Do you think that chronic illness is affecting how you work?

I get a lot of email from people asking for “help” and, unfortunately, most of it is in areas I have little knowledge. But this one was different. What DJ shared was so spot on and it felt so good to know that she could see some improvement in her situation. With her permission (of course) I’m sharing this.

Rosalind – sorry that I’ve been so long responding to you. The good news is that I’m still working. Both my employer and my management are being quite generous in working with me; I’m hoping that they can also understand that the changes that I’m attempting won’t come over night.

The psychologist who did a management referred evaluation (which showed areas of cognitive decrease relative to norms and my other ‘scores’) is working with me to develop strategies to address my distractability, decreased concentration and longer learning curve. I’m employing everything from meditation, to color coding to turning off my instant messaging and my phone. My description of how I was feeling was “I haven’t lost my intellect, just my alacrity.”

I appreciate your support – I reached out as the world was ‘spinning’ and you responded immediately and so kindly. The good news is my direction is still ‘forward’. My days are a bit busy; not only is there work and home and cognitive coaching and psychotherapy, but I dislocated my knee (another on-going issue – just one of life’s little adventures) so I have PT twice a week (and exercises on my own the other days. The really good news is that (while no one was listening when I said it) I now have two confirmed diagnoses of NOT DEPRESSED.

I’ve only recently come to terms with the idea that the fatigue that has dogged me for the past four years is not a factor of moral imperfection (i.e. something I was sure that I could control if I were just sterner w/myself) but an actual disease symptom. I finally expressed to my neurologist just how debilitating it was, and the second medication we tried is making a significant difference. We may still have to work with the dosage a bit, but I’m a human being again.

I have looked at the DEMOS catalog before and the book you’ve suggested, MS: Understanding the Cognitive Challenges, looks really good.

I fully embrace the philosophy that it is my responsibility to be one of the best informed people on my team, so I do see some excellent reading material in my future. I’d like to share a link with you if I may at healthtalk.com. I found this transcript to be quite interesting and I’ve shared it w/my psychologist and the site nurse here at work. I may be sharing with my management in the near future.

Thanks again for your time – your support really means a great deal to me.

DJ Bounds