I'm Stuck!! Work/Health balance, please can anyone offer any advice or tell me your experiences?

[TRS13]

I'm 15wks and I've been in and out of hospital for the past four weeks with bleeding. I haven't been in work for more than 6days across this time. I was feeling hopeful as I'd been told it's quite common for people to bleed during weeks 12-14 and it should be nothing, however following a heavy bleed on tuesday (got out of hosp yesterday) I was examined and told that due to a polyip growing inside my cervix this is set to not just continue but to worsen as baby grows. The baby will remain unaffected which is great but I still have to go into hospital every time it's heavy (at the moment thats once a week) as I've lost a lot of blood.

I'm feeling very guilty about work as it seems like I'm never there and if I've got another 6months like this....what do I do?

Any advice or anyone elses experience concerning work or the same would be great as I'm starting to feel a bit down.

Thankyou xx

[Carren]

Sorry to hear you're in such a stressful situation. It's really hard to let go and put your own health and that of your baby first, especially so early in the pregancy when the idea of your baby is still a fairly abstract one, but think of it this way: what good will you be to your coworkers if you become so weak from loss of blood that you pass out in the office? This is more than you just feeling a bit tired and distracted, it's a serious complication that you can't do anything about, so there's no reason to feel guilty. I'm guessing you'll probably be taking some maternity leave, so go into work when can safely, and think of the days you can't as good practice for your team mates in coping without you.

All that said, it's definitely worth doing your research and making sure you know exactly what your rights are with respect to paid sick leave, etc., and then having a long chat with your boss if you haven't already done so, so that he or she and you both know exactly what to expect in the coming months. Hopefully your boss and colleagues will be as supportive and helpful as mine have been. Good luck with everything!