Talking With Your Employer About Fibromyalgia

Having fibromyalgia while still working can be a delicate balance. It's a balance that I maintain on a daily basis and am blessed to be able to do so.

Working with fibromyalgia can be one of the most challenging things that you as a sufferer can do.

There are times over the past year when I've had to:

• Miss work for a few days (or more)
• Have to go home early
• Have to come in late
• Decline a project or promotion due to the stress or hours

Working for an unsympathetic boss can really make this situation a whole lot worse but you won't really know how sympathetic (or not) your boss is unless you talk to him or her. The other side of that coin is that it is very uncomfortable talking to another person (who you may or may not feel that they need to know about your personal business) and wondering about the outcome.

That being the case, let me stop right here and say that whether or not you talk to your employer about your fibromyalgia is a personal decision that ONLY YOU can make. Only you know your unique situation and whether it will benefit you. If there is no benefit, then you probably should keep it to yourself for the time being. The nature of your discussion with your employer depends on the nature of your job duties, your relationship with your supervisor and co-workers and what gains you could make from your disclosure.

I can tell you what I see as the plusses and minuses and let you make your own informed decision from there.

Pluses:

• Bosses generally want to see their employees do well at work
• Telling your employer about your fibromyalgia may help "connect the dots" as to why you've been acting a certain way at work. You no longer are the uncaring employee who always "seems sick", but now MAY be the employee that is working hard for the company despite your pain. 
• You have a chance to reaffirm your commitment to the company and being a productive member of the team.
• You may get some reasonable accommodation in your work schedule and/or environment. (work from home, different work area, different chair, adjusted work schedule, etc.)
• You have documented (or at least established) with your company that you have a disability or condition.

 Minuses:

• Your boss may see that the team may be suffering from having to accomodate your workload and see you as a liability.
• They KNOW that you will continue to take time off as needed. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but some employers may use this against their employees.
• This will potentially affect any advancement decisions that your company will consider concerning you.

If you do decide to tell your employer about your fibromyalgia, don't spring it on them. Set an appointment to discuss it with them, but don't volunteer too many details. They should not need to know everything about you. Reaffirm that you are committed to your job and that you will be in contact should your health condition change.

When I told my boss, I told them that...  "I have fibromyalgia, a disorder characterized by wide-spread pain and fatigue. There will be times that I may have to come in late of leave early. I also have quarterly doctor appointments, so a flexible schedule on those days would be appreciated. I'll come in an hour early or leave an hour late, if needed."

That's about it for now. I'd be interested to hear how others are dealing with this situation.

Best of luck with your decision!

Update - Dizziness, Lightheadedness and Headache

It's been a little bit since my last update. It seems that everytime that I feel better, I don't for a little bit. It's not that I've been feeling too great, but I things have been hectic around the house lately.

Anyway, since my followup neurologist visit two weeks ago, he weaned me off of the Amitriptyline completely and increased my Verapamil to 360mg. I wa fine for the first few days and then last Tuesday, I experienced a spell of dizziness, lightheadedness and a headache at 4:00PM.

I didn't think too much about it and went home, took some Meclizine and a Fioicet and laid down for a bit.

Yesterday, I had another incident of dizziness and lightheadedness with headache at 1:15PM. I called my neurologist to tell him and to see if I was having a reaction to withdrawing from the Amitriptyline or from an increase in the verapamil. He called me back and said that it wasn't and that he wanted me to keep track of what was going on, including monitoring my blood pressure and to let him know if I am still experiencing these effects on Monday.

All three lasted until I fell asleep last night.

This morning, I had another occurrence at 8:30AM. I've been the same all day. Tonight my wife took my blood pressure and it was 120/96, so no low or high blood pressure.... hmm...

Well, I guess that's about it for now.

Easter Week

This week is Easter week and I am thankful that it is a short week. Two nights ago, I twisted my back while sleeping.... yes, while sleeping and I still have upper back/right shoulder pain. I remember waking up from the pain of apparently turning slightly during the middle of the night.

This morning is rough as well. It seems as though there are sharp pins being poked into the balls of my left foot causing me pain when I put any sort of pressure on it. To make things worse, my right ankle suddenly feels like it's broken. The combination of these two makes me limp like an weeble from side to side.

The walk up the hill to work today was, needless to say horrible. Here's to hoping that the day gets better and that Thursday, which is Friday this week comes soon!

Long days and bad pains

I have been very tired lately. We've had some issues at work that have caused us to have to work 17 hour days.
Yesterday was REALLY bad. I had shooting pains in my legs from the top of my thighs to the soles of my feet. To be honest, there were times last night that I didn't think that I was going to make it home. I wanted to crawl into a corner somewhere and just sleep.

I also had a really bad burning pain in my right shoulder. On top of all that, I had a bad case of nausea as well as all over body aches and burning. Man, I feel really, really tired and sore. Did I mention that?... lol

I thank God that we finished on time today, so I got to leave and come home to rest. A bonus is that I get to take Thursday off due to comp time. The way that I currently feel, I wish that I had tomorrow off as well. Oh, well :(