To Work Or Not To Work

I have talked to plenty of people who work full and part-time jobs with chronic kidney disease. Having this illness doesn’t stop you from going to school, caring for your family, or taking care of your home. You can do whatever you want, some do charity work, go to school and the gym. Of course, you might have doubts about keeping a full-time job. This would be the time to decide if you want to cut back on hours or even take a demotion.

Everyone is different, so you have to decide whether are you prepared to work. You don’t want to overdo it. Think about whether you are mentally and physically ready to deal with the hustle and bustle of having a career. Also, remember that you have to make sure your body is ready to take on that challenge right now.

For people I have spoken to they talked about getting in physical shape. Because this is all new to you, do you have the right attitude to be around people and this includes family and friends? You don’t want to go back to work too soon and find out you can’t be productive or effective.

Some people still work with CKD

Plenty of people have careers with CKD. This makes them feel healthy and productive and they know they can take care of their families and themselves. I think this would be the best time to figure out what treatment plan is right for you. It’s also good to let your supervisor know about your health. There might be times when you are having bad days. Also, make sure you can handle physical tasks.

Feel free to discuss any job modifications with your employer that would make it simpler for you to work. Keep in mind that if you don't request adjustments, your employer is unlikely to be aware of any that you might require.

Everyone doesn’t know about CKD. You might want to let your employee know if you will be able to continue to do your job or if you will miss time from work. This is also a good time to find out if this will affect your health benefits.

I have talked to people who have had their healthcare team call their employees to give specific information about their health and limitations. There are days when you will have to deal with anemia and fatigue. This is going to make you feel beat down for the day.

Remember to take some time off, too

I just want to add that when you start treatments for chronic kidney disease, you will want to go back to work to just get some normalcy back into your life. If you have to take some time off to adjust to things.

But if you need to take a short break from that job. It will be there when you get back. Your body might take time to adjust to dialysis or if you have had a transplant.  Also looked into something a little more tolerant if you can’t do what is needed of you. The question you need to ask yourself is, do I need to cut back, change to a different shift, or something else?

Just remember that we are all in this together.