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Services for people with rheumatoid arthritis

Working with rheumatoid arthritis

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Transcript

SPEAKER 1:

It has affected my work immensely because I used to live on my own and practice from my own place and in the last 2 years I’ve moved in with my mother because I keep falling down. I often have to go and see my clients and that has an impact on me, not being able to travel (because I do have clients that are outside London, where I have to visit). And in addition to that, carrying various weights of files and etc., that affects me a lot and that worries me too. I certainly have lost a lot of my independence, as well as my clientele because I’m trying to scale my work down because I just can’t handle a large portfolio of clients, if you like.

SPEAKER 2:

I was able to work as a qualified ward nurse until I was 25 but by this time my arthritis had got to the point where I couldn't cope with the physical nature of the job (the lifting, the shift work) but I was fortunate enough at that time to be offered a job as a rheumatology nurse specialist, which was less physical, it was still full time but it was more education, support and counselling; so from the physical side it was much easier to cope with.

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The decision to give up work was a really difficult one but it was something I did gradually; I just went from full time work, to reducing my hours, until at the end of my working time I was very part time. I was particularly lucky because I had a lot of support from my management and the team I worked with; I don’t think I would have remained in work as long as I did without the support of my employer but it got to the point where even on very reduced hours it was proving too difficult to continue working and I couldn't fulfil my job requirements in any less time. It took me a good 2 years to come to the decision to go ahead and go for medical retirement. It was very difficult initially to get used to the fact of not working (especially as I did love being a nurse so much) but it had such benefits to my health and therefore on my family, that that did outweigh the cost of having to stop working.

SPEAKER 3:

Unfortunately I was self employed when I was diagnosed with this, so now I feel even if I applied to somebody else for a job, they wouldn't want me. My husband and I have our own restaurant and my job was very physical; I can no longer do it, so we’ve had to employ somebody to do what I did.

SPEAKER 4:

After my degree I did a vocational course in Journalism and then after that year-long course I got a job straight away pretty much, so got into work, got a job as a reporter for a local paper. I had to give up my job and I moved to be closer to my parents. I wish I could just go out and get a job. I loved being in work. I was so angry when my medication started causing side effects and I had to come off it, it was just very traumatic and being told that I couldn't go on the latest anti-TNF drugs, when I wanted to keep my job and my employer had been very supportive (he wanted me to stay on).

SPEAKER 5:

Having had the diagnosis, to be quite honest, I don’t think I had any real understanding of what rheumatoid arthritis might mean for me going forward. All I was focused on at that time, I think, was around pain relief and pain management, rather than any impact it might have on lifestyle, whether I could work or not. I mean, at that moment in time I really wasn’t working. I’m self employed and was self employed at the time and was managing to do a day or a maximum 2 days a week, all I could think about was ‘once the pain is eased, I will be able to work again’. I am back at work, which is absolutely fantastic but it does mean I don’t operate at the same pace that I used to operate at. It means a change to physical activities – I know I need to be fit, I know I need to build up strength (where I haven’t had strength for a period of time because of illness), so it’s about learning what activities I can do and what activities I can’t do and it has a real impact on your ability to work and your ability to contribute to society and that’s something I want to do very actively and for me that therefore means I should get the support that I need to be able to do that and be active in society.

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