News:

Welcome Back to the MenWithFibro Forums
It does not matter the name, We all have the same symptoms.
We are THE ORIGINAL
"MenWithFibro"

Main Menu

ShoutBox! For quick short shout outs to other members. For introductions, questions or comments please post in the proper sections of the forum.

2023 Nov 18 19:10:11
ronr: Sorry folks but we have to move again.  Finances is the major reason and but the new hosting service is kicking back tons of errors and things just aren't work well!  I cleaned out the shoutbox just so that the changes messages will stand out better!

2023 Nov 18 19:06:32
ronr: Facebook does not allow nearly the amount of privacy and they search for people and groups thatdon't follow their guidelines.

2023 Nov 13 19:25:44
ronr: This link is an invitation for those that would like to follow us! https://discord.gg/WYfQM3TW

2023 Nov 13 19:25:04
ronr: Discord is new to most of us but there is a GREAT DEAL of privacy there.  You need to be invited to even see our page.  Download of the app is easy and there are plenty of directions

How to know it's time to go

Started by unknown, June 08, 2016, 11:47:19 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

unknown

How do you know when it's time to give up the job?

I have been dealing with FM for a number of years, but have managed to remain gainfully employed through drugs that helped me concentrate.  Working as an engineer, the fog is more of a problem than the pain.  I've been dealing with the pain for 30 years, but the severe fog for only the last 6 or 7.

It has become more and more difficult to concentrate in the afternoon, and the drugs have quit working.  We've tried everything we can think of, but nothing helps anymore.  I've gone from getting foggy for an hour or so around 4:00 p.m., to foggy for a couple hours around 2 - 2:30, to now beginning to hit around noon and last most of the remainder of the day.

As someone who has always worked, I'm too stubborn to give up easily (I was told 6 years ago I would be eligible for disability), and am not yet ready to become useless.

Does anyone know how to combat the fog, preferably without additional drugs?

Physically, too "unwell" for manual labor, and now too mentally "unwell" to concentrate on my desk job, I'm not quite sure what I should do.

db

#1
Good question.  I think your lucky if you get the choice.  ;)

I can not do most physical work, even a little can be very hard.  It's been tough to figure out what is safe to do.  

I would say, if you can adjust the work until you feel it is sustainable, then you should continue as long as you can.  I don't think most jobs let you make these decisions though.  :emowall:

I plan to opt out for retirement at the earliest point I can get my pension.  I probably could have gone on disability but I think trying to be useful has provided me allot of benefits.  A major one has been funding a flexible medical spending account which I have used to get extensive acupuncture.  It seems to have helped me the most.

If I was in most other jobs, I don't think I would have lasted the 15+ years like I have.  Just call me lucky.  True, but not what most people would think of as luck.  :blowup:

db

Barberian

Would you be able to work part time with the understanding you may need flexibility in time to call it quits for any given day?

I am not an engineer, but it is a field that has kept my interests for most of my life. A simple mistake on a critical piece/part/section can be the dif of life and death.

Safety has always been a key factor in anything I do. I quit my last job because I couldn't regulate my blood sugars within limits - commercial over the road truck driver, 18 wheeler. I could have gotten around the rules as many drivers do, but couldn't take the risk of wrecking becase of my blood sugars.


foxgrove

Quote from: db on June 08, 2016, 12:59:57 PM
Good question.  I think your lucky if you get the choice.  ;)

DB makes an excellent point.  If you get the chance to make that decision for yourself, you are indeed in the minority.  I was very blessed to have been able to be employed even while my performance was degrading at an unsustainable rate.  For me, the fog and associated memory / concentration problems were practically the only thing that ended my career.  We had been dealing with the chemical sensitivity (MCS) through working from home and making that a chemically clean area.  The fibro has increased my pain and decreased my mobility but it wasn't until my head shut down that my performance tanked.

When to pull that plug... that's going to be a personal choice.  Some of it will depend on whether your medical support team is all in supportive of you going on disability, some of it will depend on if your work is willing to continue to allow you to do your job, some of it will depend on how you are feeling, not in an instant but over a period of time.  With that in mind, I'd say that it would be an excellent idea to keep a daily / event based journal that focuses on what happens when and what you are able to accomplish.  If reading that over a week or so doesn't tell you, nothing will.  Read it as critically as you can, as if you were evaluating the performance of someone under you.  Would YOU hire you to do your job?

Keeping you in my thoughts brother.  I know how hard that decision is... I remember having the choice and then having that taken out of my hands and the company insisting that it was time.  Not sure which is better but I knew at that point, there was nowhere else to turn.  :budy:
Where God leads, His hand always provides
...so keep Calm and code on....

