Our work or what we do for a living is often what defines us. It is quite possible that when we are diagnosed with kidney disease and have to get on to dialysis, there might be a break in our work or education. It is important for us to get back to what we were doing after we attain some level of stability in our medical condition.
Working has many benefits. For one, it allows you to get your mind off your health. You have other things to think about. This can be a huge advantage. The power of the mind is really great. If you constantly think about your health and your problems, you will feel worse than you actually are. If, on the other hand, you think about thinks other than this, you will generally feel better.
The income you get from your work will help in meeting medical expenses. You will feel better about being able to contribute to your expenses, possibly meet them entirely. You feeling of self-worth will also get a dramatic improvement. You will not feel helpless and dependent.
There are a few things you will need to decide however.
The number of hours you will work, the kind of work you will do and how you will adjust your work schedule with your dialysis schedule. For example, you might need to adjust your work hours on the days you have your hemodialysis sessions.
For people on PD, you will need to take a little break to do your exchange. You will also need to consider where you will be doing the day time exchanges. You can do an exchange in the morning and the night at home but one or two exchanges will need to be done at office. Consider this only if you have an absolutely clean place to do them. If you are using a PD cycler, this is not an issue at all since you will be doing most of your exchanges at night while sleeping. If you nee a daytime exchange, in addition to your night time cycles, then you will need to think about this too.
One other important decision you will need to take is whether to tell your colleagues, boss, subordinates etc. about your medical condition. There is no standard advice anyone can give for this. Play it by ear. See what kinds of people they are and then take a decision. Remember that there might be situations when you will be unable to go to work simply because you are feeling unwell. Normal people also skip work because they are unwell. But yours might be a little more frequent. There will also be times when you simply are not 'up to it'. You will need to handle this properly.
By and large, working definitely will make you feel better. Your life will be more fulfilling and meaningful. If you find it difficult to work full time from an office, consider working part time. Or even working from home, There are a number of possibilities these days.