Hello! Advice wanted

hev53

Hi There

I have been diagnosed with Seronegative Inflammatory Arthritis with Sjogrens Syndrome. I have been off work now for 8 weeks waiting for tests and appointments and finally a diagnosis and meds. They have put me on Hydroxychloroquine 400 mg. Alendronic Acid and Adcal. I take Co-Codamol 30/500 mg for the pain.
My flare ups continue, my knuckles, fingers and the balls of my feet are quite red and swollen. I am stiff every morning and don't really feel better until around midday but I do understand thats quite normal. My shoulders, and knees and hips hurt transiently.
I am going back to work next week as I am already on half pay and have asked for an assessment of my work station. But my work requires me to work shifts until 10 at night. I already had problems driving in the dark (I live in the middle of nowhere so it's all unlit roads for the last 20 minutes of my journey) and the Hydroxychloroquine appears to have made this worse.
My questions are these:
Can I be made to work the shifts at night?
And is Seronegative inflammatry arthritis the same as RA? I am confused.
Do I qualify under the Disability Equality Act.
I would be grateful for some help here.
Many thanks.

thistlegirl

Hi Hev,

https://www.gov.uk/definition-of-disability-under-equality-act-2010

Hope this link works, you may also want to post in the work matters forum, more help there.

I remember something about reasonable adjustments to your working conditions- I would think changing your shift to daytime is a reasonable one?
I have Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, I don't think seronegative is the same as RA-from google search anyway.
I qualified under the disability act so I would presume you would too. Have you considered contacting Citizens advice or maybe the helpline here?

You are at the start of a journey that takes a bit of getting used to but it does get better, it can take a bit to get the treatment sorted to suit you. It may take some adjustment but i hope with some help from your work you should be back there soon (with some adaptions-get this researched)

Hope this helps you

Thistle

hev53

Thank you Thistle

I am so sorry to hear you have Juvenile RA. I do hope things improve for you.
Thank you so much for the link. I will do some Googling myself to see what's out there.
Many thanks again.

lulubell69

Hi hev
I have sero neg arthritis but it has always been referred to as RA by doctors and you are covered by the DDA, however I would suggest you research as much a you can re work, benefits, rights etc as you are entering a long and, amongst many other things, often tedious and complicated journey.
I'm sure many of the good people on here can offer advice, take care.
Les

stickywicket

I'm sorry I can't help with the work questions but, as for the sero-neg business...there are several forms of auto-immune arthritis. They are usually divided into sero-negative and sero-positive but the treatments are basically the same. I had thought that RA (which I have) was always sero-positive but, reading lulubell69's post, maybe I'm wrong.

I don't know how long you've been on the hydroxy but it can take some time to kick in, as can all the DMARDS. (The alendronic acid and adcal are for osteoporosis and not a treatment for arthritis.) Hydroxy alone is not a very aggressive treatment for arthritis so, if you've been on it for over 2-3 months and are still getting worse, maybe you should ask to see your rheumatologist again.

Mat48

Hi - I had always thought that sero-negative RA was just that - no different in the treatments or title. The CEO and founder of the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society has sero-negative RA - as do many people who use the forums on the charity's site. My rheumy forgot I had a positive rheumatoid factor (it's since become negative) when he diagnosed me with "sero-negative Rheumatoid Arthritis". The only thing I've noticed is that my GP has taken to calling it my "arthropathy" now which irritates me a bit I confess. Why call a circle a square?!

There is an idea that sero-negative RA is less aggressive usually but over the three years I've had this condition for (2 years since diagnosed) I've met people who have been very badly affected by their sero-negative RA and people with sero positive RA who have the disease very well controlled so I don't think there are any rules. If you simply want to say you have RA for reasons of expediency or coming to terms I can see no reason at all why this would be wrong. Personally I call mine Rheumatoid disease and if anyone asks I say that its part of the autoimmune family because that is where I feel I belong and for what it's worth - my rheumy agrees with me.

Its very hard to come to terms with having RA and must be extra lousy when your work place is making things tough too. Being self-employed I have no advice on this but wish you luck. Mat x

dibdab

My rheumy calls mine RA, and I'm sero negative. When I was diagnosed my workplace(I was teaching but have had to give up) made reasonable adjustments because that's what Occupational Health told them to do. I had a work place assessment and reasonable adjustments included not doing early morning playground duty, not doing outside duties in very cold weather plus some issues with chairs etc. I'm not sure about shifts, but it's worth asking for an occy health referral perhaps?

Deb x