Open Heart Surgery

[EBJ]

That is sad news m8 and i cannot add any more than our members have already said of your recovery, i can add though that another caretaker who lived near me suffered a heart attack and later on our school was approached if we were willing to assist him in getting back to work by him attending the school when i opened up and we did an unlock and then i gave him basic hoovering to do as they needed him to now get back into the routine of waking up going to work and home, he only did two hours but was grateful for the assistance and as far as i know he is in employment again, hope that story helps.

[Dexter]

I cannot say I have had anything as serious as you HarleyPete.

The only advice I can give is to look at your contract regarding paid sickness absence. Given your length of service, if it is the same as mine, you are eligible for up to six months of absence on full pay and a further six months on half pay. If you have had periods of recent absence it may cause the half pay to kick in earlier as they work on rolling years. It is worth knowing where you stand, financially, in the short term.

Your consultant should give you a time frame for recovery and (hopefully) returning to work. Your school does not have expertise. I would look to give them details of likely return date - they should communicate with you for updates on your progress. If the medical advice is that you can return then your employer should comply.

Finally, big respect to you all that are living with (or had) such serious medical conditions. I was a bit taken aback when reading this thread..

[TheTaker]

I have had numerous heart surgeries and with time i have resumed all my previous jobs except one. Also i don't have to do big refurbishment works like i used to. The one job im categorically not allowed to do is move snow. I have dropped dead twice once on site so they know just how severe things are. if you want a chat more openly you can message me.

[wonderwoman]

I'm really sorry to hear this but i hope you will be ok.
Though not the same i did my back in two years ago and have trouble picking heavy items up and moping hovering. i thought my employment would end but with a lot of discussion and on going monitoring i now do 15 hours a week opening and closing the school and do the health and safety checks.
It's not ideal money is half what i was getting but it's more than i would be getting if i was working somewhere else, or even not working so i'm glad.
Have a look through you sickness policy and ill health policy, if you need to ask for union help. I hope it doesn't come to this but there is always something you can do and like me i'm sharing my knowledge of the school etc to the person who comes in to help do the rest of my job.
The main thing is take your time and don't rush back to work and do a visaed back into work, my dad had a triple bypass and it took him over a year to get back to doing things again but he is in his eighties.

[HarleyPete]

I'm sorry and I wish you all the best

I had the worst possible hearth attack (nicknamed The widow maker) when I was 41, obviusvely I take lot of medication and I had to slow down.
It takes a bit to recover but you can have pretty much a normal life.
One of the parameter used to understand the heart functionality is the EF (ejection fraction) but you need to listen to your body, stop when you feel something unusual and plan in advance

According to my last CT Aortagram my EF is 62% whatever that means. My biggest issue is mentally, I have a hard time looking at things positively and will always look to worst case scenarios. My thoughts are that everything else is a bonus if the worst doesn't happen.

Unfortunately, I always have the feeling that certain departmental heads would rather see me gone than worry about my health. Let's just say a sarcastic comment was made about me not moving very fast to which I replied, that under the circumstances it wasn't surprising.

[HarleyPete]

Thank you all for your kind and supportive words, they mean a great deal to me. I am lucky in that I have a wonderful wife, a fantastic family, good brothers in my club and some good colleagues at the school who are all concerned and supportive. I have had to start to re-think my superhero status and realise that maybe I'm not invinvible like I once thought. My biggest problem (and one I will have no choice but to change) is that I have always relied on only myself for pretty much everything. It certainly is an eye opener and a shock to the system so to speak.

Without going into details things have occurred over the years that makes me distrust my bosses. So I am really wary of how things will go, given that when this all came to light some years ago (when I was first diagnosed with the dilated aortic root) I was asked then if I should be working and would I be able to carry out my duties properly not how can we keep you here. There was even the thought that they would have copies of the report that would be generated at that time automatically. To say the least, they weren't best pleased when being told that basically I didn't have to provide them.

As for sick pay, I am in the enviable boat that yes, I am entitled to six months full and six months half pay.

Fortunately, I am also in a union now, although not necessarily a well know one but they serve my purpose by being non political.

What isn't helping is that my school has now decided to ask us to consult on leaving the Local Government Pension Scheme to save them money. So this is adding to the stress of things at the moment.

[HarleyPete]

As Vera said
I had a heart attack a few years ago and thought my world had ended, in the back of the ambulance I thought if I can`t work or cycle I don`t want to live, then the stubborn gene kicked in and I thought I will get over this.
They put in a stent and I have been working for 7 years, riding bikes and carrying on as normal.

