Here's hoping... (medical/work stuff) - insight on ADA accomodations appreciated
Sent to my awesome manager, my team leads, our director, and our HR rep:
Question about work-at-home possibilities
Ken,
I know we've talked about it before as something that might be worth exploring with the Clinic, and given how the past week has gone, I'd really like a chance to explore it if we could. What would be involved in finding out if we could make that possible at least intermittently? I'm not sure what the process is in regards to ADA accomodations, but I believe that's what I'm asking for. As you saw from the mess Friday, dealing with stress _about_ my medical care and FMLA coverage can bring on symptoms horrifyingly fast (to be frank, I was peeing blood by the end of the evening, and so incoherently manic I could not function for simple decisions and had to be cared for by my housemates and partner), and I'm starting to find fears about overrunning my FMLA time to be preying on my mind pretty constantly.
This week I'm having serious issues with:
Interstitial Cystitis
Mania
All-over fibro pain, with some actual impairment of my joints as well
Adjusting to a new med with so-far unknown side-effects
That's out of a full list that includes:
Fibromyalgia (fatigue, severe body pain, sometimes disabling joint pain) (diagnosed, 17 years)
Bipolar II, rapid cycling with mixed states (diagnosed, 19 years)
Migraine (diagnosed, 10 years)
Interstitial Cystitis (diagnosed, 12 years)
IBS (diagnosed, 5 years)
and a number of other rarer or less relevant issues that don't generally affect employment: plantar fasciitis, TMJ, idiopathic urticaria, vulvodynia.
Yes, I realize this is an obscene list. It's likely all are related to whatever underlying autoimmune issue causes the fibromyalgia, if that helps to understand (I often short-hand describe it as my body "overreacting to everything, in every system" or "being allergic to both physical and psychological stress")
Some pretty good reliable explanation here: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/329838-overview
Question about work-at-home possibilities
Ken,
I know we've talked about it before as something that might be worth exploring with the Clinic, and given how the past week has gone, I'd really like a chance to explore it if we could. What would be involved in finding out if we could make that possible at least intermittently? I'm not sure what the process is in regards to ADA accomodations, but I believe that's what I'm asking for. As you saw from the mess Friday, dealing with stress _about_ my medical care and FMLA coverage can bring on symptoms horrifyingly fast (to be frank, I was peeing blood by the end of the evening, and so incoherently manic I could not function for simple decisions and had to be cared for by my housemates and partner), and I'm starting to find fears about overrunning my FMLA time to be preying on my mind pretty constantly.
This week I'm having serious issues with:
Interstitial Cystitis
Mania
All-over fibro pain, with some actual impairment of my joints as well
Adjusting to a new med with so-far unknown side-effects
That's out of a full list that includes:
Fibromyalgia (fatigue, severe body pain, sometimes disabling joint pain) (diagnosed, 17 years)
Bipolar II, rapid cycling with mixed states (diagnosed, 19 years)
Migraine (diagnosed, 10 years)
Interstitial Cystitis (diagnosed, 12 years)
IBS (diagnosed, 5 years)
and a number of other rarer or less relevant issues that don't generally affect employment: plantar fasciitis, TMJ, idiopathic urticaria, vulvodynia.
Yes, I realize this is an obscene list. It's likely all are related to whatever underlying autoimmune issue causes the fibromyalgia, if that helps to understand (I often short-hand describe it as my body "overreacting to everything, in every system" or "being allergic to both physical and psychological stress")
Some pretty good reliable explanation here: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/329838-overview