hi everyone, Ninja and Jo, hope things get a bit better soon - shingles - not good! Ninja is it chemo thats wiping the floor with you?
Saw Occ Health doc yesterday - hour and a half discussion - he’s writing to my manager saying it’ll be months rather than weeks before I can work again, while we find out what it is, but he hopes I will be able to go back. I didn’t mention retirement as I haven’t got a dx at this point and it seems a bit previous, but seeing GP next week and will talk to him. Occ H doc suggested if its due to AI’s I may want to stop taking them and I told him that is not going to happen. See Onc in a couple of months, will get their support if I can. Feeling much more positive, but now I need to sort out sick pay in the meantime. Think I’ll be skint but feel better in the short term - good practice! Does anyone know, if you are on sick leave can you apply for anything else? I haven’t got a clue!!
Hi Ninja
so sorry its a struggle - it was bad enough with wbc bottoming out for someone who was healthy (well, I thought i was!)to start with. It must be very difficult. Its 6 months, but you know, it does pass. I did like your hypnotherapy mantra on another thread - you’ll have to pass them on after every session, we’ll all be at it!
I hope that the chemo is manageable, from your pic, this wasn’t your first chemo, I hope you’re nearly through it
take care
mon
Daisyleaf, when I was on the sick I got full pay for the first 6 months and couldnt claim any benefits, but when i went on to half pay I was able to claim ESA - Employment support allowance. The benefit advisor at Mcmillan will be able to advise, or go onto google and look at the criterea for claiming ESA. All I had to do was phone them and they filled the necessary form in over the phone.
xxxx
If the reason why you permanently aren’t capable of doing your job any more is due to your illness, you should have there the grounds you need for an IHR claim? Have you tried or thought about whether you would want to be redeployed to a different role?
Think you should probably be talking to your union about this.
So, so sad to see so, so many NHS girls here, what have we been doing to our lovely national elves that so many of them get BC while still at working age, (and for the nurses midwives etc remember that’s under 55 not 60 or 65…) something’s not right here.
Without knowing your circumstances, but If you have occy-health on your side, I think you would succeed. They write most of the form and then it goes for back-up info from your specialists. You don’t have to be incapable of working at all, just of not doing your own job. So eg. if you work up a ladder but develop vertigo, or drive for a living but develop daytime epilepsy or damaged vision, or you are a phone counsellor and get problems with speech or deafness. You don’t have to be unable to work in an office or answer a phone unless that’s what you are paid to do now. If your job needs prolonged concentration then chemo-brain would spike you; if you have to lift heavy stores then lymphoedema or multiple hernias would be the issue. If your legs get all twitchy because of AI’s then a job that needed you to sit still for three hours might be out. This gets complicated if they redeploy you to a different job, and there are workplace modifications they have to make as far as is reasonably practicable (since cancer counts as a disability) depending what’s reasonable, i’m assuming you already looked at that.
You do need to have become permanently incapable, so the worst case scenario is a condition that could improve in two or three years, long enough to lose your job but not permanent enough to get retirement. Then, stage 4 girls would say that is not the worst case at all!! I in early stage should worry about the longer term?? I am fortunate I have a future to worry about!
But psychological distress can count as well as restrictions on lifting or concentration, so good luck.
hello there
Loupylou, its so hard even thinking about it, isn’t it? i love it but its so very stressful, and thats unrelenting
Hymil, you are so right about the NHS, there are so many of us! what do you do /did you do in it?
i saw my bcn, had a really good conversation with her. she has referred me to the psychologist again to deal with the anxiety i have about work and the guilt about wanting to leave, but has also made an appt for me to see my consultant for a referral to a neurologist. i’ve known her - bcn - for years and she can see the difference in me, and thinks neurology is the way to go. not just the cognitive losses but the spaceyness and the feeling of not quite being there.
i feel as though its moving along, at least.
Daisyleaf, sorry nobody replied about applying for other jobs while off sick: Yes, you can. Maybe talk to occy health and/or your GP first and see what they would support. It does show you are being pro-active and trying to solve your own problems, and if internal redeploymnent is an option, you still have to do the applications. Or if you decided to quit you would probably be looking for something else. Possibly, now for “something completely different” LOL! It’s much more positive to focus on what you would like to do than ruminate and worry about the job you can’t face going back to.
