I have been at work for what must be three and a bit weeks, now. Work have been very supportive in allowing me a phased return, which means that I have only just worked myself up to my full hours. I am a teacher who works four days a week, Monday to Thursday. There is absolutely no doubt that I have found going back to work particularly difficult. I had been out of work since March, and what with the summer holidays, this meant going back to work at the beginning of September, some almost 6 months later. This was certainly a shock to the system.
Teaching, these days, is an undeniably stressful job and, with every passing year, becomes even more stressful. This is why we are finding it more and more difficult to recruit and hold onto teachers. In many respects, teaching is the wrong job for someone with MS, given that stress is one of the main triggers for the onset of MS! But, that said, it is my job and one that I love doing. However, I am going to have to be very careful in how I navigate this year and my job in the context of suffering from PPMS.
I am still in a position whereby all my symptoms are better than they were before I left for my treatment. However, many of my symptoms are returning to round about pre-treatments levels. I'm still definitely better at walking and my physical movement is improved, still. So, essentially, the treatment has remained a success – so far. Fingers crossed!
I have to admit that teaching has been very difficult in light of my phased return. This has been a double-edged sword, whereby I have needed a phased return (starting at 50% of my hours) in order to deal with the physical demands in terms of tiredness and fatigue. Unfortunately, this has meant that I have not been in work enough to communicate adequately with my teaching teams and colleagues, I have not been in work enough to organise my classroom and I've not been in work enough to know my children as well as I should have done. This has meant that, whilst a phased return has been necessary and beneficial for my health, it has actually made my job markedly more difficult in terms of being able to carry out my teaching effectively.
I say this as it may be of use to other people who seek such treatment and desire to return to work and be as effective as possible. Beware of the pros and cons of a phased return. Having said this, I don't think I would have been able to cope without a phased return.
As far as my working week is concerned, I'm definitely thankful that I do not work on Fridays. This is my day where I blog and write books and publish in all these other things that I do outside of my teaching life (I run another blog, a philosophical and political one....). What this means is that Fridays and Saturdays are used for me to get over the demands of Monday to Thursday, which really take their toll. It also means that I still have to frantically sort out my planning, preparation and assessment work for school in those days and on Sunday in order to start the week on the right foot. Before I was diagnosed, this was challenging anyway. What with MS, and a family that need a father and partner, this is even more demanding.
I definitely have to be strong in saying no if or when school and other people make demands on me that I simply cannot cope with. I have always been a yes man – someone who seeks to help out and take on extra work wherever possible. However, such decisions would now be damaging to my health and I really need to be aware of this.
Anyway, I know I don't get many comments on this blog, but it will be interesting to see if anyone else has had similar experiences with having MS and a demanding job.
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