i know not everybody works here and i do remember that im one of the lucky ones. Every time i go the hospital, be it for a team talk with the neuro/ms nurse,blood test or mri i see people strugglin by me, people in wheelchairs. It doesnt scare me coz i just dont think about it.
Does anybody go to work and hide this disease?
I go to work everyday and i have a laugh with people and i try not think about it, best part about havin a job isnt the cash, its the fact that at regular points i dont think about MS. More and more though it likes to remind me, like when im walking into the yard in the mornin dodgin pot holes and the dizzies are on full blast, or when im trying to line my screwdrivers up with somethin using 2 hands to steady and you finally get a couple turns and your knackered but you keep goin, or when you have to wear a head torch because your eyes are damaged and you need all the light you can get to make out the microscopic wiring diagrams. Then you hear people make an off the cuff joke like "he’s a bit slow eh? and i just laugh and tell them to F**k off in a nonchalant way whilst remembering a time not too long ago when i was a third year apprentice and i was actually really good at my job. Back then i did have the luxury of a fully operational undamaged brain though.
These are the things that if you think about them for too long can spoil your day.
Apologies for an absolute horror of a message but most of my time is spent not thinking about these things and sometimes it just seeps through, like when youve had a bad run of days, hopefully i can use this venom to scrape me out of what i would call a losing streak
Hi Raymond, I am in a similar space as yourself in that I am working through life with MS. I have tried to hide it though if someone asks me, I am pretty open about it. I am a wee bit of a slave to my job in that I love it and that it is not physical job. It is never easy and I am struggling to use my stick at work though use it everywhere else in my life. I work in a day service for adults with disabilities by the way.
Try find a balance and always remember to look after yourself as no one else will. Do your bosses know about your condition and do they make adjustments for your changing needs?
Anyway, go easy on yourself and take care
Willie
yeah its a pain in the ar*e but i dont want to let anybody know about it coz i dont want people to treat me different. Only the head of HR knows about it, to my kowledge none of the bosses know.
Ive been living through another spell of symptoms hoping that i can recover and put it behind me but its hard work.
I mean what am i supposed to do, take 2 months off? Dont see that working out.
My last scan shows no futher damage and even an improvement in the brain department but the symptoms are still there, on off every few months. Goin on copaxone in january.
hi raymond
you sound like you’re about 25 and an electrician.
my son is 25 and a sparkie too.
oh dear, i’m feeling all maternal towards you and you could be my age! (sorry)
good luck with copaxone. i’ve been on it for 4 years and it seems to be working.
no major relapses, just a minor one caused by UTIs
stay strong
carole x
Greetings
I don’t exactly hide it. I just don’t give it any time because it’s nobody’s business.
I was nodding, reading this. I don’t work any more, but I remember. Yes, it is all kinds of filtered word, no two ways about it. I found it bloody hard (still do, actually) losing skills that I had worked very hard to acquire. I think that all a person can do is what you are doing already, deal with whatever comes along with as good a grace as you can muster, and shrug off the comments from people who don’t know about your MS. A time might come when you feel ready to let more people at work know, but you’ll cross that bridge when you come to it, no doubt. I think we are usually our own best judges of when the time is right to do this or that.
I so agree that being absorbed in work (or anything, really) is about the best way of shutting up those MS thoughts that are never far away. It is a bad feeling when MS is getting harder to ignore, but you have already adapted to an MS dx, which is a pretty big deal in itself - we have all learned in a hard school the importance of being adaptable!
Alison
x
Hi, I`m glad you have found ways to not think about having MS.
Enjoy your work and I hope it continues to be a place where you can forget you have MS.
Happy Christmas,
luv Pollx