Have been since July 22nd. My doctor wrote the note for me to be off since July 17th, but I didn't hear about it until the afternoon of July 21st. My next doctor's appointment (at least with my family doctor) is September 17th. I don't even know if that's enough time to relax.
Let me tell you - if your finances aren't in good shape, stress leave is stressful in and of itself. You have to wait to get your disability claim signed by your doctor (took me a little over a week - I know, I'm lucky because some people wait longer) and send it in to work. They forward it on to the insurance company who is the one who pays you. My guess is it'll take about 3 weeks before I see anything.
Luckily, my husband got another job. He was let go from his last job and since he had been on unemployment a number of times over the past few years, his unemployment was going to run out and he didn't have enough hours to reapply. He's a delivery driver for a hardware company. He wanted to wait to get a higher-paying job (one he would be more qualified for) but I told him we were desperate. I could feel something building in up in me and it was about to blow. I also told him he might get lucky and make a connection with someone he delivers supplies to. And he did just that. He was chatting with a customer and mentioned he had a hard time getting the jobs he was qualified for and mentioned the highway expansion project going on in our area. Turns out the customer is the head of the board of construction for Quebec (something like that). He took down my husband's name and told him he has to go to Montreal tomorrow to buy his construction cards. (Here in Quebec you need special cards saying you can work on construction sites - $100. Cash grab? You bet.) Once he has those, he's going to find him a spot on that highway project - apparently my husband was trying with the wrong person, and that HR guy doesn't bother forwarding cv's of qualified prospects to the powers that be. My husband will be making a lot more than he is now. Supposedly, once a worker has those cards he will never be out of work again.
So that's one bright spot for us.
Our son had been sick/feverish during my first week off. He's finally getting back to eating properly again. We also just celebrated his 9th birthday. Had 2 friends over for supper and one slept over (only because the other one needed to be somewhere the next morning).
Also, the first Friday I was off we dropped off our son for the last time at the daycamp and we went to the hospital so I could drop off the form for the doctor and get my blood tested. My husband has had bronchitis, or something like it, since May. He was treated twice for it with azythromicin and prednisone. Both times didn't clear it up. He decided to go to the ER and see if they could help him out. They did alright - kept him in for observation until 10:45pm, blood tests, chest x-ray (he had one done a few weeks before). They didn't find anything wrong per se. Just before we sprang him, the doctor asked our son and I to leave. My husband was told if he didn't quit smoking, he'd have 10 years left to live. Apparently what he's going through now is a precursor to lung cancer. So he has quit smoking cold turkey. No patch. He claims to have no desire to smoke.
With that going on, I didn't have a chance to call the daycamp to have them stop my next 2 cheques. I couldn't afford to have Junior going to daycamp if I was here with no money coming in. I called Monday morning. I was told the person in charge of accounting was off on vacation that week and her backup wasn't in that day, I should call back Tuesday. I called Tuesday. Oh, she had a meeting to go to, call back Wednesday. I got nervous at this point because the cheque was due to come out that Thursday. I call Wednesday morning. I was bitched out. I should have called Monday (I did). The person who is in charge of accounting is on vacation and this person couldn't help me anyway. Apparently the cheques were already with the bank and there was nothing she could do to stop it. I was also informed I would be breaking the contract, which could only be broken because of sickness. Of the child, not the parent. I told her I would go through my bank, which I did. I asked for a stop payment on the two cheques. The teller told me sometimes it goes through, but the money should be replaced by the day after. I went to the bank today. The cheque was taken out yesterday. I hope it's back tomorrow because right now I have -$120.05 in my account.
Yeah, this is a long post, eh? LOL. It's my place to vent.
Last week someone from HR called to tell me my supervisor has come up with a solution - she'll have me trade places with someone in our archives department. If I don't like it after 3 months, I could always go back to my present position (I would still have the same supervisor). I said that would help a lot. I got the distinct impression though, that she expected me to say "I'll be back next week." No no no, this anxiety is not going away anytime soon. We do have a service at work for psychologists so I'm going to call - as soon as I feel calm enough to do it. Seriously, things that seemed so simple before make me freeze. I also fret about what to say to a psychologist. I can't even think about work without clenching my teeth all over again. At least the headaches are either gone or very mild. And my left arm has stopped tingling.
A friend of ours went off on stress leave not too long ago (different workplace). He told me he was treated differently when he got back. I'll have to expect that. But right now I don't even want to think about going back. I can't.
So while I'm off, this monkey who no likes clean is trying to get a handle on the mountain of crap that has accumulated in this house. It's hard living with a pack rat. He keeps bringing in other people's stuff that they don't need, and neither do we. This clean house thing is a slow process, but I'm trying to keep a handle on what has already been done so at least those areas don't get out of hand again.
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