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Bodie wrote: no one knew until just before I medically retired in 07. Interestingly, there was another officer who was DX at about the same time who let it be known openly. He later told me that he felt like it ruined the remainder of his career.

I do not regret holding it back, I was abe to progress further, doing things that the administration would have likely not have OK'd if it had been known. Of course with that said, my progression has been blessedly stable, and it would have been wrong to continue if I thought that I was putting others in harms way.

I am absolutely positive it would ruin my career. I have 4 years left, then I dont care who knows but until then, I will push it, fake it, whatever it takes. Of course if I got to the point where if I was to 94 someone and doubted myself, I would hang it up immediately. In this line of business its tough. The physical abilities test and gun qualifications are TOUGH. But so far I am doing ok. Were you able to get medical retirement based on your MS?

Bubba wrote:

Bodie wrote: no one knew until just before I medically retired in 07. Interestingly, there was another officer who was DX at about the same time who let it be known openly. He later told me that he felt like it ruined the remainder of his career.

I do not regret holding it back, I was abe to progress further, doing things that the administration would have likely not have OK'd if it had been known. Of course with that said, my progression has been blessedly stable, and it would have been wrong to continue if I thought that I was putting others in harms way.

I am absolutely positive it would ruin my career. I have 4 years left, then I dont care who knows but until then, I will push it, fake it, whatever it takes. Of course if I got to the point where if I was to 94 someone and doubted myself, I would hang it up immediately. In this line of business its tough. The physical abilities test and gun qualifications are TOUGH. But so far I am doing ok. Were you able to get medical retirement based on your MS?

Blessedly I was. The state where I worked handled retirement for local police officers. You were vested after 5 years, with disability(not SS disability) equalling almost 50% of the average of your highest four years salary. At ten years of service you qualified for medical too(for yourself only, though spousal and or family could be added for $$$). The kicker is that there is a limit on how much you can earn in addition before they start to limit or remove the disability benefit. Myself, I had 15 years on the job when I left. At the proper age the medical gets dropped for the ability to get medicare(oh joy).

I live in Fla and have 22 yrs on the job. But our state says to qualify you have to be permenantly or totally disabled. If there is a lower paing job that I can do then I have to take that. Dont get me wrong, I dont need disability but if the time comes??????

I told my boss because I trusted him well enough not to share it. I did not tell even one of my co-workers. Who wants to be second guessed every time you just make a stupid mistake. Right?

The reason I did this was a MS friend of mine shared a story where at his place of employment HR started an investigation and complete drug use work up because co-workers reported he was 'acting funny' and 'tripping a lot'. If my boss knew hopefully he would be consulted before something like that ever happened.

My 1st sx (11/2009) and eventual dx coincided with a herniated disc and spinal cyst, so for a while I just told everyone I had a bad back mixed up with "some neurological issues," with a very small circle knowing about the possibility of MS (my sx are still 95% paresthesias).

When the 2nd opinion confirmed the dx in 5/2011, I thought about it for a couple of weeks and couldn't see any upside to being secretive. So I told my mom, sibs, close friends, bosses & immediate co-workers, always being careful to say that so far it was only about weird sensations. And now it never comes up unless I mention it, but I won't have to surprise people with it when I eventually do need some consideration...

On the other hand, my walking is just starting to get a little 'sloppy' and I don't know what I'm going to think when I start feeling a need to explain...