Hey UC’ers,
I received an email recently and I am hoping that others will benefit from the questions and as well responses from others. I myself never had any issues with needing to “prove” my condition when I needed time off several years ago after my diagnosis, but I know that is not the case for many UC’ers.
So please read through the snippet from Hetty’s email to me, and if you have any advice or a response, please add your comment below. Here’s the email:
My problem is that my waitressing job want proof of my condition as sometimes I have had to call in sick last minute if I’m having a bit of a UC moment and it’s quite difficult to keep running to the toilet whilst waitressing! So if my frequency is particularly high one day I don’t want to go in. Sometimes I just also feel particularly run down, I might have had a bad night or just having a day where I feel particularly weak, nauseous or faint and I make the decision to call in sick to give my body some rest. I always feel guilty doing this like I should just plough through as I’ve had it for so long I should be used to it by now, but to be honest letting myself rest sometimes when I feel ill with UC is part of how I treat it.
But them asking for proof and an explanation has got me worried. Are they trying to get rid of me because I’m causing too many problems? Has anyone else been asked to prove their condition? I had to get it assessed once for a previous job who concluded that disability legislation applies in my case and that the changes needed to be made to make the job suitable would just be to give me easy access to toilet and to allow for days when I needed to have hospital appointments and that I was at risk from needing to go on long term sick if worse case scenario it escalated to the point of needing surgery.
How many sick days to other UCers find themselves taking from related illness? Am I just being a wimp? I think I’ve had 3 or 4 sick days in the last 6 months from it. Has anyone declared themselves as disabled from UC and has that helped or hindered employment? I’ve read of NACC that it’s possible to do but I don’t really know what it entails, who is eligible and why and if it helps anything?
If you have any advice on the matter I’d be very grateful.
Thank you again Hetty for your message, and I hope you receive many ideas from others.
Best regards to everyone,
-Adam Scheuer
I started site shortly after being diagnosed in October of 2008 with severe pancolitis (when my whole colon was inflamed).
For me, it was a very rough start with severe symptoms. Getting bounced from medication to medication was not easy or too helpful. But, I did meet another UC’er, changes several parts of my diet, and of course the rest is history.
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