macular degeneration, macular, diagnosis Taking Time – My Macular Degeneration Journey/Journal

Taking Time

Good morning! Dishes in. Laundry in. Email checked. Time to settle in to write a page and avoid all that REAL work. You know: clean the bathroom, write a report, etc.

Not going anywhere today. All my beautiful snow is being ruined by a hard, cold rain. Also, hubby now has what I am getting over and he is ‘indisposed’. (I am no longer the world’s largest snot bubble, by the way. Score!)

But onward! Got an email from a reader who is having a struggle at a job that has a high reading load. I don’t totally ‘get it’ because I have dry AMD with no wiggles, but I believe the wiggles and vision distortions are greatly interfering with her job performance.

Never thought looking around the blurry spot was a blessing, but comparatively speaking maybe it is. I have a serious propensity for motion sickness and that would probably have me ‘indisposed’ most of the time.

Have you ever seen that woman who gets off the plane and hugs the ground to stop spinning? That was me. God help me if I had wiggles!

But once again, she digresses! Returning from left field here, I want to address temporary ways of leaving – and returning! – to jobs. I was lucky. I have said it a thousand times and I will say it again, I am blessed. I know and work with the BEST people and I have resources. When I could not see and was struggling, I just called in and took my leave. A few weeks later, I came back. Lived on savings. No problem.

What about the rest of the world who may not have my blessings? First of all, I am not an insurance salesman, but temporary disability insurance may be in order. It does not have to be with ‘the duck’- although I do like the commercials. [There are commercials in the US for Aflac Insurance and their mascot is a white duck.] Just make sure you don’t lose the farm if you cannot work for a period of time. There are a variety of plans. Look them over.

And what happens when you have used up all of your sick time and paid leave? In the USA we have a federal law called the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). The government published a nice brochure that can be found at – oh, dear Lord, the URL is three lines long! Lin can put the link in here, please:xxxxxxxxx. [Yes, of course, I live to serve you ::grin::]  Click here to go to the page that describes the FMLA.

There are a lot of ‘ifs’ but for the people who qualify, you can get 12 weeks of unpaid, repeat NOT paid, leave and still come back to employment. They offer a decision tree for you to determine if you and your employer qualify. The definition of qualifying conditions is a little murky but I would think not being able to see well enough to do your job comes in there somewhere. Unsubstantiated opinion, though.

Please note I said return to employment, not necessarily YOUR job. They are allowed to put you in a ‘comparable/ equivalent’ position. You may have left as a first grade teacher but come back to a third grade position.

One of the really nice things I see about FMLA? It gives you time. You get time to let the dust settle and study out your options. Act; don’t react. FMLA might just give you the chance.

Next: Lamp Stuff

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