Officially got my short-term disability and FMLA

Background here: http://forums.psychcentral.com/showthread.php?t=239443

Today I finally had my first appointment with a therapist since 1994, and she agreed that my downward spiral at work could best be handled by using FMLA leave (up to 12 weeks) and taking advantage of short-term disability with 75% of my salary (up to 90 days).

Luckily, she was able to schedule me with a psychiatrist next week to start working on figuring out what meds I should be on. (My regular MD has me on Celexa and Abilify, but those aren't working for me.)

Looks like I'll be out from work for at least a month. Maybe more.

I'm SO incredibly relieved.

It's only Wednesday (and I only worked part of the day), but it has not been a good week and I was continuing to feel like my days were numbered.

It was interesting to hear a few things from my old chart. I have so much trouble remembering things. Does anyone else have this problem? I couldn't remember who I used to see or when I was there.

She filled me in on who I saw and the fact that I had not been since 1994. When she read me a few of the things that I was most concerned about back then, I laughed. They were things that I never think about now. I was on one career path, for example, that didn't work. I lost interest in it as soon as I passed the tests and got certified.

That's just like me, though. Work toward a goal, reach it, and then forget about it or decide it wasn't for me at all.

It's just funny how something that I put so much work and thought into back then isn't a part of my life at all.

Purple Daisy, I am happy for you and the relief that you feel. Take this time to focus on your health!

Ditto. And I am glad that at least for now you are out of danger zone in terms of being fired. I hope you will find the right meds, too.

Greats news that you got approved leave and FMLA. Just one word of caution: Pay careful attention to any and all directives from your company regarding your leave and FMLA. The company I work for tries to get employees on technicalities all the time. While employees are on leave, they will get a certified letter out of the blue that they must get a new doctor's note and must respond by such and such date. Employees who miss the certified letter or can't get in to their doctors on time assume they can explain away why they failed to comply, but failure to comply quickly turns into dismissal. It's happened so much where I work (big company). Our union warns employees to comply w/ all directives while on leave, but people still don't seem to get the message. I'm not trying to scare you, and perhaps your company is not the faceless monster mine can be sometimes, but just watch out for any and all directives from a supervisor while you are out. If they need another doctor's note, etc. by all means get it. Best of luck to you while you are out. I hope you are successfully treated!!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I have my first appointment since 1994 with a psychiatrist, so we can begin getting my meds figured out.

Wednesday I have my second appointment with the therapist that I saw last week, so we can dive into this. I hear a lot of people say they dislike therapy, but when I went long ago I liked it. Probably because I don't have a best friend to confide in or bounce ideas off of. I have to pay someone to be my friend because I tend to run off the "free" friends.

Thursday is another appointment with my regular MD, who was the one who put me on Celexa a couple of years ago, and then when I mentioned several months ago that I didn't think it was the right dose she doubled it and it threw me into hypomania and led to my most recent problems.

I also need to pick up the paperwork she is filling out for FMLA and short-term disability so I can get all of that sent off to HR.

So far, I have enjoyed my time off (which officially began last Thursday and it is now Monday).

I downloaded "The Best of Ask a Bipolar" on my Kindle and I've been reading it. Great info.

I've done quite a bit of reading for enjoyment, which I usually don't have time for.

Got some cleaning and organizing done around the house.

The insomnia continues, and I know I really need to get myself on a sleeping schedule and stick to it, but once I finally fall asleep I have been letting myself sleep without an alarm in hopes of waking up feeling like I've actually slept.

I ran out of money, which isn't cool. I have 26 cents to my name and have since Friday. But I get paid tomorrow, so it will be OK.

My dreams have been weird. I think some stuff is going on in my dreams to work out my issues. The dreams I have been having for the last couple of years have seemed to be related, and lately my dreams feel almost like they're tying up loose strings from those dreams. A lot of revisiting of scenes and topics.

On another note -- and I'm probably sharing way too much at this point -- my daily poop problems (stress at work?) are no longer a problem.

Meanwhile, I continue to scroll through this site and read more posts.

Re: poop . You are not sharing too much. People share on this forum. People expose themselves and become vulnerable, and that is OK. Just recently I and some other women shared our dissatisfaction with the shape or size of our breasts, and that was OK. Does not get that much more intimate than that, right? Well maybe in the case of poop, it does. At any rate, congratulations! I have never had this problem; I have perfect digestion (and highly imperfect brain function ) but my late mom always had a problem and I remember how awful it was. Congrats on passing this stage in your life! Enjoy!

How are you doing, PD? I know Lithium causes a metallic taste - what else is happening?