Hassle from work over absence due to diabetes

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Deedee90

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Hi guys,

I’ve had to phone in sick to work a few times over the past four months due to high blood sugars. Manager was quite abrupt on the phone today asking if my condition is likely to affect my attendance in the future (well yes it’s likely to). I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to get a letter from your GP or nurses written in order to explain my condition to my employer?

Thanks
 
Hi. Can you let us know why high blood sugar prevented you from attending work?
 
Flu like symptoms causing my sugars to be high whilst insulin isn’t working to bring them down.
 
Deedee90 said:
Flu like symptoms causing my sugars to be high whilst insulin isn’t working to bring them down.
Click to expand...
So was it flu that kept you off work, and a side effect of this is the inevitable high BG?

I am not sure how you manage your D, but have you been given the sick day rules and taught how to correct highs. I am always surprised at the impact of illness or BG, and it takes some sorting each time.
 
Deedee90 said:
Flu like symptoms causing my sugars to be high whilst insulin isn’t working to bring them down.
Click to expand...
I wonder if mentioning the high blood sugars was a mistake given that it was the flu which meant you were unable to work?
It shouldn’t matter but personally I wouldn’t have blamed it on the diabetes I don’t think.
You are entitled to reasonable adjustments for a long term condition which can sometimes mean a more relaxed application of the absence policy, but personally I think I’ve only taken two days off due to diabetes itself, both when I’d had hypos in the night so serious that paramedics and police had to break in to help me and I then had to wait in for the windows to be boarded up!
 
Deedee90 said:
Hi guys,

I’ve had to phone in sick to work a few times over the past four months due to high blood sugars. Manager was quite abrupt on the phone today asking if my condition is likely to affect my attendance in the future (well yes it’s likely to). I was wondering if anyone knows if it is possible to get a letter from your GP or nurses written in order to explain my condition to my employer?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi Deedee and welcome to the forum.
I'm afraid I would be annoyed as well if an employee rang in and said can't come as have high blood sugars. You have the tools (insulin) to bring them down so use it, ask your team about insulin resistance and the need for extra insulin if running high. (what was this high number)?

If you had the flu then yep don't go in as you will infect everyone else.
In this day and age if you keep calling the diabetes card for a day off then you will be seen as unreliable and not wanted in the workforce by your employer.

Yep diabetes is a complete and utter pain in the article at times but it can be managed so it doesn't interfere with your day to day life. Unfortunately some people have to put a lot more work into the management than others but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I'm one of those that has to work overtime on my diabetes management, diabetes never ever interfered with going to work though or doing my job.

Hopefully you can find a happy medium and no more diabetes days off work. )
 
I’m with PumperSue on this. I worked for years with diabetes - and all sorts of BG levels. The only time off I ever took off was the first week on insulin when the consultant told me I was T1, not T2, as despite loads of tablets I was walking round with BGs in the teens - or higher.

Diabetes is a freebie for employers - it counts as a disability in employment law, but it’s a freebie because folk don’t take time off any more than anyone else, by and large. Concessions have to made for blood testing and injections, but that’s about it - you can sort out your BG at work just as well as at home.

It’s a bother, but that’s how you have to look at it. You’ll have to learn how to manage your diabetes at work - that’s why it counts as a disability. If you don’t, you’ll lose your job, without any recourse to employment law.

I know this sounds harsh, but this is the way the cards have fallen. You’ve got T1 diabetes, but you’ve got it for life, so you have to learn how to live it, at home and at work.
 
I had a couple of months off immediately on diagnosis - in hospital for a fortnight (not unusual in 1972) and it took a further 6 weeks for my eyesight to settle enough for me to read or write - since I was a clerk I absolutely couldn't work. I also couldn't read, watch telly, see well enough to knit or sew and our house must have been that clean you could have eaten your dinner off the floorboards (we were skint too) What a relief to get back to work - never been so bored in my life - scared to walk too far (because of those hypo things) and no money for bus fares even if going somewhere different to have a look was enjoyable on your own.

The odd day hypo day off here and there - plus the time taken to attend hospital appointments.

Other than that just normal things like flu, a couple of operations and one knee injury.

I changed my job a few times and once they had made me an offer which I'd verbally accepted and to sum up the employer would ask, is there anything you need to ask before we close? I'd say Well - I do have Type 1 diabetes which does involve an annual hospital and an annual GP appointment - but since it doesn't inconvenience me all that much, I can't see how it should inconvenience you either!

