New to the forum/Fibro and trying to return to work

I was finally dx with fibromyalgia in June of this year. I had my first episode 2 yrs ago. As usual they weren't sure of what was happening..Just keep pushing you can do it!!  I've pushed for the past 2 years and when I finally thought I had got my life back..BAM!  down I went again..this was in June. I'm starting to gain more stamina but the FOG is still there. My question is has anyone gone back in the work force and made it? I am afraid. I am at a crossroads..I'm on short term disablity and will be screened for long term. My fmla ended in Aug. they are telling me I'm coverd for a year as loa. I honestly don't know what to do..and what makes it even harder is I LOVE my job..advice please..

Nana

Hi Nana,

Welcome to the fibromyalgia forum. I am so happy that you have joined us. You have come to a good place, you will like it here.

I went seven years without working and went back to work part time last year. I loved it. I worked just enough to where it wasn't over doing it. I am sure that you want to be able to work full time, but even part time helps. I was so proud of myself. But you can go on disability for a while until you feel that you can return to work. I was so fortunate, my boss understood my situation and really made it easy for me to work. She worked around me when she wouldn't have had to. I was so happy for that.

You are lucky that you have your foot in the door for disability. If you need full time, you probably wont have any trouble being accepted. So in a way, you have the best of both worlds. If you want to look at it that way. Take it one day at a time. Try not to lose faith. The right thing will happen.

In the meantime, if you are interested, there is a thread called fibro101. It is the first thread on the fibro forum. It is very interesting. I think you would benefit from reading it, if you haven't already. If you were a lurker, I am sure you have read about it before. We try to mention it to all the newbies.

I hope that you have a good day today. It is raining here, so it isn't the best weather for a fibromite, but it isn't really cold, so it's not that bad. I am going to bake today. Feels like a good day for it.

Take care, keep posting.

Hugs, Karen

Hi Nana and welcome to our fibro family, I dont know what to say as far as your job. I know that it is hard to give up doing things we love because of our limitations. I ended up quitting my job last October due to extreme fatigue. I worked at customer service at a local grocery store and was handling alot of money all day long. I was starting to make mistakes and I could tell that my concentration was just not there anymore. It was taking 4 alarms just to get me out of bed in the morning. And even then I would barely make it to work on time. I have found out though that life is more than just what you do at work. There was plenty to keep me busy here and still will be once I kick this cancer fight Im in right now. I will be praying that things work out for you so that you will be able to go back to your job. Do try to remember though that it is not your job that makes you special, its whats inside.
Gentle Hugs
Shirley

Hi Nana, welcome to the forum. I have done the books for my hubbies businesses but I am having a really hard time wrapping my brain around the numbers but we can't afford to pay someone else to do my work. I do keep busy around here but there have been times that I just couldn't get off the couch.

I would be afraid to go back to work. It always seems like when I have plans is when a flare hits and a job would be a major plan.

Sorry I couldn't help with your question but wanted to welcome you.

Hey Nana, we rode bikes (harleys) or should I say I was passenger and he was driver for many years.  Probably a big reason I chose to go out with him .  Yep, my idea and I chased him for a while (I was too much of a barfly 20some years ago, but here we are.  We rode from Pittsburgh to Sturgis South Dakota in '97.  We had to sell the Road King to get the mortgage on this house but to be honest riding was starting to hurt me too much.  When I quit drinking is when the pain was very noticable..I guess I was self medicating.  Keep reading and asking!!

 

 

Welcome Nana,   I'm glad you found this site, I'm sorta new too, and really love it.

 

It's late here, and I'm getting up early for church, but when I read about the muscle jerks I had to write this to you now. I went through the exact same thing, only it got really bad for about a week. I wrote and told everyone here what happened. You can find it if you look maybe 3 or 4 pages back.  You may have the same thing happening to you. It's called Serotonin Syndrome.

 

 Actually I just remembered Sherrine one of our moderators wrote about it when I was in the middle of being quite sick from it. I was so grateful, and know God was helping me. So go back a few pages or so and read it, she also provided some good  links about it. It made me pretty sick and I'm hoping it doesn't happen to anyone else, including you!  You are dealing with more than enough already.

 

Hope this helps and I'm really glad you joined us.

 

God Bless

 

Debbie S   

 

 

 

Hi, Nana, and welcome!  I'm sorry we have to meet this way but we do have a wonderful family here. 

 

I saw that Debbie mentioned the Serotonin Syndrome thread.  I did put that in Fibro 101 so you can check it out there without having to hunt for it.  Fibro 101 is the first thread on the forum and has links to good info about fibro and you will learn a lot.

 

I take a malic acid/magnesium supplement that has helped me with pain and and fatigue.  There is a link about these in Fibro 101, too, and it explains how it works in the body.  Malic acid is found in apples but I'd have to eat a bushel to get the amount I need!  So, you might want to check that out.  It has helped others on this forum.  But, with fibro, what works for one doesn't necessarily work for another.  These aren't expensive so it would be worth a shot to try them.  I get mine at Puritan.com and they are having a sale...buy one, get two free!  Can't beat that!