Yours is more serious but the NHS is amazing, you will get better

Pretty much how I feel at the moment. Although our modes of transport vary slightly (well I guess your's is human powered and mine is not but they are still two wheels) the thought is the same. If I lost my freedom to go where I want, how I want and when I want then to me there's not much point in being here. Loads of people say to remember you have family but that's not alway the easy way to look at it. I have a very large family with four daughters and fourteen grandchildren. However, I would be no good to them if I had to give up my car or motorcycle, having been riding since '89 and driving since '84 because I would just become a recluse. I don't do public transport at all unless I really have no choice, I find it cost prohibitive and time consuming, as well as frustrating/stressful plus my nearest station is about a mile away up and down a steep hill with no busses early enough to get to work.

I think the biggest stress at this exact moment in time is waiting for the appointment to come round. I already know one thing they will say, but loosing weight is not that easy when your medication is specifically designed to lower your blood pressure and slow your heart rate.

[HarleyPete]

Firstly sorry to hear about your problems.
But if you keep going with life as normal as you can it helps. Not really the same I was diagnosed with terminal stage 4 bowel cancer in May 2021. Was given till --- (The seasonal word only permitted in December) ---. My world fell apart. In Sept 2021 I started treatment which knocked me When someone tells you you're going to die very shortly it changes the way you see things
Could not have gone to work if I had wanted to, sickness from the chemo etc. Sat at home just waiting to die not a good place to be. well, --- (The seasonal word only permitted in December) --- came in 2021 . Then the switch went on I thought they must have got it wrong I am still here. So I started going out for walks when I felt right.
Having chemo every other week.
In June 2022 I was starting to feel more like my normal self so I rang the school and asked if I could come in school. The school was VERY GOOD yes you can come in but not to work. I had a big fight on my hands with Health and safety trying to get back into work. The best thing I did was come back to work. Having worked all my working life having no time off was not for me.
I am still having chemo every 2 weeks and the school knows that sometimes I might not turn up on Friday morning after chemo on Thursday

But you just have to keep going and take each day as it comes I am still terminally ill who knows what tomorrow will bring, keep fighting it and doing what I do and it's not going to change me.

Love work, keeps my mental health in the right place

good luck keep smiling and do as much as YOU feel your able to do.

Wow, sort of puts things into perspective. I am truly sorry to hear that you have stage four cancer, it is such a horrible disease. One of my colleagues has been dianosed with stage four prostrate cancer which has, as you say, changed his outlook on life. As I've said elswhere on this thread, I just want to get on with it and know what is happening. Like you, I have worked all my life (in fact I have worked two job for almost the same length of time) to provide at first for my family and then to make life that little bit more enjoyable.

Thank you for the support, it means a lot and I'm glad you are doing well and that you are able to fight it.

I'm sure I will come out of it and be okay once I get me head on straight.

[MrMoustache]

According to my last CT Aortagram my EF is 62% whatever that means. My biggest issue is mentally, I have a hard time looking at things positively and will always look to worst case scenarios. My thoughts are that everything else is a bonus if the worst doesn't happen.

Unfortunately, I always have the feeling that certain departmental heads would rather see me gone than worry about my health. Let's just say a sarcastic comment was made about me not moving very fast to which I replied, that under the circumstances it wasn't surprising.

62% is very good (mine is around 40-42%), however as I said you need to listen to your body and to the cardiologist. I don't have any problems to do long walks but I need to very careful with any sudden intense effort.
They must have extremely valid reasons to dismiss you on these basis because the line with discrimination is very fine. They have to proof you are not doing your duties and it's because of your health but they should first make a risk assessment and make any reasonable adjustments, if these adjustments are reasonable and you are still not doing your job then they can follow the other path

[HarleyPete]

62% is very good (mine is around 40-42%), however as I said you need to listen to your body and to the cardiologist. I don't have any problems to do long walks but I need to very careful with any sudden intense effort.
They must have extremely valid reasons to dismiss you on these basis because the line with discrimination is very fine. They have to proof you are not doing your duties and it's because of your health but they should first make a risk assessment and make any reasonable adjustments, if these adjustments are reasonable and you are still not doing your job then they can follow the other path

Thanks for that, I did think it was low but I guess not. I notice the same thing now and again when doing certain things, but have always managed it sensibly. The cardiologist has mentioned weight a few times but never actually tells me the sorts of things I can try to loose weight.
I've thought about a static excercise bike but have worried it would be too much.

I guess until the conversation arises I won't really know, it's just historically I've seen others be treated badly in my opinion. Mental health issues don't help either in my case and I can (and have) made myself worse by focusing on the negative. It's not easy to change you metal state of mind over night but I'm working on it.