Work

Evening,

I went through four rounds of chemo during late spring early summer.  I was very lucky and my work was extremely accommodating but I wanted to get back to normal.   I had six weeks between the operation on my colon and starting my chemo and I was feeling like a fraud sitting at home.  Work reluctantly allowed me to come back a few days a week and then chemo started. Oh….

Exactly as you say, even trying to look at the TV was an effort.  There were several things going on.  I felt nauseous, I had cold touch, and I just couldn’t focus my brain.  I actually remember getting a bit annoyed that a job had been assigned to me on our computer system and I was looking back to see when and who had assigned it.  The time stamp and the login stamp showed I had actually been talking to the customer and had assigned the job to myself days before!  I only had a vague feeling about it, almost like waking up and trying to remember a dream.   
There were many other incidents that I won’t bore you with but I was not fit to be working let alone driving myself into the office!  Thankfully my boss could see this and eventually told me not to come in for the first two weeks of EACH cycle. 

It is bloody hard!  If I compare the effects of having half my colon removed and the chemotherapy, the operation was a lot easier to deal with.  I’ve seen similar statements by people on here. Chemo is a real struggle both mentally and physically. 

If you can I’d recommend not going back yet.  You aren’t swinging the lead, it’s tough.  You may find that at the end of each cycle (how long are yours?) you start functioning as bit better you’ll need to wait and see.  

please take it easy, it’s not for ever.  Before you know it, it will be the summer and you will be going from strength to strength!

All the best, Paul 

Hi Chris

I work from home too and at the time of treatment I had only been at that job for two months so tbh it wasn't the most demanding yet. My cycles were 21 days with chemo on days 1,2,3,7; steroids days 1 to 14; rest week 15 to 21. 

The first cycle I only worked days 10-11 and 15-19. I just wasn't feeling very good for the first 10 days so working did not make any sense. Then after the first 9 days I got better and realised that if I wasn't working I was just overthinking and focusing on my hear rate, breathing, the color of my wee, whether I had 3 or 4 glasses of water, going through the treatment booklet most of the time, watching some show but not concentrating on it... So for my mental health I found that working was better than not working as long as I could physically manage.

So for the rest of the cycles I worked day 5, 9-11 and the rest week. I would have to lie down for 10 minutes every 2 hours or so because I was getting tired just by seating down. But it was sort of fine and I was much more relaxed about the treatment. But at 5.30-6pm I would just feel knackered and be resting in bed/sofa until dinner and then go to sleep early to get about 9 hour sleep. I don't have kids and my parents were around to help my girlfriend with house chores, so I could afford to just work and crash straight after without having to worry about anything else...

If I had to leave the house to work I wouldn't be able to and I would probably had been off work for 4 months. 

Note, I was new at the job and it was remote, so I didn't really have to deal with the job dynamics of what other people expected from me, didn't have to talk to others about my treatment or how was I doing... It was a bit of a particular situation. Also we didn't get sick pay until passing probation (6 months)... While this was not the main driver for me to continue working, it had an impact, as the statuary sick pay is 117 GBP per week.

At the beginning I was advised by HR that to be eligible for this long term sick pay cover (80% of salary for up to 5 years if you are signed off work), I would have to be off for 6 months consecutively, so even if you work one day the count started again. Mentally I didn't even want to contemplate that scenario because I couldn't comprehend being so sick that I couldn't work for so long. But it is something to think about.