 

Since you love your job, I wouldn't throw the towel in just yet.  I'm glad to see you are getting off some medication because some medications can make you tired.  Also, pace yourself when you are at home.  Save that energy for work.  Try to get up as much as possible and walk around during the day.  That helps with pain and helps with energy.  I walk at least a mile before breakfast and that helps give me more energy.  Also, there are some stretching exercises in Fibro 101 that you can do at your desk and this might help, too.  They are done sitting down.  Do put  yourself on a sleep schedule.  This helps in falling asleep.  Rest is so important with this illness.

 

By the way, one of our mods has a wedding cake business.  She has fibro, diabetes, and arthritis but she still works...a lot in the "wedding months".  I can't imagine leaning over to decorate cakes!  She has found ways around her problems and continues to work.  Her motto is "Keep on keeping on"!

 

As far as the fog goes, don't stress over it.  That makes it worse.  Dig out your sense of humor and your great attitude and you can take on the world! 

 

I hope something that I've mentioned helps you to feel well enough to keep doing what you love to do.  A positive attitude works wonders.  Let us know what you end up doing.  We really do care about you.

 

I'm so glad you joined our family and I hope to hear more from  you soon.

 

Sherrine

NNL,

Try to be optimistic. And take life one day at a time. You sound like you love your job and that really makes a difference. So does a positive attitude. So keep your chin up and as Jeannie would say Keep on Keeping on!!! One day at a time is my motto. That is really all that we can do. Things have a way of working out for the best. As long as we are trying. And that you are.

Hugs, Karen

To bwfm,

I'm not sure if you'll see this post. I'm new and not sure how to send a direct reply to you. I too worked from home several years coding, then decided to go back into the work force of UTMB for the benefits and I'm so glad I did. I thought I was going to try and go back but after speaking with my manager this morning I'm not sure at all. She said that she would expect me to come back full time and meet my productiviy and 100% accuracy within a couple of weeks. I don't know if it was me but I kinda felt like that was a threat. I'm no longer covered by fmla and if I do return they could legally let me go. Then I would loose my retirement. I went on line this am to work some coding tests from a online magazine. It gave me an awakening. I am having a very difficult time trying to figure things out. To process the info. I am going to call my rheumy to make an appt and I'll ask about the Ultram. To be honest I can't tell where it's helping my pain level at all. It does help me sleep. I just orderd B-12 the other day along with some other new supplements that is suppose to help with energy and brain function..who knows? look forward to speaking with you again.. Are you on ss disablity?

NNL

Agmaar,

I am trying to get my rheumy to call me back.When this all first happened she said she didn't like LTD. On my last appt.with her, I asked how long does this fog last? her reply was a long time. and she walked away. You know even though I've been crying off and on all day it has served a purpose. I truly thought I was ready. Then I began to complete the forms for LTD, I can't remember my job skills or how I performed them..again I cried. I think the reason I feel so confident is because in the world I'm in now, home, church, grocery store when I can..I feel good about myself for the most part..there is no thinking process challenged..

I'm sorry about putting your house up for sale. but it could be a blessing being closer to the kiddos..and I agree not to close!!
we have to find something positive and try to handle it with a sense of humor, but it sure is hard! I know HE won't give us more than we can handle but these days I feel like I've reached my limit.

look forward to talking to you again. what part of the country are you moving too?

I have changed my profile so that people can email me, but I don't check it daily, so don't be discouraged if I don't answer right away. I also have a spam filter on my email, so I have to approve of your email address so it will be added to my email address book.

I'm soooo sorry that you are going through this and that the test online didn't work out well. Before I decided to quit, I was making all kinds of little mistakes, I couldn't remember words that I had typed thousands of times, and I just couldn't justify trying to keep working knowing that my mind wasn't working right and that I might adversely affect someone's medical report, and I finally had to face the facts. I love medicine and I loved working as a medical transcriptionist. Of course, now with all the outsourcing, the transcription industry has gone to pot...my specialty, radiology, is being taken over by voice recognition, and the pay to edit those reports has been cut in half, so that where I once typed 500 lines at 10 cents a line, I would now edit a report (sometimes having to retype complete parts of the report), and would only make 4-5 cents a line. I would have had to be retrained to a different job at some point if I had continued to work. The last time I worked in-house, we were expected to produce 1100 lines in an 8-hour shift and at the same time we answered the phone, tracked down reports, and had to go to ultrasound to pick up the OB ultrasound forms. No way I could do that, so I finally went back home to work.

I applied for SS disability in November 2008 and was turned down in June 2009. I applied for an appeal and sent that paperwork in in either February or March. Am waiting to hear if I have to go to a hearing. My doctor thinks I'm a malingerer because he doesn't believe in fibromyalgia, so his PA filled out the paperwork for me. I think my rheumy has lost it because he tells me things like, "Well, fibromyalgia usually gets better in the long run" and "I find that most of my fibromyalgia patients do okay taking ibuprofen." I don't know what planet he's on lately, so I have depended on my PCP's PA to handle my symptoms.

We went from 2 incomes down to one starting in Nov 2008 and it has been very hard on my husband to keep everything afloat. I feel so bad for him.

I went to the doctor today and they are going to run B-12, Vit D, and arthritis panels on me this week. I asked about a medicine to help with fatigue, and the PA didn't know of any. Sherrine, I'm going to check out that malic acid/magnesium supplement. Thanks for sharing that.