Brain fog, speech delay

[Bobbydoodle]

Hi

I have Lupus and APS and I work 4 days per week.

I am finding work harder and harder as time goes on. Yesterday by late afternoon I was so fatigued and in wearing pain I got slightly confused when a client turned up as I had completely forgotten she had emailed to say she was coming. I quickly fronted it out and tried to stay professional but when we sat down and began to speak I was clearly forgetting words and it was affecting my speech.

All this adds to my crushing fatigue and general weariness for life.

In an ideal world I would stop working (not financially viable) and just work for myself so that I can pace myself in the real sense of the word rather than pacing myself within the constraints of working a set amount of hours for an employer.

Don't get me wrong my employers have been great. Made reasonable adjustments for example working from home here and there but other than that they can't give me more or I wouldn't be able to do the actual job if that makes sense.

I don't even know why I am writing this or what I want from it. I spend time daydreaming of going on the sick but I just can't do it and then I wonder about applying for ill health retirement but I almost feel ashamed of mentioning it even. People at work know I have these conditions but they think I am fine as its invisible but its not invisible to me and I am feeling ground down.

Has anyone gone down the ill health retirement route and got any advice?

[Oshgosh]

you could enquire,so you know what it entails.

From what you describe perhaps things are catching up with you.

Important factors are 1 how old are you?

2 how long have you got to work ?

3what plans do you have if you do take early retirement.( my friend was in the NHS SCheme,the interviewer asked her if she would look for work,she replied that she would look for. A job in a cafe.

They told her that this answer made her ineligible for early retirement.

4 have you got any holidays due,sometimes this can help you cope

Have you spoken to your GP.

I hope you can work something out .

[Bobbydoodle in reply to Oshgosh]

Thank you

I’m in my 50’s

I’m hoping I get a specialist appointment through so I’m sure I’m due my check up so I will speak to them about it and see if they offer support with ill health retirement.

I’m sorry that happened to your friend. Some ill health retirement says you have to be unable to work 30 hours or more for a period of 12 months so I’m unsure why the NHS treated her like that.

[Geeforce99 in reply to Bobbydoodle]

hi Bobby sorry to hear you’re going through this, it is difficult to even think about medical retirement as there is no way I could afford to keep up with maintenance of house, am same age and been off work four months with long covid thrown into health issues, lupus fibromyalgia raynards hypertension I can’t do required hours a day at home min they requested. Or I can one day but not next this is no use to work so I am on SSp.

I hope you can take holiday and then manage some rest to act as crutches to help you along this difficult path at present.

All best take care

[BukkyApampa]

I’m sorry to hear you’re going through this, brain fog has made it very difficult to do my job as I would like to do it, I’m no where near retirement so I had to take on less challenging responsibilities which has been a huge adjustment for me but I remind myself of the impact of the alternatives to my health.

As previously advised, please do your research and talk to the right people to help you plan your next steps and try to adjust your expectations accordingly especially that change in mindset which I’m still grappling with. I wish you all the best 💜

[Poshcards]

yea

s you need to speak to your occ health department, truthly and honestly, they will sort you out xx