Descision made, first steps to ill health retirement taken

Enjoy your new found free time Salis. 

Stuart x 

Salis my mental health suffered on my return to work after chemo. I'm incurable but not terminal. I've agreed to work from home, I've done Mindfulness, yoga and various courses. 

For me now sleep management, antidepressants, yoga, exercise and working from home has made all the difference.

I hope yu can find some stability and joy moving forward making every day count

John x

Thanks John,

I have been almost entirely working from home since Lockdown. I am currently exploring different sleeping tablet and antidressant options with my GP, and now that we can I am attending a pilates class, as well as walking the dogs and cycling. 

Well done you Sal, freedom from the alarm call is fantastic. After I retired due to illness (not so much because of the cancer but I developed spinal stenosis and I have had to move into a wheelchair, therefore it was totally impossible to carry on working), I had a bad dream every single night for years. It's only recently after 5 years that the bad dreams aren't every night but still 5 or 6 nights a week. To me now that spells mental health problems and I'm slowly recovering, 

I don't know. Anyone else have bad dreams after retiring from work? I was doing the same job for 35 years.

Tvman x

I worked as a nurse for 36 years. I have been retired for 12 years.

I have unpleasant dreams nearly every night but feel ok when I wake up.

my husband also has bad dreams. We just think it is normal now, I didn’t have them when I was younger x

I had a long period of spinal problems and could hardly walk at one time.My GP put me everything that was going including amyltriptylene which was for nerve pain. I was only on a low dose and it changed me so much. Apparently depressives are started on much higher doses so heaven knows how they cope - they must be like zombies judging from how I felt. They stopped me dreaming totally - and this effect continued long after I stopped taking them - and all the other pills they had me on - after a terrific physiotherapist got me back on my feet and off the lot. Only recently - years later - have I started to have snatches of dreams - but can't recall anything from them at all.

When you're ready Sal e-mail me your contact and I will send stuff to you. Good luck with your new and different routine and enjoy every moment. Rainie x

Hi Rainie, I am on a high dose of amitriptyline, 4x10mg a day. My GP says that I can only go to 50mg a day. 

I can hardly walk and I am in a lot of pain. I only get relief when I sit down hence I am a wheelchair user. When I stand or try to walk, after a couple of minutes I am in extreme pain. 

I also take pregabalin, sertraline, ramipril and other various tablets for the heart, stomach and other conditions. I'm now taking 21 tablets a day and refuse to become depressive. I look at my meds as something I need to take to get through life. I'm still active in the garden, it's so painful but everything is. I would love to be pain free, would really love that. 

My consultant says there's nothing he can do to help my back, so do the other two consultants that were my second and third opinions, freely offered by the first consultant. 

All that is running alongside my incurable cancer diagnosis. Did you ever? Yet there are people worse than me and I consider myself lucky in that regard. 

Ruth, that's very interesting that you too have bad dreams. Are they work related? Mine are, as I've said before, I'm so relieved when I waken up as you are too I'm sure. Life can be bitchy, yeah? 

I have visits to my grandson and granddaughter to look forward to, they make me smile so much. I'm so happy that I've lived so long after diagnosis that I have seen my granddaughter come into my life. 

Take care everyone, apologies for the long post, I hope you reached the end of it.

Tvman xx

Yes my dreams are mainly work related and seem so realistic. It is always a relief to wake up and know they are fictitious. I also forget them quickly.

my husband also has horrible dream often concerning his work or people he worked with. He has also been retired over 10 years 

I have wierd dreams, rather than bad ones, but I generally only remember snatches of them once i have woken up.

I took 20mg Amitriptyline on Friday, I had a better night's sleep than I have had for a while, but I felt really strange all day on Saturday, as if I was moving through treacle. I haven't taken any more, but one decent night's sleep can keep me going for a bit.