Taking time off due to illness

[boredStudent]

Hey all; I'm seeking some advice regarding whether or not I should take time off due to illness.

 

Here it goes:

 

I'm a student in Waterloo's co-op program. I'm in my 3A term. I've had ulcerative colitis since I was 14 or 15. I've been treating it with Pentasa and Asacol. I was diagnosed when I was 16 and, until six months ago, I've been more or less symptomless since I was 17 (there were periods of a having a nasty week here and there). Towards the end of my 2B term, I think I may have had a moderate case of food poisoning after eating some bad shellfish. Following that, my UC jumped into full-flare up mode (I can't say whether or not the food poisoning was causative, but it makes me happy to think that was the precipitating event and not scumbug randomness ).

 

It was tough but I stuck it out through the term, wrote my exams, and came out with some pretty decent grades. I then moved to the US for a co-op job for four months. During that entire period, the severity of my flare-up remained static (at about a moderate, uncomfortable level). I'm now back in school. About two weeks ago, my UC jumped up a notch in severity, but it's subsided back to that moderate level. I did miss two weeks of lecture, though.

 

So, here I am now, incredibly burned out and exhausted with dealing with this disease. I've been living the last six months pretending my life is 100% in order. It's not. My quality of life has dropped, the quality of my work has dropped, my attention span is shot, my thoughts are cloudy and disjointed, and I'm becoming more and more apathetic to generally everything.

 

I'm strongly considering scrapping this term and taking three months off to pretty much do nothing except R&R (i.e. remove all stress and get healthy). I mean, I'll probably audit some courses that interest me, study for the MCAT a little bit, follow up with a bunch specialists in Toronto regarding personalized treatments, etc... but no formal commitments.

 

Following that, I'll either head back to school for the summer, or do my next co-op term (I have like a billion disparate interviews in the next two weeks and the activity of prepping for them feels like a full-time job in of itself).

 

I'm worried that med school adcoms will see this as a red flag. You people probably know way more than me regarding issues like this (some of you have probably even been through similar things), so I'm curious to hear your advice.

 

My main concern:

 

-I'm not ill enough to get hospitalized; it's only really the mental weariness of being ill for so long (imagine have dull throbbing stomach cramps a few times daily, loss of appetite, inability to sleep more than two or three hours, general fatigue, having to run to the bathroom every one or two hours, etc... but for six months straight) that's dragging me down. I'm afraid taking time off will be seen as laziness or an inablity to handle my disease.

 

TL;DR: I've been sick for a long time. I want to take three months off to get healthy and put myself back on emotionally stable ground. I'm, however, not sick enough get hospitalized. I'm worried such an action would be a red-flag to adcoms (that they'll think I can't handle my disease or that I'm lazy).

 

Thank you so much in advance for your replies.

[ellorie]

Have you spoken to your academic advisor about this? From a purely practical standpoint, taking a medical leave from school can turn into a real cluster****. It can affect your financial aid, your academic standing, your graduation, and all kinds of other stuff. I don't know anything about your program, so I don't know if any of that would apply to you, but I would make sure to really look into that intensely before you scrap the semester. It might also be worth emailing or calling a few medical schools to see how they would consider that year for you.

 

When I was in that situation, I dropped down to part time and deferred all of my coursework until late in the summer. That also had some practical issues attached, but lesser ones than dropping out entirely would have, in my case.

 

Anyway, when I got around to applying, not one single school cared that I had a hole in my transcript. I wrote in the "additional information" section that I had been ill and that I could provide a doctor's note if needed, but no school ever brought it up. The only thing that happened was that I didn't get the weighting formula applied at U of T, but I ended up getting in anyway and if I'd known it existed I probably could have appealed with a doctor's note and gotten it anyway.

 

My general advice about this situation is to do what you need to do for your health and worry about medical school later. Better to get the drop on an episode while you can than to have it escalate and cost you even more time later on.

[future_doc]

Your health is the priority here. Document from a medical perspective your emotional exhaution, burnout and physicial exhaution is this be the case. This together with your medical issues should ensure am acceptable explanation to med schools such that it won't be an issue.

