Hi all
I know I don’t often post but would like some advice if anyone has come across this.
I was diagnosed in 2005 - in a nutshell, partial mast/recon (9 hours op), no clear margins so mastectomy with implat a month later (6 hours), chemo/radio, frozen shoulder in between, 2 years Tamoxifen, changed to Arimidex, then Aromasin as side effects slightly less. Was sacked from job in 2006 (settled)… new job 2007.
I have struggled living with never feeling ‘quite right’ and when I got to the end of the tablet taking in December last year hoped I would gradually get to feel something like 100%.
I work in a doctor’s surgery and I know for the past few years I have had a lot of time off for what I suppose you would call ‘short term minor illness’… for instance, if a stomach bug is doing the rounds, I will get it and be laid up for a couple of days. Ditto a cold… it would lay me flat. I also used to suffer with migraine, though with no obvious trigger other than more likely if I was stressed, and these are happening far more often.
Frankly I have never felt my immune system was back to it’s old self, but was something I tolerated. I also guess that working in a surgery makes me more prone to picking up stuff that the average Joe! I have been hoping that as the meds get out of my system, my sleep will be better along with my appetite etc and I would get to something like I was before. It is very slow…when I finished the tablets in December my Onc said it could take a considerable time to get out of the system.
Anyhow… the upshot is, my boss has asked me for permission to contact my GP for an Occupational Health report because of the amount of sick leave I have had over the last couple of years for relatively minor stuff. It is NOT Occ Health involved, just my ‘employer’. I have no quarrel with the fact it has happened and no wish to refuse consent for them to ask for an opinion but the very nature of the ‘minor illness’ means I have had little or no contact with my GP - you don’t go to see your doc 'cos you have a tummy bug and you can’t get out of bed with a migraine!. So I don’t see what use it would be - in fact if I had any issue I spoke to the Onc.
I have 2 questions… has anyone else been in a similar situation work-wise?
Has as anyone else had a similar situation - to be honest, not so much the work situation, but this general feeling of ‘never feeling right’ andthat the immune system never got back to normal?
It feels wrong moaning about something so trivial, but I would like to know it isn’t me going totally bonkers!
Gosh that was a blooming waffle! xxx
Caz