What to tell work?

[lostgrl85]

I'm still at the point where my official diagnosis is clinically isolated syndrome, but I'm seeing my new neurologist this week and I'll be pushing hard for him to figure out what's wrong with me. In the meantime, I've quickly deteriorated in the last three weeks since I started a new job. I went from having issues with my left leg that were somewhat manageable to now where I can just barely climb into the passenger side of a car, let alone walk any sort of distance without trouble. Friday was a total disaster at work and I couldn't hide it anymore by the end of the day. I couldn't even lift my leg off the ground anymore because I'd worn myself out so much. I can no longer return to work. It's just not safe for me or my patients. I did fall about a week and a half ago, and it was a couple days after that that I noticed my legs had gotten worse. I'm going to call in sick and then call my manager later to tell her what is going on and why I can't return to work at this time, although I'm also going to stress that I want to keep my job. It is probably highly unlikely since I've only been there 3 weeks and I'm already in this much trouble, but I figure it is worth the fight. I definitely will not bring up anything with MS, but I feel like I need to be truthful about what is going on with me. Are there any good ways at approaching something like this without making my manager think she hired a failure who could never do the job in the first place?

[NHE]

Keep in mind that a diagnosis of clinically isolated syndrome is not the same thing as a diagnosis of MS. I wouldn't even mention the possibility of MS at this time. Instead, just state that your having some health problems right now and that you would like to maintain your employment, but that you're currently finding walking a bit difficult. Perhaps there's something that they could have you do at a desk so that you could at least get some rest during the day.

NHE

[centenarian100]

How is your relationship with your manager?

Is your concern about privacy or about prejudice against disability.

Either way, you could get a generic work excuse note from a doctor or a note requesting time off or reasonable accommodations.