Hi everyone, I hope you are all well. I am just looking for some advice regarding my return to work. So I was treated for stage 2b cervical cancer with lymph node involvement and got told I was in remission in July. I returned to work after 9 months off sick and have been doing a phased return. I am 3 weeks in to my phased return and I have had to go off sick again for a few days due to an infection. I am worrying that I will get into trouble at work?
My job is a very active job where I am on my feet all day walking around. I feel exhausted every day and have to sleep when I get home all the time. I am also struggling mentally to get back into it after having been off for so long and it’s making me feel depressed and I don’t know what to do?
Has anyone else been like this when they returned to work and ended up going off again?
Hi, I work in HR and please try not to worry about work, I'm sure they will understand. You won't get into trouble not least because you will be covered by the equality act ( apologies if you know this already ) so they have a duty to support you. Perhaps you need some more phased return or light duties. Do you have access to an occupational health nurse? They may help too. Feel free to contact me if you get worried or have any questions xx Sara
I am in a completely different situation as I have only just started my treatment for 2B. Have you been in touch with Macmillan? They have a department of people who give you brlliant advice about returning to work and they make you feel so much better about everything.
When I was diagnosed I was so stressed about having time off, what work would think etc and Macmillan really supported me. They will ask you everything about your employer and give you pointers on what to do in terms of your own personal circumstances.
I was diagnosed in march last year with advanced cancer and I finished treatment in october and returned to work in the January, everyone told me it was too soon but being stubborn I 'felt' ready to go back as I wanted to get back to normal as quickly as possible as I hated what I went through and needed to occupy me. I am a claims handler and my role is very stressful and demanding, i help colleagues with questions and offer help and advice as well as answering calls, emails, dealing with complaints as I am also the complaints champion so any complaints that are logged I over look and feed back what they need to do resolve the complaint and if they have done all they can I take on the complaint and resolve the issue(s) and 'hold the customers hand' through out the claims journey, I am also the suppliers champ so if anyone has an issue with a supplier we use I review the issue and feed the issue back to the supplier, I also do admin work and review costs and work that is needed for a claim and approve or tear it apart and feed it back to them asking why things needed and ask for justification etc.....just to name a few!
I love my job I really do I have a lot on my plate on a daily basis I work from 8am until 5pm - I get to work for 7:30 so u can go through my emails and pick up anything I left for the next day or I review complaints and update everyone involved as to what needs to happen next via email - it is very rare leave the office at 5pm it's usually more 5:30 - I don't get paid for this extra hour im there to my time.....I also come in most Saturday's as overtime working from 7:30 - 2 as I don't have anything else to do on a Saturday....mad I know...
I had to have time off in March due to an infection and a bad back due to the treatment and this then snow balled from there and I felt bad and thought I would be in trouble for having time off for being sick - boy was I wrong everyone especially my manager was understanding when I had to leave work part way through the day they understood - i felt like I was talking the piss but I genuinly was ill! I ended up in hospital in june with a sever infectioj of the bladder and kidneys and had to have a tube put into my right kidney to drain it....
due to this and a lot of sleepless nights I made the very hard decison to give up work - only for a year! My work will take me back as I made sure of this before giving in my notice - I am now awaiting a decison on claiming benefits - i have never claimed before and have worked since I was 14 so I believe I am entitled to a break.
i have early onset kidney failure so my kidneys are being monitored and due to the painkillers I take due to a pain in my groin that no one can tell me what it is I am not 'always with it' as my brain doesn't work like it use to - stress, anxiety and depression also have a hand in this lol!
I am not telling you all this for sympathy but to let you know I understand. You won't get into trouble having time off work, speak to your work as it maybe that you need some more time off work to recover and to get right as it is - I know i do! I've hopefully got two operations to come one to take the tube out of my back and another to either fix the hole in my bladder and cervic to add a colostomy bag.....cancer is shit! It's changed everything but with time and patience we will get back to our old selves :-) we've got this far!
Sounds to me like you adore your job and are very good at it which is why your employers value you so much :-) That's brilliant and I can really understand what a painful decision it was to take a step back for a year. I really hope that the year off will give your doctors the time they need to get you fixed up properly so that you can enjoy being healthy and busy all at once.
Thank you tivolli....I'm spending as much time as I can with my nieces and Nan etc so I'm using my time wisely atm but as i am so use to being busy im finding it hard to adjust at the moment xx
I have been reading all your posts throughout my treatment which started in September and is now finished and I was trying to just put my head down and go through everything on my own as I also split up with someone and family lives abroad
.keeping busy and all was going almost great till my last brachy....I feel like everything has changed after that last surgery...
I feel extreme anxiety all the time...Can't sleep ...already in menopause as I get hot flushes since the week after brachy ...not happy about my bladder ....but I also have lymphoedema which made me put on lot of weight on my legs and I still have to get an appointment with their clinic to get it sorted so that is getting me down quite a lot .... and hair started falling out now 4 weeks after treatment :(
Anyone else has a problem with lymphoedema and how long did it take before you got to see lymph.nurse ? I mentioned it at my 4 week appointment but as I had a blood clot ...they were more worried about that instead
Thank you for any advice on this in advance
Diagnosed 2b cc...no lymph nodes involved
25 radio....5 cisplatin . ...4 brachys . ..finished 21th nov
