Migraine

Obviously migraines and work are an issue we all struggle with. I have recently come off a three month leave, came back part time for a bit and am now full time again. Full time in theory but not in fact. Since coming back I have not managed to actually make it to work consistently for a week, which makes my dependability a little on the low side. My boss is understanding about migraines, hoever she is getting fustrated, although no more than me. This is not to say I have not had progress; with treatment of my asthma I am no longer getting daily migraines and am down to three to four a week. And this is great, but not good enough. I am supposed to be training for a new position, to take over for someone who will be retiring early next year. So my boss has told me either I go on leave again or consistently come to work. If I go on leave, this promotion will go to someone else and when I return I will more than likely be demoted as my current position was already filled during the last leave and I am sort of just floating around the office right now. So I do not want to go on leave and I actually think it would serve no purpose. However, if I consistently work, well then I have to work with an indeterminate amount of migraines and the symptoms, while training for a new job and training other staff. I am aiming to achieve the second option. Yet I cannot help but feel I am only delaying the inevitable and will be lucky enough to have a job, if I can even maintain that in the long term.

Since I also saw in your SP that you stated your neuro seems to think a 50% reduction is enough.....and did I get the part right where it's like tug of war getting preventatives?

In the words of Teri - Fire his sorry butt! You deserve better! Is this guy/gal a headache specialist? Maybe it's time you found one if he/she is not.

If I were you - I'd find someone else. 3-4 a week is still way to many to concider that 'mangable' in my opinion.

Keep us posted ok?

Good luck with the promotion!

Uggh! I can feel your pain, though, being in a somewhat similar boat. If I'm back for good, I can't afford to get sick. I need those days for the migraine sick. So- what happens? I get three days in a row of "can't go to work" sick. Which of course, in other people's minds is salway attributed to the migraines, even though in this situation I had a fever and virus...

So, my dependability also is suffering. It's funny that with me, everyone thinks that any old abscence is 'cause of suffering from migraines, even though this time, that was the one thing that wasn't hurting. It's hard to go in to work when you're in pain- and worse when you're trying desperately to prove that you can do the work- right?

Which leaves me not having taken the promotion because I couldn't do it physically. Or mentally. But I knew that my job would be there when I got back- just like how it was before (HAH!)

But here's the thing- we're all different. I could kick myself for even taking the FMLA, as it helped nothing, and took away all of the vacation I had saved up. But I really thought this was going to work, and I'd be okay when I went back to work. That was about a year and change ago. So much has happened since- both good and bad.

Just wanted you to know you're not alone with this- others have gone through similar situations... And we've made choices that worked, didn't work, and have been just okay.

Whatever you choose to do, sometimes shooting for the moon isn't a bad thing. I was able to churn out 2 reports and get things more normalized after a pretty awful interim review- where my boss and I talked about how I had tried to come back and be everything to everyone- but not seen that way. After we talked about it... things got easier. My next review looked much more like what I was used to seeing!

Good luck!

Hey Eileen,

I totally would fire my neuro's butt, unfortunately he is the only butt around! You have to get refered to a neuro and there are few to choose from here. The first did not know too much about migraines or preventatives and was under the theory that a person should only be on a preventative for six months, and then see what happens after that, as though poof they would be gone. When that fellow ran out of ideas I was sent to a new one, who is far more familiar with migraines but he does not think with chronic migraines you can really expect more than fifty percent less than you usually get. While I know that is not accurate, I also know I have never seen better than that either. However, the best case for me was when I had as many migraines as I get now, but was on an abortive. As I no longer have the abortive, I have a difficult time maintaining work with this frequency of migraines. Which is a drag because I think this is the one career, with an excellent enviroment, that I actually would be able to suceed in.

I do believe I can work with this neuro, as in he told me if things got worse we would start looking for prventatives again. The thing is it takes months to get in to see him, a month to try out each preventative... and so does not help me at the current moment. So I will simply have to push through and see how much I can take. In an ideal world I would be able to work and then progress from there, to actually diminishing the migraines.

Hey i know how you feel. i'm going through that at work except my boss isn't as understanding. I've been told that if i don't stop missing work then i will lose my job. She want's a full action plan of what my doctor is going to do to stop these "so called migraines" she doesn't think that it's possible for someone to be sick as often as i have and she doesn't understand that the migraines are a new issue to me. My whole life i've delt with heart issues and have had 2 open heart surgeries so according to her i should be able to deal with migraines as well. I've told her that i need to go to see my neurologist now but she says i can't take any more time off work but i have to fix the migraine now.

Anyway what i wanted to say to Myth is depending on where you live you should not be demoted when comming back from medical leave. at least in Canada that is true. It's under the Human Rights act, so maybe it might be worth looking into where you live if there is some law or act that will protect your job since you can take med leave.

Wow, Jemima, it sounds like your boss needs some education. Here is a letter you can consider giving to her (I realize it might not do any good.)

Explaining migraines

Myth, Jemima, take care.