Jools, as long as you have a supportive GP and manager. I am thinking of going back in a week or so, phased return and then shorter shifts, No nights for me at the moment . xx
Hi, I still think us NHS Workers should have our own forum here!! There are a lot of us out there! I was diagnosed last November with RRMS, on Copaxone and am a Paediatric Nurse. Have a wonderful Manager and told ‘Health and Wellbeing’ as then it goes down in my file that I have it! No nights and doing more tutoring to pass on my skills (17 years of it!) than actual shifts so things working out ok for the time being.
Good luck Mo-Jo with Occy Health tomorrow and with the Avonex, let us know how you get on!
I’m seeing my MS nurse later this month to start me on Copaxone. I do have a great GP and medical team behind me, and like you I’m planning to go back, when I do go back still on sick leave at the mo, to return on a phased return basis then doing shorter days also I think.
XX
Hi guys, all went well with Occ Health, I went to see an Occupational therapist today, she is part of the MS MDT, she was talking to me about fatigue and how to manage it better, every little helps. I also got a letter today from the clinic and I have to start the meds on the 24th. I dont know wether to go back to work first before I start treatment.
I have to see the GP on tues.
xx
Hi,
Your Occy health nurse seemed very understanding, great!
I haven’t started my DMDs yet, still waiting to meet with my MS nurse later this month to discuss and arrange, but I certainly wasn’t planning to return to work till I had started my new meds to make sure I’d settled with them without problems, so as not to risk a possible second episode of sickness, as is frowned upon in the NHS!
X
I think what Jools said makes sense I remained off until I had started and settled on treatment. I didnt want to go back and then have to off again but I am well settled on avonex now and back at work. Things are looking better and they well for you too.
Missy xx
Thanks for the support, i will suggest same to GP on tues, Its all so real now. I sometimes think its all a dream and that i will wake up and it wont be real.
I am not having the best of days today, my 16 year old daughter is not helping matters. 
xx
I didn’t feel any different starting avonax. Some people have flu like symptoms. I had a month off work when I was diagnosed 7 years ago. I think its the scary thing of putting your faith in your body that has let you down and doctors who lets face it we as nurses have had varying experience with doctors. I think once I trusted my body not to let me down and had a good relationship with my neuro helped by my fab neuro nurse things started looking up for me. The DMDs do work and I have been on them since the start.
I am the sort of person who just needs to get on with it and that works for me but everyone deals differently. Good luck and good health.
laura xxxx
The whole MS thing is a lot to get your head around, however it is it affects you.
I’m newish to it all, just over a year diagnosed and have swung and still swing totally in and out of levels of acceptance.
One thing I have learnt is that I need to listen to my body and not try to ignore or “fight” my MS, but instead run with it and work with it to my own benefit.
It’s a huge learning curve and when reading the posts here from our lovely fellow MSers, it’s a lifelong learning curve, with each day different from the next!!!
Hope your doing better today mo-jo.
Take care
X
Hi, well the doc has given me a line until the begiunning of Sept as she wants to see how I react to the new meds.
roll on next friday. xx
I think that is a good idea. I hope that it all goes well for you and it should do. I am waiting for occupational health doctor to ring me to make sure I am OK back at work. I think I will have to tell him the truth that I am fine and doing OK physically but still struggling a bit with the emotional aspect of things. I think I am only starting to accept the diagnosis now, even though I thought I was doing so well. So take your time with returning and ease yourself gently because there will always be someone to upset you. Eg. I was asked yesterday when I was coming back to work “properly” by one of my colleagues who is fully aware of diagnosis.
Take care and be good to yourself
Missy
I’m going back to work after over a year off (not all MS related, some of it was mat leave), I am already worrying about how I am going to cope. I’m finally doing better physically but I still require naps in the day, my legs get wobbly after any distance, but I have to go back to prove that I can not do it otherwise I won’t get my NHS pension. Before I get to that point I still have to move house.
I had to get my mother to come and get the kids, so that I can rest today, cant wait till they go back to school next week. My house is up for sale and has been for a while, pretty stressful stuff, which does not help. I havnt been qualified for that long so not much of a pension for me, so i am just going to try my best when I go back.
Hope you are ok. xx
Hiya Mo-jo
I remember it was a shock for me too but I told my boss and with the help of the professionals, especially my MS Nurse, and all the brilliant people on this site I managed to get my head round the diagnosis and learn how to live with the MS as best I could.
I take each day as it comes as, as I am sure you have found, no two days are the same. The best bit of advice I got from Occ Health in the NHS where I work is don’t do too much on the good days as it will worsen your symptoms for a couple of days. This has been true and I pace myself at work as best I can. Tiredness is a massive part of the illness for me. Like a lot of us. Also, stress plays a massive part too.
Take care and remember we are all here to listen whenever you need us.
Shazzie xx
I’ve discussed what I can do, and it means giving up all the procedures that I used to do, the meet and greet part of my job as there is too much walking involved, so I am pretty much left to do assessments and man the phones. Although go knows how i am going to go about manouevering those pathetic hospital patient coin operated wheelchairs, that weigh ten tonne without the patient in them and have the turning circle of a large ocean going liner. They are hard enough to get into our examination rooms at the best of times. But even having people here or going to toddler group the talking wears me out too, so not totally sure thats going to work. I’ve got 15 years of pension behind me so its probably worth doing. But HR have suggested I just take ill health dismissal pay off, and then spend 6 months and they will reemploy me.
Our house has yet to sell but I can’t face being on my own for days on end in the middle of nowhere while my husband is working, at least when we move I will have a support network around me and will be close enough to walk the kids to school, (actually they are old enough to walk themselves there now), I’m having trouble making people understand its one thing or another (I could probably work if I didn’t have to do anything else, but I have 3 sometimes 4 children to look after and my husband works 12 hour shifts and at the minute when he is on shift he stays at work rather than coming home as its not really a commutable distance on a 12 hour day). Hey ho, perhaps I have to get assertive but I usually just end up crying!
Hey guys good to know I am not alone, thanks for all the support, dont think the average Joe has a clue about MS and trying to explain to them is also hard, because they look at you and think, that you must be talking about someone else. Its hard enough trying to tell the people that love you, but my guess is they dont really understand. I find that I am a hell of a lot more emotioal than ever, crying at the drop of a hat, I suppose this is to be expected.
I work in elderly rehab, so the work is heavy physically and mentally. But at least when i go back , the shorter shifts should help.
xxx
P.S I have a new puppy, he is a star, I call it pet therapy. xx
I stopped the humping and dumping side of things soon after I was diagnosed, I was working in a hospice at the time.
Thinking about shorter shifts, please factor in travelling time as well, as some days the travelling is almost as exhausting as the working, especially when trying to park etc.
Although a shame with so many NHS workers on this forum, it is good to see how many names appear here who all work in the same line of work!
Hi, mo-jo500 - pet therapy sounds good (although cleaning up after them ‘may be’ a trial?). I’m sitting at home typing on the computer - I have read all of the messages and I have ‘just forgotten what I was going to type?’
Time to relax, I’ve only got one life (and the ‘MS’ - whatever it is - is not going to dictate how I spend my time! - you may think that psychologically that, that is the right idea - or maybe not?) - It doesn’t matter, that relaxation sounds good!
Best,
Marcus.