MS in the workplace

I've hit some kind of a blogging rut it would seem. I have about 12 posts that are in some stage of the draft development but none of them are actually anywhere close to finished. It's funny I get in a roll and then all of a sudden the thoughts fade and I'm left with half a page of text.

Today, let's discuss a topic I've been debating lately. Do you tell your workplace about your disease, or in my case, about my MS. Sure there are laws that protect us in the workplace but a part of me wonder how easy it is for a company to work around these laws and still ultimately get their way and possibly get you out of the workplace.

When I started working at my current position around 3 years ago I decided that I simply would not disclose my MS. Of course every month I leave work for a half day so I can get to Tysabri but no one has every asked about this. Luckily my boss trusts that I will plan accordingly and he's never voiced any concern about his.

I'd like to think if I needed to at some point disclose my MS that things would go smoothly, but truth is you never know. I recently had diner with a old friend who has her own health problems and when she disclosed her condition to her employer she basically got boxed in to a dead end career path. Sure, nothing illegal happened, but it was clear that job growth was out of the question.

Every since I was diagnosed I have always fear that fact that if I wasn't working I wouldn't have insurance. No insurance means no Tysabri. My insurance this past year shelled out over $100,000 just this past year alone. Out of pocket that would be impossible. I used to worry what would happen if for some reason I lost my job and I didn't have insurance.

I've joked with Erik that we would have to get hitched just so I could be insured and honestly that's just so ridiculous that it would come to that. For all the flack that Obama Care has gotten, I have to say I am waving pom poms internally. Sure the process of enrollment is not all peachy at the moment but in the end I really think it's a good thing. I know a lot of people disagree and from all the conversations I always disagree with the person I'm talking to. If you are a perfectly healthy individual people seem to think this health care law is ridiculous, but to someone like me it opens up doors I didn't think would exist. Maybe it's not the perfect solution for the country but I believe it's a great first step to something great.

In the end it's one less what if that I have to worry about, and for that it's kinda amazing.