Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
I retired yesterday. For some reason I started calling it retirement or disability retirement rather than just disability because I've used that term with my students for a couple weeks now and also because I certainly have no intention of working full time ever again. This past week was very tough on me physically and terribly sad for my students. RA not only took out my career but had lots of kids crying as I completed my final week. My body can no longer work full time and as much as love my students I was in such pain, fog and exhaustion daily that I will absolutely take complete advantage of my disability retirement. I don't sit here and blame RA and cry about it, however. That would be a waste of my time. I just hope that a modified schedule helps my disease improve. At the very least I can be more comfortable and rested.
I leave you with the ending of my Facebook post this afternoon:
I didnt just retire yesterday, but I lost a huge part of my life and leaving such great friends and such great kids made an already hard decision considerably more difficult. Retirement, ending a career that had become part of my identity after 27 years, and no longer seeing or working on a daily basis with people, both young and old, that I truly care for is one truly significant and major status update here on Facebook. Of course this post is so much more than a Facebook status update. It is a status update about my immediate future and ultimately the rest of my life.
I leave you with the ending of my Facebook post this afternoon:
I didnt just retire yesterday, but I lost a huge part of my life and leaving such great friends and such great kids made an already hard decision considerably more difficult. Retirement, ending a career that had become part of my identity after 27 years, and no longer seeing or working on a daily basis with people, both young and old, that I truly care for is one truly significant and major status update here on Facebook. Of course this post is so much more than a Facebook status update. It is a status update about my immediate future and ultimately the rest of my life.
Linda
I also pushed myself to work as much as possible these past 2 months due to a provision in my contract that would pay me my daily rate for any unused sick time. Though I used many days in the past year I still had the opportunity to be paid for quite a few days. Knowing that my pay would essentially be cut in half I did what I had to so we could eliminate a bunch of debt making it easier to live on my check and my wife's salary. It's done but I feel I'm paying for it now and that I probably abused my body way more than I should have. My first goal is to rest and see if my new life brings some improvement to my RA pain which is now permanent in my knees and feet. Some other conditions such as myositis and vasculitis have paid a visit to me in the past couple months as well so focusing on healing (improving) is my #1 goal. Knowing the progressive nature of RA I may very well be deluding myself into thinking I'll feel any better down the road but I have to try. Where should I begin other than with getting more rest? I see my rheumy this week but I don't see him making any changing being out of work for less than a week. Does anyone have any suggestions? Has anyone improved once they retired and slowed down?
Slowing down for me allowed me to rest as needed during the day. I believe that getting that rest allowed me to improve overall. Also, just the stress of not having to be at your job day in and day out no matter how you feel is a stress reliever itself. This may lead to improved health. Just be realistic - this is RA. But, every little bit of help you can get each day will benefit you in some way.
Linda
I worked for years after I was dxed with RA but just kept going down hill day in and day out finally my doctor told me I needed to go for disability so I did. At first I felt the same as you that I would never get better but I did at least for a few years. Being able to rest as needed helped so much. There were some times I would feel guilty as I watched my hubby go out to work and I stayed home... Been on disability for over 15 years now so there were times I would even think "Gosh why am I not working" that was how much better I was feeling sometimes. So I would jump in and try to do more around the house and in just a short time I would know why I was on disability. My body just can't handle it. I have learned what I can do and that I have to more or less balance my time during the day and when a person goes out to work that is not always possible. There are just too many demands on you.
Just yesterday was one of those days...I have been in lots of pain lately but my hubby (he is retired now) has had vertigo for the last few days so I decided I needed to help him do yard clean up... run the leave blower, rake and burn leaves.... how much trouble could that be...well I am sitting here today thinking to myself what in the world was I thinking when I did that... I can't move, in lots more pain, didn't sleep last night. Completely drained of energy. That was just such a small amount of work - 3 hours ... but hubby really needed my help...so I did it... Really I knew just how bad I would feel today... but we both are getting older and need each other to help. I will be down the rest of this week but was glad to help him.
So once you can rest and get your body to feeling better then you can learn to pace yourself and go from there. There will be times you will feel better and wonder why you are home full time and most likely you will start to do more - and in a short time you will be Reminded why you are home.
So now get that much needed rest your body needs then work on living life in the best way that you can.
I knew that in my position I could be terminated for a disability. It is in my contract. It was important for me to have a rheumy who would do this for me when it came time. I had nothing to lose but come right out and ask my current rheumy "will you help me get disability if I can no longer perform my job". He said that he usually honors his patients requests for that and would help me.
Carrottop,
Thanks for sharing. You response very much pertains to my situation. Right now I am in chronic pain, often severe, having all sorts of other problems that really have intensified over the past 3 months. Prior to that when I was starting the disability process and I was on vacation I felt guilty for thinking about disability, that it was unnecessary and that I could work with the help of my meds. Then I was hit was a super flare and I've yet to recover but I'm hoping rest will help with that. The super flare happened about 10 days before the start of the school year. It wasn't just joint pain but muscle and bone pain as well. I was suffering and I had to go on an FMLA leave before the school year began. I had the doctor write I could work on a limited basis so I still went in 3 days a week for the past 2 months. Even that was too much and I ran myself into the ground. Now I'm going to rest a lot and hope my medications work better. Thanks for your advice.
Greg