Foxgrove

countryboy

Would you be able to work an 8 to 2 job?  Talk to your employer and see what they think is reasonable or even feasible.
You never know until you try.  The needle therapy has helped some.  :emowall:
IT IS BETTER TO BE CONSIDERED A FOOL, THAN TO
OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND REMOVE ALL DOUBT.   But
UNFORTUNTELY MOST PEOPLE REFUSE TO LEAVE ANY DOUBT.  -unknown-

ANY FOOL CAN CRITICIZE, CONDEM AND COMPLAIN --
AND MOST FOOLS DO.   'Benjamin Franklin'

Lonesome George

QuoteHow to know it's time to go

When I saw the title, and before I read the post, I thought you meant going to the "other side", lol.

I kept doing less and less, until I couldn't do anymore. The majority of the time I have had this I worked for myself. The only times I worked for someone else was to do something easier and less stressful.

My mistake was trying to work for too long. I didn't earn enough in the latter years to have had much of a disability check, had I been approved.  I also earned so little the last few years that I am unable to refile, since the last two or so years my earnings were under what the government considers gainfully employed.

Another mistake by waiting too long was I missed out on the easier years of getting disability from around 2008-2011.  By the time my case came to trial the big crack down was in full effect.  New hard nose judges were being put in place, plus there are now regional review offices that review, and often over rule a judges decision, if found in your favor.  I don't personally know of anyone with fibro, or not on deaths door, that has gotten disability in the past few years.

denny

Your mood can get very bad when your working and its so difficult to tell when your trying to pass.
In short,once you become an asshole its time to quit. :biggrin:
I KNEW IT WAS THE ALIENS!



"FREE ME FROM EXISTANCE"
It is what it is...

denny

I KNEW IT WAS THE ALIENS!



"FREE ME FROM EXISTANCE"
It is what it is...

unknown

Still employed, but down to 30 hrs. per week.  Company recently got purchased and I'm being "nudged" towards retirement by the new owners.  Doctors have already told me my next "downturn" will put me out of work whether I'm ready or not.  Looking into disability, but that doesn't look like any type of quick answer to sudden loss of income.  So far, I'm hanging in there, but some days don't trust myself too much.  I know it's time to go, but still not ready to be useless.

foxgrove

Welcome home Texas!!  Glad to see you've hung in there and gained another year of work.  It would suck to end up in another downturn but there's not much we can do to change the future but keep moving forward as best we can.  You're right to start looking into disability and no, it really isn't a fast fix at all!  Get your application in as soon as you can so you can start the process and get your docs on board with it.  It's a long long road with no fast ending in sight so there's no sense delaying it too long. :budy:

Keepin you in my prayers.  :bighug:
Where God leads, His hand always provides
...so keep Calm and code on....

Foxgrove

db

#10
I have had a bad month recently which makes me wonder how much longer I can function.  My muscle pain just seemed to amplify and a recent shoulder issue made it hard to do much.  :emowall:  Then I started to get a head cold which I suspected was the cause of my current predicament.   old-man/cane  I had a similar thing a couple years ago and I thought I was having a stoke or something.  The ER concluded it was trigger points in my jaw region.  It lasted a while and I was even more miserable than usual.   : :( :

In hindsight it seems to fit with what caused my problem in the first place.  Some sort of immunology thing that affect the muscles seems like the best way to understand it.  Any virus cold just seems to aggravate my chronic myofascial pain.  

Still, the doctor don't really know what to do other than write me notes for work.  At least he does that.   :biggrin:

db

ronr

unknown -- get that disability application started ASAP !!!!  The clock for payment starts when the application is filed.  It takes quite some time to fill it out well and requires that you get help from others to remind you of things you automatically do to compensate for in those "activities of daily living" because you have become so accustomed to doing them to get things done. 

Can send links for SS.gov and helpful sites for filing if you want.




others -- Been fighting upper respiratory issues since Thanksgiving setting off trigger point everywhere it seems.
Times are tough when "Happy Hour" is your nap.
My mind not only wanders, sometimes it leaves completely!

wmoore

My mouth got the best of me, Yup a--hole! When I had to quit working and file for disability , I was told that you needed to be unemployed for over a year before they would consider an approval . As far as brain fog and working...good luck guys, my poor brain feels baked for most of the time and I really struggle to find the words I want. It makes me feel down right stupid . Weather is also a factor in pain and brain non function. Changes in the weather are the worst. Why can't it stay sunny?

db

I'm lucky but even in SoCAL I need the sun to stay outdoors.   :emobadmod:

db

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk