Poll on working through tx

[Lady Lauri]

  I was at a toss up on which side to post this, decided here.

  In a post it was quoted as -possibly, not a 'study' - that maybe 95% of people work thru tx. I have 'guesstimated' less in reading here, so curious to have a 'poll' on this. I was out (of the physical part) of work by week 4, and I really intended, expected and tried to work. I was slammed at week 4 and was surprised! My last 2-3 days 'on the job' .... a son went with me and customers ended up helping and making me sit down! I hadn't said a word, looked like I was going to fall on my face (was about to! Stubborn.)
This may be hard to 'poll' as I know many did work, while suffering badly due to couldn't afford not to, loosing job, etc. How about.....

A.) Could not work at all. Adding type of work (physical or desk type jobs.)
B.) Worked, suffered through it.
C.) Worked and was okay.

Also, In my opinion...... the easier we take it on ourselves (if possible) the better our body can fight and heal, so during tx many things just need to be 're-prioritized' to give yourself the best chance.

Just curious as this is some rough meds!                          LL

[toughluck]

I am a self employed auto repair tech, those tires are going to feel real heavy. TX and sitting home is worse, I will have to grin and bite it.

[pigeonca]

I think a lot of it depends on the kind of job you have.  If you work for a large corporation or the government, and have been there for a while, they usually will let a good employee slide, doing less than stellar work and having a portion of their tasks handed to other employees for the duration.

OTOH, if you're self-employed, an independent contractor or owner of your own business, where you have to give 100% a 100% of the time, then I'd think it would be extremely difficult to keep on working.  Also, I just can't imagine doing physical labor during tx, but apparently some people are amazingly tough.  I'm not.

[toughluck]

I have no choice, no work, no health insurance, no money it is going to rough.

[berts wife]

Bert has not been able to work.  He is an over the road driver.  No way to drive for long periods of time with all the meds.  Not safe for him or anyone else on the road.
This is week 7 for him and i can see he has gotten more and more of the side effects as the weeks go on.  

[sillymanxyz]

I worked for the first 6 months of treatment as an IT manager and I was able to sit at my desk a lot...I finally told them I was on the interferon and ribovirin about 3 months into it.  I got laid off on December 29th of last year (about the 6th month).  My doctor put me on disability through July, when my 48 weeks were up. I still haven't found another job, which is why I'm also looking at doing either the 72 weeks or the consensus interferon regimen now, since I don't have to report to work every day ( I relapsed - my VL is 1.4M again...).  I really ran in spurts.  I could work at something, even lifting and moving stuff, but I could only do it for short periods, then I'd have to rest for a while.  I still suffer from some of the symptoms occassionaly like irritability and fatigue but my energy level is mostly all back now.  Except for the beginning of last year, when I lost my job and my father-in-law got sick and died, I did pretty well emotionally and spiritually.  I DID learn a lot about how to deal with emotions that are all jammed up under my chin and wanting to leap out at everyone else....I really practiced keeping my mouth shut.... My mantra was,  "DON"T SAY IT, DON"T SAY IT, DON"T SAY IT"...it works well
Mike.

[kcrandy]

i am a driver for a union plumbing company and i deliver all the equipment these plumbers need aka/some heavy lifting required etc.  and believe me there are some days i would dearly love being home and not at work.
i was told by a lot of people b4 tx that working can help keep my mind off of tx, side effects,etc.  that is still is up for debate as you can see by this poll.

happy holidays ALL.  : O )