Hymil, you are so right! i think my psychological probs are fairly deep (I’m one of those people who put on a good show and internalise everything) and related to what i feel that i do/don’t deserve. i tie myself in knots with guilt.
looking forward is so much healthier and i’ve actually started dreaming about a good little part time job in the vol sector - paid or unpaid, get a lot from being useful.
thanks again, for your thoughtful and positive responses, they are so helpful
mon xxx
Hymil: “so sad to see so, so many NHS girls here, what have we been doing to our lovely national elves that so many of them get BC while still at working age”
Nearly everyone gets BC while still at working age! So many, many ladies on these BCC forums have small children.
But virtually only NHS and Teachers etc are discussing about getting early retirement via Occy Health on this thread.
This is because for those of us privately employed, it ain’t gonna happen. No retirement at 55 either; we’re stuck until 68.
I work within (but not for) the NHS; I don’t get better pay rates than you and I get worse holidays than NHS
Agreed Ninja and Yes i really feel for the ladies with small children. I met two at my one-stop diagnostic clinic and wondered, if they have to bring the toddlers to x-ray, nobody to leave them with, how will they ever manage after surgery?
I suppose teachers and healthcare workers have traditionally made up a good fraction of the female workforce in the now-a-bit-older group, those you might expect to be getting BC; it makes sense for them to predominante here especially if they are essentially rule-keepers who are up against a large organisation and they are wanting to find out what the rules of engagement are for their new situation… I was wondering more about personality types and work related stress, or maybe all the injections they have to have for certain jobs, that you wouldn’t need for working in a supermarket for instance, another predominantly female employer. Where are all the civil servants, librarians and social workers, the police-ladies and pub landladies, do they not get BC too? Or is it that they are able to keep working with/after BC, or retire more easily and feel less conflict about it? I’m just puzzled.
Maybe they just don’t mention what they do? I use a pseudonym and am not recognisable by my pic as I like to stay anonymous. Especially since I started a thread about my unsympathetic employer!
I didn’t have any family ('cept my kids and a disabled mother who was dependent and couldn’t have the kids) and my horrible ex was NO help and all my other friends worked full time. So when I was ill (& breast surgery) back then when they were 5 and 2, I just HAD to manage the kids. A neighbour took the older one to school for me but otherwise that was it apart from the local church praying for me.
The kids have grown up to be very caring cos they’d seen how I/we had to look after Gran all the time.
BTW, I don’t mean that NHS/teachers predominate in the forum as a whole, just in a thread about early retirement - cos it’s not an option unless you have a very big (national) organisation and a good pension scheme.
“Or is it that they are able to keep working with/after BC” - maybe there is no option but to soldier on if there is a mortgage to pay, kids to pay for; bills to pay and retirement is not an option? I have a mortgage for the next 3 years and I will have to go back to work after this. If I was still working for “the national employer” I wouldn’t be!
hello
Ninja, i completely take on board what you are saying about respective pension arrangements, and i know that we are all in different positions and i’m not going to get into any discussion about that, as the point of this thread is me asking for advice about my position and discussion leading from that.
wondering how people are getting on
mon x
hi
everyones situation is different and ther isnt a right or wrong inthis . there are advantages to working in a public sector area and in the private -I have worked in both
the nhs does have rigerous criteria and if you declare that you are unable to fulfil your role due to illness this will have to be supported by OCC Health and subsequently HR
after this point most people are put a redeployment register where they get preferance for posts which meet their new criteria
they are then in for interview and hopefully get the job
if not after 8 weeks termination of employment happens
unless you are at later stages bc I feel unlikely to get retirement on ill heallth and whilst your employer may support it it isnt their decision ultimately
You may be better off looking for a lighter role eg outpatients with reduced hours .Occ health and HR can support you with this as you come under the equality act [previously DDA] or you may wish to return to work under phased return and temporarily reduce your hours whilst you settle back and work out what you want.
as far as BC in public sector -we are a female dominated work force so this would increase our chances ,stressful occupations and lifestyle issues eg dietry and nightshifts
hi
i was in that position a year ago, and went back on a phased return. i didn’t get further than 3 days because of the cognitive losses that began with chemo and have hung about. i do think its helpful, if a bit distressing, to know for sure that i’m not capable of doing what i’ve been doing, or, at present, much at all!
i hope your return goes well and you can work out how it works for you. i’ll be thinking about you - will you keep in touch about how you get on
take care
mon xx
Just for info I was a civil servant! There were several of us at work going through the same treatment at the same time and we were just the latest of many.
I think the difference may be that as civil servants (and many other jobs) we don’t work there as a vocation just a job. It then makes it much easier to walk away from. Many workers in the medical and teaching fields (again not solely these)are drawn there as a vocation hence finding it harder to go.
