Anyone taking time off work to get better? Leave of absence

Just wondering if anyone has been 'forced' to take time off because you can't function normally at work.
I suffer from Sleep Apnea...my thyroid is off (hypo) and I'm depressed and on anti-depressants.

any advice?

I was lucky that working/daycare issues were not working out for my family and I was able to quit my job and be a stay at home mom last July. I was diagnosed with OSA in January and have been using CPAP ever since.

I don't know how these other people do it working and trying to feel better...I guess I'm just lucky my situation was like it was..

I'd take some time off if you can...

Good Luck

Heidi

I'm a teacher -- so I get the next 8-10 weeks off and yes, I focus on getting better. In fact, I also set aside at least one weekend a month during the school year, to concentrate on sleeping.

Unfortunately, the stress often makes the effort futile. And it's NOT the kids.

I ended up off on short term disability for 12 weeks at my drs reccomendation, he then sent me back to work even though he still hasn't got me right yet. but at that time he told me to not drive even to get the mail...

I too was on 12 week short term disability two years ago but it did not do anything for me but further screw up my sleep cycle and let me catch up on honey-dos. I'd rather work

I've been taking 1/2 vacation day and working the other 1/2 from home one day a week for a couple of months- even before the Sleep Apnea dx. I was wondering also what others do because it is so hard to drag myself to work. I have the appt. for the CPAP tomorrow.

Laurie

Well, I have been on SSDI since 1997, but I am working part time as a Universal Access Specialist. (My co-worker is a Disability Rights Specialist.) I work every other day, either at the office or at a remote location (we travel a lot, covering four counties here in Wisconsin.) I also do much of my computer work at home, partly because I have a better set-up here.

You might want to ask your employers for an accommodation if you need to keep working. FX, working part days, or alternate days, or being allowed to nap as needed during the day (I have a folding lounge chair in my office... but my fatigue issues are from the polio probably as much or more than the sleeplessness.)

Employers are required to provide accommodations, as long as you can still do the core elements of your job and as long as it is not a financial hardship for the company.

- JB

I tried - and more or less succeeded - in working through the initial adjustment period. I had a flexible boss who let me work as I could - not huge considering I'm pretty much expected to work whenever needed. I may work for a bank, but there's no such thing as "banker's hours" in my world. That's done a pretty good job of taking me down long term, though, and I've just started the second week of a four week leave and am anxiously awaiting the paperwork due to arrive from work today so I can make it official rather than eating vacation time.

Reasons? Well, my sleep seemed to improve dramatically at first but has leveled off, and I'm still tired. Stress levels at work were insane, and I felt little motivation to sacrifice myself on the altar of our merger. The stress has gotten me back into stress eating - which means when I do eat because I'm hungry it's been crap (no time to cook pulling 55-60 hr work weeks), and when I eat because I'm stressed, it's *really* crap. My weight is higher than it's ever been in my life - not a stellar end result to the motivator that got me in for my titration study (aka this will get me my energy back so I can exercise and lose weight). Plus, my blood pressure is high. It has never been high in my life except for a week or so after I started the Pill in college. Despite my obesity, I have always had normal BP - my doctor has often said I'd probably have low BP if my weight normalized. So to have that number cross not just into "borderline" but into "high" within about a two month timeframe? Done.

Of course, stress ball that I am, I'm worried that my work won't approve the leave, and I will either have to eat vacation up completely and not get the full time off work, or take an unpaid leave.

But, I come first, and if it means we lose some money or even that I need to find a different job, so be it. I'm normalizing my sleep schedule (hard to do when I barely had a half hour between arriving home from work and bedtime - I forced myself to stay up to get things done). And, I'm actually thrilled to get more honey do's done - even if I'm the one who made the list. There's a certain sense of control and satisfaction into getting my house into order that I hope will hold on once I get back to work.

Man, I rambled, sorry!

Tina

If your diagnosis is solely OSA and you have your cpap and use it aren't you supposed to be treated (not cured) ? You should be feeling better . Now if you have all sorts of other problems then thats another story but its not OSA. For OSA cpap should be nearly instant relief. Now I'm not mixing those other problems in there remember. Just OSA. So- No disability here. More like enabled by cpap. I'd go nuts anyway sitting at home. The way I see it. If I can be productive at home mowing the lawn or cleaning house or sitting on the PC then I can do my job and I'm stealing from my boss. I'm not talking a day or so when you first get your cpap but any more than a week is overdoing it. IMHO

I'm sure others disagree and everyones circumstances are different . These are my feelings on the matter.

:twis ted:

Yikes, chrisp!!!!!