And that's the truth. If it ever has inconvenienced me - I always try my utmost to seek the help I need so that it doesn't. It does have demands alright as we all know - but so do I - and both of us have high standards!!!
 
The only time my daughter has had time of school for diabetes is a) for hospital check ups, which are every 3 months and sadly never fall outside school hours so I always try to get an appointment as early as possible and get her back to school as quickly as I can (and if we're very lucky one of the four might fall in school holidays!). And b) on two occasions when we had problems overnight and no insulin going in for several hours; once probably due to a cannula failure, the second time daughter had forgotten to plug her pump back in after her bath (oops...) . The first time she hadn't been diabetic very long so I was on the phone to the nurses about what to do about blood sugar of 25 and ketones of 3.5. Well obviously you change the cannula and inject some insulin quickly, the nurse said I should keep her at home and keep a close eye on her until everything was back to normal. So I did, but she seemed fine, apart from a headache which she didn't tell me about until later, she wanted to be at school and we got her back in there by 10.00, so only an hour late. I decided then that if we had that problem again I'd just take her to school anyway and ask the teachers just to do a couple of extra tests. The second one was quite recently, we spotted the problem in the middle of the night and had corrected it, so numbers were pretty well back to normal by the time she got up. She was feeling really rough that time though and looked awful, and I eventually decided that I didn't want to leave her at the bus stop on her own and kept her with me for a couple of hours, still got her back to school by 10.30 though.

I'm trying to teach my daughter that diabetes shouldn't stop you doing anything, and most of the time it doesn't, any other incidents have been dealt with at school. She spent rather a lot of time in the medical room in the last few weeks of term unfortunately, due to a couple of nasty hypos, one occasion when her cannula came out, and once when she was very high and the first aiders phoned me because they weren't sure whether she should be allowed to come home on the bus on her own. Other than that she just deals with it herself and the staff aren't even aware that anything has happened most of the time. She doesn't do everything for herself yet but I'm hoping that by the time she's an adult she'll be well prepared to just quietly get on with it. She's already a lot less embarrassed about it than she used to be, the change to secondary school seems to have brought her confidence on no end so I'm really proud of her 🙂
 
Hi Deedee and welcome to the forum. 🙂 After my diagnosis on the Wednesday (2/4/86) with DKA I came out of hospital on the Saturday afternoon and walked to school on the Monday morning. This was in the Easter holidays so I didn't even miss any school - it wasn't long before my A Levels. I've not had a day off work (28 years) due to 'diabetes'. My appointments I take as annual/flexi leave even though I'm entitled to take time off. I'm not saying this because I think I'm some sort of superman and I've had days off sick as most people probably have but none are down to just diabetes. I think if you've got flu or sickness then that's a valid reason to stay off work and could happen to anyone but just having high blood sugar or low blood sugar caused by T1 then you are able to do something about that. Your condition shouldn't affect your attendance at work, mine hasn't.
 
Agree with Matt cycle. I've had days off due to other illness, which can sometimes mess with your blood sugar, but have never had time off due to diabetes (apart from at diagnosis when GP rang me at work to tell me to go to A&E cos of ketones).
If you are having trouble with ketones and feet high blood sugars, it is important to get this sorted, as hopefully you can see, this shouldn't be expected. Best of luck sorting out
 
Sounds like you need more and better support to help you manage your diabetes @Deedee90 and to deal with the curve-balls and randomness that diabetes can throw at you, especially during times of illness.

You don't say how long you have been diagnosed, but it would be worth asking about a DAFNE course (or your local equivalent) which will give you tips and strategies for reducing BG variation, and coping with things like activity/exercise, alcohol and illness.

In the meantime this flowchart of 'Sick Day Rules' might give you some ideas: https://www.t1resources.uk/resources/item/sickday-rules-pdf/
 
What do you mean by high bg? I am type 2 when mine were 18 earlier on this year, this was following on from a chest infection and being on antibiotics, GP told me I should not be going to work with levels that high, in fact she suggested I should have gone to hospital. So i suppose it depends on what OP calls high levels. Before my medication was changed I regularly used to go to work with BG of 13/14, but as I am not on insulin I can't adjust quickly.
 
You don't say what work you do?

If you are upsetting a particular shift or crew, that might be awkward but that's not your fault.

Do you have an Occupational Health nurse or doctor at your place of work? We do, and they are fully supportive of all my conditions. The nurse is based here all day and the doctor comes in once a week but can be contacted by email any time.
 
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