[Illuminant]

Definitly take time off

[FacelessMage]

I hear you, OP (had food poisoning right before Christmas, hello flare-ups!). It definitely sucks. I'd say that if you're at the point where you have to miss two weeks of lecture, it would definitely be a good idea to see a GP/GI specialist and get that documented. Your first priority right now should be to get yourself healthy again, and if that means that you have to take time off of school, then you should look into it.

 

Also, get yourself to your GI specialist as soon as possible. Clearly the food poisoning messed something up, and six months is an awfully long time to be feeling this sick, so it would be a good idea to get it looked at before it gets to the point where you need to be hospitalized.

[<abstract>]

Hey all; I'm seeking some advice regarding whether or not I should take time off due to illness.

 

Here it goes:

 

I'm a student in Waterloo's co-op program. I'm in my 3A term. I've had ulcerative colitis since I was 14 or 15. I've been treating it with Pentasa and Asacol. I was diagnosed when I was 16 and, until six months ago, I've been more or less symptomless since I was 17 (there were periods of a having a nasty week here and there). Towards the end of my 2B term, I think I may have had a moderate case of food poisoning after eating some bad shellfish. Following that, my UC jumped into full-flare up mode (I can't say whether or not the food poisoning was causative, but it makes me happy to think that was the precipitating event and not scumbug randomness ).

 

It was tough but I stuck it out through the term, wrote my exams, and came out with some pretty decent grades. I then moved to the US for a co-op job for four months. During that entire period, the severity of my flare-up remained static (at about a moderate, uncomfortable level). I'm now back in school. About two weeks ago, my UC jumped up a notch in severity, but it's subsided back to that moderate level. I did miss two weeks of lecture, though.

 

So, here I am now, incredibly burned out and exhausted with dealing with this disease. I've been living the last six months pretending my life is 100% in order. It's not. My quality of life has dropped, the quality of my work has dropped, my attention span is shot, my thoughts are cloudy and disjointed, and I'm becoming more and more apathetic to generally everything.

 

I'm strongly considering scrapping this term and taking three months off to pretty much do nothing except R&R (i.e. remove all stress and get healthy). I mean, I'll probably audit some courses that interest me, study for the MCAT a little bit, follow up with a bunch specialists in Toronto regarding personalized treatments, etc... but no formal commitments.

 

Following that, I'll either head back to school for the summer, or do my next co-op term (I have like a billion disparate interviews in the next two weeks and the activity of prepping for them feels like a full-time job in of itself).

 

I'm worried that med school adcoms will see this as a red flag. You people probably know way more than me regarding issues like this (some of you have probably even been through similar things), so I'm curious to hear your advice.

 

My main concern:

 

-I'm not ill enough to get hospitalized; it's only really the mental weariness of being ill for so long (imagine have dull throbbing stomach cramps a few times daily, loss of appetite, inability to sleep more than two or three hours, general fatigue, having to run to the bathroom every one or two hours, etc... but for six months straight) that's dragging me down. I'm afraid taking time off will be seen as laziness or an inablity to handle my disease.

 

TL;DR: I've been sick for a long time. I want to take three months off to get healthy and put myself back on emotionally stable ground. I'm, however, not sick enough get hospitalized. I'm worried such an action would be a red-flag to adcoms (that they'll think I can't handle my disease or that I'm lazy).

 

Thank you so much in advance for your replies.

 

Hello there,

 

I take you post to heart as my best friend has UC and began his journey with this disease since he was 14. I remember him missing almost 3 months of high school, and loosing tons of weight then gaining it back from all the prednisone he was taking. It really is a ****ty disease - no pun intended. Luckily he was able to get it into remission at the end of grade 12 and he is doing well. But as with all auto immune disorders, there is always that chance for the inevitable flare up.

 

All I can suggest to you is to do what will make you the most comfortable, your health is the most important to you. If you are going through a flare up you should really discuss your options with your academic counselor and if you are considering taking time off get a note from your physician.

 

Good luck to you.

I hope you feel better soon.