Hey There,

I hope you get the time you need. The way I look at it, your boss has been stealing from YOU! Too many hours, too much expected, no normality in your schedule. It seems once a bright, talented, successful, hard worker is discovered, you are summarily used and abused to squeeze out every last bit of productivity no matter what the cost to your health.

I've heard from it from others on this forum too: the frustration that relief comes in waves and isn't a steady track. You will no doubt start to improve again as you are obviously committed to making this work!

Hang in there, There!! You deserve a life, peace, and sleep!!!

There wrote: Plus, my blood pressure is high... I have always had normal BP - my doctor has often said I'd probably have low BP if my weight normalized. So to have that number cross not just into "borderline" but into "high" within about a two month timeframe?

Tina,

They recently lowered the borderline number by 10 points, so that may account for the crossover from normal right to high.

tcb0731 wrote:Just wondering if anyone has been 'forced' to take time off because you can't function normally at work.

From your use of the "scare" quotes around 'forced' may I assume your employer has suggested you have some performance issues?

I had reached a point a few years ago, where I would uncontrollably fall asleep at inappropriate times - in meetings (while conducting the meeting!); actually fell asleep while conducting a job interview once; scared myself silly a few times while driving; etc., etc. Really a Narcoleptic kind of condition. Also had no energy or ambition to get anything done, and on and on and on...

I have several other health issues: AFib (pacemaker implanted 5 years ago); COPD; Congestive Heart Failure; Sudden Onset Profound Hearing Loss causing lots of equilibrium problems; blah; blah; blah. Lots of issues in addition to OSA, which was finally the diagnosis, not Narcolepsy.

My employer & I finally 'agreed' (note the same "scare" quotes around 'agreed') that I just wasn't cutting it & it was time to leave. Not a leave of absence, just leave. Thankfully they gave me a pretty generous separation package & I had a couple of private disability policies, so was ok financially while hassling over disability with Social Security (could be the subject of another post, a really long one, but I'll try to refrain from ranting here). They (SSD) finally ruled in my favor a couple of months ago, retroactive to my original filing date, and I'll qualify for SS age-wise in a few months anyway.

Bottom line is, if I'd been foresighted enough, I may have been better to try to take a leave before my situation reached the point it did - hind-sight's always 20/20 - but depending on the length of the leave, I probably wouldn't have had the benefit of the disability policies, so I don't know. The HR people with the company I was with were so totally focused on representing the company, don't know that they would've been a source of objective advice. At any rate, I probably should've been turning to someone, or several someones, for advice before finally 'agreeing' to just leave with the finality I did. Turns out, my primary care physician has been my best source of both advice & support, so much so that we've become pretty good friends.

Rol

I struggled through work for 2 1/2 years before being diagnosed and treated. The first year and a half weren't too bad.....I'd wake up tired, have a cup of coffee, a shower, get dressed and head off to work. I was able to kinda-sorta catch up on rest on the weekends by sleeping way late or during the week by going to bed really early.

Sometimes I travel for up to a week at a time and have to drive an hour or so morning and evening to get to and from the job site. I was tired pretty much all the time, but my performance was still up to snuff. The last year or so, I noticed a steady decline, but was fortunate enough to be able to do my job in a satisfactory manner. Of course, after starting on my APAP almost 4 months ago, I began seeing just how lacking my performance had been. I went in and apologized to my boss, but he said there hadn't been a problem with my performance. *shrug* I guess we are harder on ourselves than others are..or we just notice things like our own lack of peak performance more than others do.

Anyway, I am part of a team that contracts to the U.S. Department of Energy. We have gotten 6 Outstanding ratings in a row on our semi-annual performance reviews. No DOE contractor has even come close to that, that we are aware of. What can I say, we are all a bunch of over-achievers and Type A personalities such that when I suffered from OSA, it wasn't really noticable....to anyone except myself, that is! But, looking back, I can see mistakes made, errors of judgement, just plain failing to catch some things because I was exhausted all the time. Now? Well, let's just say things are back to where they should be.

This therapy WORKS!

Wow, there are sure some tough employers out there, makes me realise how fortunate I am to have such a supportive employer. Once the GP suspected OSA and referred me to the sleep specialist, the Occupational Health Manager at work told me to stay at home until the diagnosis was confirmed, treatment had started and was taking effect. I guess it helped that she is a qualified nurse and seemed to know more about OSA than the GP!
Once I started to feel better, I was encouraged to work part time until I felt fully recovered. I ended up having 5 months off (mostly spent on the NHS waiting list ), then a month part time, all on full pay.
Sorry if that makes some of you spit, but there are decent employers around

That does it, littlebaddow, I'm heading back to the motherland!

Thanks everyone for the support

Tina