Feeling a fraud

Hi. Click my name to read my story. I took 4 days off sick and then I had a week of hols already pre booked. I work from home too but lessened my hours by an hour in the morning and logged off an hour early in evening. Fatigue has been the big thing aggravated by poor sleep. My time has been all consuming with cancer. I drove myself to radiotherapy - I had 15 sessions - it was a 30 min drive but many of the sessions did not run to time, the most being 2 hours so although the sessions are short, some ended up being a 3 hour round trip. I finished radiotherapy last week. achiness and tiredness is the main thing for me. It depends what you do for work. I think I tried to do too much at the start. the combined effects of major surgery, achiness, drugs in system, poor sleep take its toll so you may have to take it as it comes. Depends also if work are aware of your situation and how accommodating they are. Appreciate you only get full pay for 6 weeks but you will need time to heal.

Macmillan phone line may be able to advise if you are entitled to other things too. Depends what your treatment plan is too. Sorry have probably raised more questions for you but it is quite individual and you may just need to see how surgery goes and plan from there.

I didn't have chemo but I took 5 months off work.  I was office based; full time etc but it was 2015.  I think if I had been working from home I would have contained my sick leave to surgery & recovery and reduced hours or took days as needed during the 3 weeks of rads.  I don't think they would have expected me to be at full capacity but allowed some discretion.   I took time off as my head could not cope with sitting in an office of 45 people with them all giving me tilted head questions asking how I was everyday.  My job required me to have a clear head and be on the ball & decisive.  Too much distraction in the office .  As you have been diagnosed with cancer you are covered for life by Disability discrimination act.  This means your employer must make reasonable adjustments for you so allowing you to work different hours if possible so while having radiotherapy having an hour off to go for treatment if local and do an hour later in day or on weekends when you have no rads.  Tiredness kicks in at the end of rads usually.   

I also was reluctant to take time off. Initially I had 1 week off work for my lumpectomy (spoiler: I managed but it wasn't long enough), and then when I started chemo I was signed off on the advice of occupational health and I've been off since (4 months ago).

Being off for this period has had its pros and cons tbh. There is no "correct" way to do it.

Even without chemo I think I'd have needed a good few weeks off at some stage, to get my head around everything. As Grogg says when you have this diagnosis it takes up a lot of head space and if you have to be decisive and clear-headed in your work, then that processing needs to be allowed to happen some time when you're not at work.

A friend with a similar diagnosis worked all the way through her treatment apart from a few days off here and there. It's certainly doable, all being well with treatment. But she said it slowed her recovery.

There's no easy answer but what I'd suggest is you do plan to have some time off, on your terms. I suspect you'll need more time than you think. Having something planned might help with feeling in control of this.

Also: YOU ARE NOT A FRAUD!

I'm self employed so needed to work throughout treatment. I managed to work through chemo with taking just a few days off after each cycle, I only took a few days off after my lumpectomy and I worked full time during my 2 weeks of radiotherapy (I specifically asked for afternoon appointments so i could do this)

i found lumpectomy and rads a doddle compared to chemo. Yes, you're a bit tired but getting a BC diagnosis is exhausting anyway! 

Of course, it depends on your job so not everyone will be the same, but I was also able work from home throughout, and still do, which has helped enormously with energy levels.

If you want to keep working, you should be able to but it sounds like you have the option to take a few days off here and there if needed.

thank you for your reply - I feel more focused now xx

thank you so much for your reply - it has definitely helped me :-)

thank you for this advice - I work in children's safeguarding but have a very capable team so thinking of going down the reduced hours path.  Thank you again x

Hi, I had lumpectomy and 2 weeks of rads,no chemo.  I took a week off after the op. I'm working from home, my work is easy going and not stressful and someone is always there to cover the emails.  I felt fine during radio.  Just took the time off for the appointments.  I had already booked 2 weeks leave about 2 weeks after the finish of rads and found I needed this. I was more tired and sore after it had finished.  

Hi, I think we are all different.  I worked from home throughout chemo with a few hours off each cycle.  I took 3 weeks sick and 2 weeks vacation after my op and I will not take time off for radiotherapy, just flex work around the daily sessions.  I think I could have been back at work 2 weeks after the op at a push, but I felt I wanted to give myself time to recover.  I'd say whatever works for you, but my learning is that I am glad I took more time after the op and I feel better now (back at work since 2 weeks) for it