Hi Donna, I'm sorry to meet you here, with RA. I'm franky, I'm 42, had RA for nearly 2 years now. I'm really pleased to hear you have started straight away on useful treatment, I hope it helps you some soon. The comments from work I guess are from all sorts of people. I tend to say 'Oh no!!!!! Not the dreadful auto-immune one as well??' with great concern, educates those with a bit of wear and tear. You'll find your own way soon. With being signed off sick you are entitled to be left the hell alone for those 2 weeks now, though if you want to you could leave them a message through another? And send in the NRAS leaflet for employers as soon as possible to whoever is bugging you, as a first step. Don't forget you can call the NRAS helpline as well to talk things through in more detail as well.

http://www.nras.org.uk/includes/documents/cm_docs/2010/n/1_nras_employersb_a_guide_for_employers.pdf

thankyou very much, you have settled my anxiety a lot, guess i will be using nras a lot, thankyou again.

Donna

Welcome to the forum but sorry you have RA and are in so much pain. The first twelve months after diagnosis are hard. You are coming to terms with a life changing condition which can be very complicated to understand. On top of that you are trying to hold down a job. I would do as the others have suggested, get hold of the NRAS booklet for employers.

I was diagnosed 12 months ago and like you was very ill. I gave my employers the NRAS booklet and they have been brilliant since. They have told me that the booklet really explained my illness when originally they thought "arthritis - why is she off work?" They are now actually letting me work from home two days a week which has helped enormously. I am afraid you may find the next twelve months difficult and you may have to make some changes to your lifestyle. The fatigue is awful and it will take maybe 12 weeks before the Methotrexate starts to work. Make sure you have plenty of pain relief. Even taking two paracetemol every four hours to a maximum of 8 per 24 hours can make a difference in your pain levels. My GP said that many people underestimate the power of paracetemol. Keep taking it even if you do not feel that you need it as you need to keep the levels in your system.

You have done the right thing by joining this forum as it is an everlasting source of information and support. The people on this forum have kept me going over the last 12 months when I felt real despair at times.

Keep posting and I hope that you sort something out with your employer and start to feel better soon.

Jackie
xx

Hi Donna,
Welcome to the forum!
We all know what you are going through on here and you'll get lots of friendly support.
I am 60 and have had RA for 9 years, now on mtx and Humira.
Pleased to hear that you have already started mtx and hope it works well for you.
Sorry to hear you are being treated badly at work. I can't help with that but others have given you good advice.
Looking forward to getting to know you.

Doreen xx

Hi Donna,

Welcome to the forum. You'll find so much support and wisdom here.

I'm 39 with two kids and have had RA for six years now. I had to give up work last year because of the RA. I can tell you that stress from work is a huge contributing factor to how you feel. Don't let them add to your problems! I agree with the others ... get an employer's guide off to them as soon as you can and get the rest you need over the next week or so.

Good luck with your treatments ... Methotrexate can take a good few weeks to start working so hopefully you'll feel the effects soon!

Joanna

Hello Donna,
Your post brought tears to my eyes i can empathise from personal experience and feel so sad that you should be made to feel like this about work when you have so much else to deal with.

This condition is life changing but with right support it can become manageable and in my personal experience employees with disabilty always seem to give that extra 10 per cent to their job and should be valued not nmade to feel stressed, especially when first diagnosed. Stress will make you feel worse and employers need to take responsibility for potential impact their actions or lack of may have upon their employee.

NRAS have lots of support available, Direct gov website also has lots of useful information, also equality rights commission and you should be offered access to work interview to discuss your needs - they will stress the need for regular review especailly as just diagnosed - it is the employer NOT the employee who is responsible for setting up this access - i wish someone had reminded mine at the time!
Your immediate priority has to be getting your condition under control and if this involves time off work then so be it. I think anyone in a legal position would agree.
Do NOT make any decisions to step down - access to work is fantastic - the assessor took one step into my office and said however do u manage to work in here? and has supported me to make change happen.
When you are able to it is your employers duty to consider reasonable adjustments and these adjustments need to be considered and reviewed regularly, especially while diagnosis is new.
At work, things have changed for me practically - unfortunately attitudes are proving much much harder to change - i wish you all the best and understand what u may be experiencing
BUT most importantly of all right now concentrate on getting your health under control.
Do not let work bully u about - remeber we are here too to help through the minefield called work - it should not have to be like this but unfortunately the reality is that it often is,
BUT
we do have lots of rights in the workplace. I hope you find these links useful:

www.direct.gov.uk

www.equalityhumanrights.com

Take care & hope your treatment starts to work for you
KEEP POSTING! xx
lots of love,
from Liz xxxxx

hi to you all, just to update you all, i decieded to make a call this morning to my personell manager, to try to explain my absence from work, she was so unsupportive, and asked what was exactually stopping me from going to work, and what it is that i actually cant do?? i work for the biggest retail company in the uk, and you would think they would be more supportive, my child minder gave up child minding 6 weeks ago, so i asked if i could juggle my hours around a little until i got a new one so i could be there for my 10 year old little girl, and was told we are not a child care centre, i have a wonderful husband but he works away and only home for 2 days a week, so this is what im up against, maybe im just feeling a little down at the minute, but would like to say a BIG BIG thankyou to you all for your kind words and support, im going to ring bob now, thanks again x

that's baaaad. sorry to hear you have these troubles at work. are you writing it down as it occurs. it may not be pleasant to go through, but with this kind of thing youyr employers are caught bang to rights with this kind of nonsense. Keep good, dated notes if you can face the task.

Hi Donna,

A big warm welcome to the forum and so sorry to hear that you are having such a difficult time. I'm 50, married with a 23 year old daughter, and was diagnosed with RA this time last year. I can honestly say that this has been the most difficult year of my life and have been off from work as I have had a number of RA related complications, especially with finding a medication that my body can tolerate. However, I'm now on a new medication called Humira and feel positive that this time round the medication will work, and hope that my body will not reject it. In contrast to your employer mine have so far been fantastic and very understanding.

I also think that the first year is the hardest as we learn to adapt to a life changing condition, which like normal life will have it's ups and downs. As a person with a disability you do have rights under the Disability Discrimination Act and your employer is duty bound to carryout a risk assessment of your work activities and to make reasonable adaptations to enable you to continue in employment. Lizzy's post is very informative and she has given you some useful and sound advice to follow. Don't let yourself be bullied by work! As a large retailer your employer should be aware of their responsibilities to disabled employees, and you must try and assert your rights. Living with a disability does not mean that we cannot do things, but will take time to adjust to the things we are able to do and not. Like everyone here I think we all know that we will have days when we feel OK and on others not. As your body adapts to the medication you should be able to resume a normal life again, albeit possibly with a few adjustments.

I know at first I struggled to perceive myself as a person with a disability and didn't want the label, but as time has gone on I have come to realise that RA has become part of who I am and will not let it stop me from enjoying and embracing life to the full.



keep positive and take care,

Love,

Barbara
XXXXX