Any nurses out there working through chemo

3girls:  I am not a nurse but I do work in the education field with children.  I also have a part time job at a convenience store so I am around people a lot.  I work every day execpt for chemo day.  I have chemo on Thursdays.  I usually drive my bus that morning but I am out of my office and off the bus the rest of the day.  I return to work on Friday to both jobs.  I usually work at the store on Saturdays, but I do not work on Saturdays of my treatment.  Both jobs have been great at working with me on this.

I don't know what to tell you about working with critically ill patients.  I know the roughest days for me would be the Sunday, Monday and Tuesday after treatment.  And my WBC counts are usually down for at least 8 or 9 days after chemo.  But I still go to work and so far so good.

I'm sorry I don't have any good information for you.  Are you eligible for any kind of sick leave?  You can also apply for the Family Medical Leave Act.  It may be leave without pay, but at least they can't take your job.  My job at the school had me do that to protect them and myself.

Keeping you in my thoughts.

HUGS!

I am physician and I worked a lot of the time through chemo. I did dose dense adriomycin/cytoxan and 12 weeks of taxol. During A/C, i was unable to work the first week of chemo due to tremendous fatigue, anorexia etc. But worked the second. During taxol, I took 1/2 day off for infusion, but otherwise worked full time. I will say it was tremendously difficult. It was simply a financial nessecity since I'm self employed ie a large overhead. My oncologist said that almost all infections due to immunosuppresion are from our own flora. I would see what feels right to you.

Elizabeth

I'm a nurse practitioner working in an outpt clinic. I tried working through chemo, but even at 50% couldn't due to fatigue and wanting to throw up all the time. I quite chemo after 7-8 weeks because I couldn't continue without quitting or taking a leave from work, and I'd already exhausted all my medical leave with surgery & recovery. If I didn't work I wouldn't have medical coverage.

I was in the very low end of the moderate risk category as far as my Oncotype DX was, so probably the benefits of chemo didn't greatly outweigh the risks. But I would have been in a very bad spot otherwise. 

I have heard of some RNs working full-time through chemo. We are all so different. Hope all goes well with you.

I havn't worked since aug and work in IR. I'm just not comfortable doing it. we get so many patients down that we don't really know what they have. It happens a lot thta they are on isolation and its not communicated to us. I worked prn. just called my job last week to let them know how long chemo lasts. said they would get back to me. I'm pretty sure they can't fire me. I really don't feel comfortable sedating patients with my brain so wonky acting.

Hi 3girls

I work in alcohol liaison in a general hospital which means visiting lots of different patients on lots of different wards. I thought I would work through my chemo but was pretty sick then neutropenic on my first FEC which kind of wiped me out. My second and third FEC were a bit better and at a push, I could maybe have worked the last week on both of those. I've just had my first TAX and there is no way I could have worked through this due to pain, tiredness and lack of concentration (I'm a nurse prescriber and wouldn't trust myself to prescribe detoxes for folk at present!) Having said all that, some people think TAX isn't too bad...

Assuming you're not putting yourself at risk and are staying healthy, I'd say, day at a time and see how it goes. Don't beat yourself up and weigh up the long term gain over what you might feel you need to do in the short term. 

Good luck

Laurie x 

I had to take a 6 month leave from work.  Was just planning on being off work 6 weeks for mastectomy, but had to have a second surgery for infection and had an open wound from Sept 2010 to Jan. 2011.  I work three 12 hr night shifts on a med-surg floor.  I was so sick from chemo (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea) I could have only managed to work every 3rd week that being the only week I felt like anything, but then that was the week my feet and ankles would swell huge.  I was neutropenic after all chemo but the first one, so was told by my ONC to stay away from sick people and crowds.  Just wasn't meant for me to work.  A friend who also is a hospital employee was able to work the entire time, so seems it just depends on the individual.  Very thankful that I was able to be off 6 months and get 60% of my pay.

Hey 3Girls, I'm not a nurse but I work in a hemodialysis unit as a tech. I worked my entire time on chemo and it really wasn't that bad. I did learn within my first few infusions what days were the worst for me and my scheduler worked with making the days I had off the days my side effects were the worst. I had infusion on Wednesday and Saturday was the peak of feeling hit by a truck. So I typically had that day off. My boss was pretty good with making it aware I was not to be near the patients with cdiff, mrsa and certain other infections and illinesses. I wore a mask a lot and washed and sanitized non-stop. Honestly the worst for me was the chemo brain and charting. I would sit and stare at the monitor for like an hour trying to enter an end of treatment note that normally takes less then five minutes. The same fill in the blank note I'd probably done 1000 times seemed like I was deciphering a code. Prayers you will be able to manage both.

3girls - As you can see from the previous posts, everyone's responses to chemo are different. I work in a  pediatric ED and my MO told me that he didn't want me to work while getting chemo so that's what I planned for. As it turns out, I was neutropenic on AC even with Neulasta (ANC < 1000) for the first 2 rounds so it would have been a good idea to be working in the ED then. By the third round my ANC came up but my chemo brain and fatigue would not have made it safe for my patients! I was fortunate that my long term disability kicked in at 90 days. Does your employer carry that benefit for you? If they do, get started on the paper work early, it takes awhile to wade through it!

I think Irish is right.  I did only radiation, surgery and then another unrelated surgery, lost my lob at the beginning of all this and had to move to a smaller place.  I am not an RN, but am in a place where I am finding it hard to concentrate. and I could do potential harm.  I admire anyone who does this.  I tried working during another illness several years ago and wish that I had saved my strength for healing. My doctor supports me.