My daughter used to house sit during school holidays. She started getting a friend to join her for the last few she did. She has had to stop as of January last year as she can't actually reliably take care of herself. Forgets what day it is, what meds to take, too tired to take care of the pets properly etc. We have no idea if that will change ever. I don't see her being able to hold down any other sort of job either. She has started making greeting cards when she is up to it and once she has a stock we will be looking for somewhere to sell them. One Tuesday (Monday is a holiday here) I will be starting the procedure of getting a disability grant for her.

I have had to quit working due to my fibro. I have applied for disability and will here, any day now, if I have been approved or not.

I had to quit working in 2003 also. I was a nurse. The last couple of years I worked I was in a lot of pain. Upper body pain - then in Sept. 2003 the pain went widespread and I could barely walk.

I feel very fortunate that I was granted disability. It was very stressful and a million hoops to go through. When I went to court I got a very nice judge who appeared to believe in fibro. It was luck of the draw - my lawyer had told me many of the judges were quite nasty about fibro. Maybe the judge I had knew someone in his personal life with fibro.

My former rheumy (retired) told me that a lot of fibro fog comes from your brain constantly getting pain signals and the brain gets so busy with that it gets overloaded resulting in the fog. Also, the lack of quantity/quality of sleep that many have plays into the fog.

Wow, Milly, that is fascinating news you doctor suggested to you. makes perfect sense to me.

it was also,the fog that made me unable to work at my former career.
For a few years, I cleaned houses and gardened for clients, but that finally became impossible. And when I think of,what all that physical work probably did to my body, I could cry. This is truly one of the worst diseases known to man.

I agree Marsharebel - fibro sucks.

I was getting progressively stupid when I was still working - not a good thing when you are a nurse - my coworkers saw the pain but also noticed I wasn't right . I worked at an outpatient burn / wound clinic and we had many patients that would come for repeated visits and one day this patient I had seen multiple times grabbed my arm gently and said honey are you okay (my brain was just not working) - it took everything I had to not bust out and bawl right there. At one point I thought I was getting dementia.

I too had to quit my job in 2010 after working for 22 years at the same company. The fibro fog and severe anxiety attacks along with a lot of GI problems made it impossible to continue to work. I had a superb Doctor at the time who sent me to the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale and several specialists. When it was time for me to resign and start the paperwork for disability my Dr wrote me a very thorough letter describing everything we had done and who I had seen. I was blessed that I was approved the first time. I tried returning to work a year after being off but sadly only made it 4 months. I just don't have the ability to multi-task or keep focused. Good luck!!

I stop working because I moved But there been many times that I have felt off. Or I feel like my brain went on vacation and forgot to tell me.

I had to quit. I was off for a. While due to being bed redden. But when i went. Back to work on a closed to patients day. I made a real mess. The dr. Then ask me to quit. I knew I could not work but it's hard not to. That was summer of 2011. Took over 2. 1/2Yrs. to get SSD. I had to have an attorney because it just looked like jumbled letters on the papers to me.

Hello Buttercup

I, like Milly was a nurse for over 20 years. Had to quit in 2010. The end of April so my anniversary is coming up soon.

I have applied for SSD but was denied the first time and am waiting on a hearing. I waited so long to apply because I kept thinking I could go back to work after resting a few months. This has not happened. Things have gotten to the rock bottom and I hope are turning around but who knows?

On a slightly different note, I'm scared to go back to work. I have been working on my doctoral work for the the past 21/2 years. I will graduate in spring of 2015 and I am scared to death to know if I could even try holding a job again. I feel like my fibro has been so progressive over the past 3 years. I would like to be a professor and teach at a local college but I have never done that kind of work before and not knowing the expectations, being in a new situation already knowing I have limitations is daunting. I also wonder in your situations, did you tell people that you had fibro upfront or did you keep it to yourself? Blessing Revgirl