What do you do if you're told that working will make you sick?

I was blind in one eye and couldn’t lift myself to get out of bed. My neurologist told me that once I had my strength and my vision back, I should go back to work. That was 30 years ago and I’ve followed his advice ever since.

But this is clearly not the message everyone gets. I just got off the phone with a very nice woman who lives outside of Minneapolis. She’d read the article about my work in msnbc.com and she wanted to know what I could do for her – could I could help her work again?

She’d stopped working 7 years ago (not for health reasons) and since then she’s developed severe chronic severe asthma. Now, her situation has changed and she wants to work again – – but her doctor told her {essentially} that she’s nuts. He said that she’ll be sick all the time – catching every cold and virus.

She said she went onto web threads and people with chronic asthma reported that this is true – they’re sick all the time. My heart wanted to tell her to ignore her doctor and these people and go back to work, not to be afraid. My head knew that wouldn’t be helpful to her.

A quick web search led me to some research on this issue. Yup, it looks as if asthma and work can be connected. But does that mean all work — and for everyone? Apparently not.
I don’t think I’m a Pollyanna or naive when I say that this woman has the rest of her life to live and I think that telling her not to work is the wrong message. Come on – will working make her so sick that she shouldn’t do it?

What do you think? Anyone out there have a similar experience?

Rosalind