12/7/21
Dear,
I am writing to unfortunately share an update on my
health.
It’s been a year and a half since my trigeminal left
nerve suddenly was attacked by the Shingles virus that caused facial paralysis
and I’ve not fully healed. In fact, I am suffering day to day with the
pain still. The left side of my head that was paralyzed continues to feel
pain all day every day, in particular my left eye and ear, my left scalp and
throat, my left face. The left eye is the worst, since my left eye’s
vision is blurry and thus causes me sharp left temple headaches daily. I
am secretly taking Ibu & Tylenol daily just to stay upright and logged in.
I finally allowed Jimmy to make an appt and take me to
an eye doctor appt last Tuesday, who prescribed me two kinds of eye drops to
help with the pain and promote good health. However, yesterday I
developed a purple spot on my left eye lid accompanied with more pain.
See attached for pics. I’m grateful the eye doctor was on call yesterday,
on a Sunday, and he told me to stop taking the two eye drops and said he does
not feel he can help me. He said my problems are not just related to my
eye, but to my nervous system and recommended I go see a Trigeminal Nerve
Neurologist at University Hospital and gave me their contact info.
Sob.
So, I have to decide if I should start over again with
doctors and go through this all again like I did when I was out in 2019 for
seven months on medical leave. Or, continue to try to live with the
pain. I admit, I cannot continue to keep staring at a screen 40 hours a
week as I am now. I’ve even tried wearing an eye patch while I work and
it’s ridiculous. These blue blocker glasses are not doing anything
either.
I really wish HR would buy me a cordless ear piece like
I had for my right ear so that I could stand up and walk around while I’m on
the phone. Sitting here staring at this computer eight hours a day is SO
bad for me. Like, SO SO SO bad.
I am taking the week of Dec 28th off as
vacation. I have an idea. Would you support me? What if I
took off the two weeks after my vacation as sick leave so I could go to this
specialized Neurologist. I would take that time to try and heal and
figure out a way to do this job with this medical issue. If it is
determined I cannot return to work after two weeks, I would go on short-term
disability until I could hopefully return to work healthily or go on long-term
disability after 90 days out. FMLA maybe again?
Sob.
Here is a Stand-Up I hosted in Feb 2020 with My
Story, in case you want to take 30 minutes to watch and understand more
about what happened to me.
I’m 39 and feel young, but I may be permanently
disabled. I love my job and I love working for CSU Global. I do not
want to quit. However, I have a serious medical situation with my nervous
system that is preventing me from living a normal life and I feel quite
devastated to write this email.
In conclusion, I repeat, would you support me taking
the first two weeks of Jan off from work? That
would mean I would not contribute to Winter C, sob. I hope I can make it
until then, as I may even have to log off early today due to the bruising of my
left eye and the pain. I’m trying to… push through though.
You have permission to tell whomever you need as I am
an open book regarding this situation.
Thank you for being with me as I deal with this
unfortunate medical situation,
Susan
