it’s not a big deal. We help each other all the time.
My office is extremely flexible and I’m so grateful for that. I think it helps that I work with a number of MDs – they get that you aren’t making things up and you aren’t off at the beach having fun. My hiring boss (also an MD) could actually tell when I was in the prodrome phase of a migraine. It was very weird that he noticed, since I’ve gotten good at hiding when I have one if I’m at work. You would not know to talk to me.
The same applies if my asthma is acting up, but that only happens a couple of days a year.
ETA: When my migraines became chronic, I had no support at all from my employer, a large insurance company with a color in their name. You’d think I was out at the beach having fun, instead of home throwing up and contemplating literally shooting myself in the head. Having a migraine every fucking day is horrible, and I really did contemplate ending it because there was no relief in sight (this was before Botox was approved for migraine, and before chronic migraine was a widely-known disorder) and I couldn’t get any support at work.
What did you do back then? Were you unemployed for a while or did you manage to hold onto a job?
Also how long ago was it that chronic migraine was not a well known/respected condition?
One of my coworkers get somewhat sick (at least by my standards). He uses all his PTO time for illness, which would suck. I try to keep my sick days to 3 or less per year and use the rest for vacations but it doesn’t always work that well.
If that’s the same " large insurance company with a color in their name" that I used to work for you aren’t the only one. Unless it was a high-level executive anyone sick was assumed to be malingering. They were absolutely brutal to a number of people of my acquaintance, and to me when I was hospitalized with norovirus.
Some employers are very accommodating. Some aren’t. The lower you are on the corporate totem pole the less likely you are to keep your job if you are chronically ill.
I’ve had rheumatoid arthritis for a number of years. I have it fairly well under control, but do have days when it flares up and depending on which joint it attacks, I can find myself unable to walk or use a computer or sit up straight, etc. On those days, I work from home.
If you have a chronic issue, my advice is to tell your employer just as soon as you have confirmation of it (if it’s new), or as soon as you have a firm job offer/contract if your job is new. As soon as you are eligible, ask for an FMLA application, complete it and get it on file. If you have an FMLA in place, your employer will not be able to remove you from your job unless you miss more than 12 weeks in a calendar year, or if he does, must find you another job within the organization at a comparable rate of pay. I would also look into obtaining a Short Term Disability designation for periodic absences. A lot of people aren’t aware that STD can be used in this way, but it can. It’s another job protection for you and also covers you financially in the event of an absence.
Both FMLA and STD can offer you job protection, although FMLA is primarily designed to do so, while STD has it only as a secondary feature.
I was fired for using too much PTO. Even though I’d asked for the Long-Term Disability information, it was not provided. When an attorney requested the information on my behalf, I was fired the next day.
About ten years ago. Ironically, it wasn’t a well known condition until Botox was approved for its use by the FDA.
**Broomstick **-- yup, sounds right. Pretty much anyone who took STD with an “invisible” illness was eventually fired. All longtime employees, all with good reviews…until they got sick. I know of half a dozen people in two departments that happened to. And the company has an entire office of attorneys to block lawsuit payouts. It’s awful.
Well, I’ve lost at more than one job to chronic health problems - a combination of depression and migraines. It was less the days sick than it was changes in my behavior and an inability to handle stress which made me act out in inappropriate ways (yelling, not a good thing). I survived by living with my parents until I got the migraines under control. Currently, I’m surviving on my own in a tolerable job, but I constantly worry about my stress level, whether my depression will return, or what I’ll do if I burn through all my PTO for a more garden variety illness and something big takes me out. It’s not fun.
Absolutely positively THIS.
I don’t have a chronic illness but between my arthritis and whatever-else-comes-down-the-pike (the latest being a fractured wrist), I’ve employed both FMLA and STD a number of times without any kind of repercussion. My employer requires us to keep them informed as to what’s going on. Our STD requires paperwork from every medical appointment. It can be a pain but it’s ultimately for your own job security.
What does STD mean, as you’re us no it here? Not sexually transmitted disease, I’m pretty sure! Translation please!
That’s actually a phenomenal result given that the guidelines involving migraine prophylaxis only shoot for around a 50% reduction in number of headache days. 
I suspect it means Short Term Disability.
Assuming you make it clear ahead of time, reasonable accommodation for a disability (of which migraine can qualify) must also be provided by an employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act, or so I’m given to understand, and violating that can be costly to a company, so that would be another route those with chronic illnesses can go if they are able.
I suspect the most common answer will be that people just force themselves to go in. It can be painful and uncomfortable and maybe not even a good idea to do so, but to not do so means that someone healthier than you will take your place. Some lucky few may have talents so valuable that they can afford to work only when their illness isn’t causing too much trouble, because they’re not really disposable. Most of us are disposable though, so it’s kind of dangerous to stand out by taking more sick time than average.
I had a “mild” heart attack last year and had a stent placed in one of my coronary arteries. I’m self employed, so FML or STD weren’t options. I have a disability insurance policy for long term problems, but nothing for the short term.
I was released from the hospital 24 hours post-op and went right back to work. At my one week followup appointment I was told I could go back to work in a week. I told my doctor I went back two days after my cath, and he just chuckled.
This.
Although my employer would be understanding I think. Two years ago I developed chronic migraines. When they initially developed I did go through a period where I curled up in a dark room with my dog and didn’t work much. My employer was very supportive.
Since then I have seen many Drs and tried a lot of treatments. Some days are better than others, but my reality now is that I have a migraine at some level every day.
For me, I do better when I go to work. Since no treatment really works, lying in dark gives me nothing to do but think about how much migraines suck, which leads to how much longer do I want to this and various dark roads. If I go to work, I am kept busy and focused all day. Much better for me. I have to watch a reduced tolerance for idiots (unfortunately always present in business).
I wish very much that I did not feel as though I had a spike through my head, with attendant nausea, and light and sound sensitivities. I’ve come to realize, however, that work helps me deal with my chronic illness.
Interesting on unknown-until-Botox. A neighbor of mine has migraines and was part of an investigational program re Botox (it helped) and spent quite a bit of time getting the treatment covered by her insurance once it was approved.
Re the insurer: I used to work for them as well though doubtless in a different state, and their policy towards employees seemed to be “You’re slaves. We pay you - a little - because the law says we have to, and you should be grateful we don’t flog much any more”. So while I didn’t have the health issues to deal with while there, I was job-hunting within 6 months.
I have FMLA in place; however, the doctor’s letter was insufficient to let me withdraw from weekly office duties. I work from home on my own time 4 days/week and suffer for that one day. Because we now have flex time, I can nap in the early after noon, go to the doctor, whatever is needed as long as I get my 40 hours in every week.
I have saved up the ceiling amount of vacation leave, so when I start dialysis I won’t go unpaid (luckily my supervisor is willing to let me use vacation time for what is technically sick leave) and my work team is very supportive of what I’m going through.
When I have the transplant, I have enough sick leave combined with the vacation to cover my pay and since most people are able to return to desk jobs in three weeks or so, I won’t lose my caseload/job title.
If all this had happened before we moved to flex time, I don’t know where I would have been. I NEVER had any sick/vacation time prior to the switch.