pottyallthetime

Advice:

Don't ever tell your employer--no matter how reputable they are, that you are sick with this illness and need to be provided with medical accomodations--ie) special provisions that an employer would make to help accomodate your medical disability so you can work. My request was to be able to work from home until I improved. I suspect maybe a month or two at most.

Which by the way up until my formal medical request--I was actually allowed to do when I was unable to travel from time to time due to "potty" issues.

Let's start with me: I've worked for the same company for 6 years--the first year in, I realized that I really had a problem....I've always had this problem but I never realized just how much of one it was until I had an accident in my car one day--2 blocks from work while sitting desperately at a red light with no escape route.

Although I'd suffered from this miserable illness since my early teens, I've been pretty much able to avoid much of it as I had always worked as a contractor prior to this position---therefore, I could generally show up later in the mornings etc.---BUT AS AN EMPLOYEE---you can't be late....as many of you are aware...and it was that day that I realized that I needed to get help for I was not going to be able to cope.

After humiliating tests etc...Dr. confirms initial suspicions--IBS...and sent me on my way without a lot of hope for controlling it.

So about 4 and half years ago, after eliminating various foods had failed--I started eliminating entire meals...I determined that I was able to eat once a day--Dinner and that was it. This would usually allow me to at least make it into the office before the 15 or so daily trips to the washroom began.

In the meantime, my metabolism slowed down so much that I gained 45 pounds--I eat 2 x a day on Saturday and sometimes on Sunday so I can eat/feel like a normal person and those 2 extra meals helped me really pack on the pounds over the years since my body is in starvation mode 5 out of 7 days a week.

Well, the worst has happened---the one meal a day isn't working for me anymore and my symptoms have become so bad that I stand little chance of making it anywhere in the mornings at all. So I decided that suffering from Bowel Incontinence had to be grounds for some sort of work from home arrangement until I could get my body back under control--surely no one should have to poop themselves or go to the bathroom in their cars on the side of the highway...this deserves a little compassion, no?

It seems that since IBS has no foolproof test to confirm whether or not you have it---it is deemed as pretty much a fruitless request by those wonderful 3rd party consulting companies (stated with sarcasm) that other large companies use to investigate any sick leave or medical accomodation requests.

So basically, in a nutshell, they come back to you and state that people live with IBS everday and they don't miss any days at work etc (yeah right)...and then tell your employer that you have insufficient medical diagnosis to support your claim and recommend that your employer should not accomodate you! Therefore, I can't even work from home on the days that I at least could take advantage of in the first place! How rude is that?

The first time the consulting company contacted me about my claim--the lady was kind enough to tell me upfront that most IBS claims usually fail. How promising--I figure they already made up their minds at that point anyway.

I'm appealing this decision--but it's definitely going to get ugly. I think I mentioned the word "legal" in there somewhere and that really got some people's knickers in a knot all of a sudden.

For the record, I work in technologies and we're allowed to work from home from time to time. Contractors in our organization are allowed to work from home full time but they like to have the employees come in regularly to show face. Further, since my medical request--I'M NOT ALLOWED TO WORK FROM HOME AT ALL DESPITE OTHERS ON MY TEAM BEING ALLOWED TO....I CAN FEEL THE LOVE ALREADY--ISN'T THIS DISCRIMINATION? I'm not trying to make an insurance claim or cost the company any money...I just want to be able to work....what a farce this has become.

I'M WONDERING WHY I SHOULD BOTHER WITH APPEALING ALL OF THIS...AND THEN I REMEMBER--SOMEONE HAS TO TAKE A STAND AND YELL THAT IBS IS A REAL ILLNESS THAT IS NOT IN ONE'S HEAD AND THAT SOMETIMES PEOPLE WITH IBS HAVE PROBLEMS THAT ARE SO SEVERE THAT THEY COULD BE CONSIDERED SOMEWHAT HANDICAPPED AND UNABLE TO FUNCTION THE WAY EVERYONE ELSE DOES.

CLEARLY--MY EMPLOYER RECENTLY CONVERTED ME FROM VALUED EMPLOYEE TO A LIABILITY AND IS NO LONGER TREATING ME WITH ANY RESPECT--SO I FIGURE, I MIGHT AS WELL JUST GO FOR IT--I'VE GOT NOTHING LEFT TO LOSE.

I feel better now...thanks for listening.