Commuting with MS?

I love my job and I don’t want to have to give it up but I am really, struggling greatly with making the commute into work everyday. I worked for 4 years in Uni to get this job, but it is an hour and forty-five minutes (if on time) by train. I have to get up at 5:30AM and am home around 7:00PM. I used to go to the gym and yoga to help ease myself symptoms but since starting my job I haven’t gone to the gym once. I literally just go right to bed, usually too tired even to heat up dinner.

Even without MS, this would be extremely challenging… with MS is almost impossible. I just don’t know what to do. (It’s a job that requires me to be there and I can’t work from home, and my multiple sclerosis being miraculous cured is probably more possible than me ever being able to afford to move to the city).

I just feel like I’m wasting my youth… I’m spending the prime time of my life asleep on a train and it’s causing me a lot of sadness. But I can’t just walk away from this job it’s an incredible opportunity and I love the work, my fatigue just ruins everything. I just feel like I’m going to look back and regret on wasting my youth when I could have been out having fun and making friends and getting fit.

No matter what option I pick I feel I can’t win. :frowning:

Hiya,

I suggest you contact Access to Work: get support if you have a disability or health condition: What Access to Work is - GOV.UK who could organize a taxi to take you to and from. You only pay the equivalent public transport fare.

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m.s. or not a one hour 45 minute commute is going to leave you knacked. I don’t think working part-time would help because you’d spend the days off recovering form the previous day. The obvious suggestion is for you to get a job nearer home. Were you to have to give up your present job would you get some sort of pension from your employer.

Hi You can’t afford to move to the city, but can you move any closer than the long commute you’re having to do now? You say you can’t work from home, are you certain? Maybe you could speak to your occupational health / manager / HR manager about your fatigue levels and your commute? Some people manage to change their work hours so they only work 4 days per week, this could of course make you more fatigued on 4 days but you’d then knock one commute off your week and then have 3 days off? Sue

My job is very specific and for a really good company, literally no opportunities in the city I live in now.

I’m still living with my parents because I can’t afford to pay rent or own a home closer to the city-- I’m kind of out of options I guess with that one.

I’ve mentioned my fatigue levels to my manger before but the people I work with aren’t that understanding with my condition. When ever I mention I’m struggling to cope they just respond by saying, “Oh, I hear you, I’m the exact same.” I’ve told them MS fatigue is different but they don’t understand.

I think the 4 day weeks is probably the best option. Most of the people I work with who have children only take 4 days so maybe they would treat my MS in a similar way? I think if I could afford to live closer it wouldn’t be an issue and I could even take a nap during lunch, but too expensive :frowning:

I had the same experience re ‘tiredness/fatigue.’ Everyone I told about it had experienced the same thing!

I then stopped saying I was tired or fatigued and just said that at times I was unwell/ill. ( the problem with saying this is that the managers may wonder if you are ill/unwell how you can do the job.)

Ditto to what anon said - get in touch with Access to Work. They pay for me to get a taxi to & from the office, which is a huge help.

Dan

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