Dialysis and your work

[beep]

I've been on dialysis now for 3yrs .Before my kidneys failed n before i went onto Dialysis,I was employed as a Heavy Vehicle Driver in the Transport industry.I was working long hours up to 12 hrs a day traveling al over the metro area, i had a road accident and to cut the story short I was taken off the road cause my employer was concerned bout my various ohter med issues , wasnt on dialysis at this stage,
as time went on i went onto dialysis n was not given the chance to resume work
in the 3 yrs im on dialysis i notice a lot of the patients are in the hi60's  into their 70's  now i'm 64.
Is there anyone out there still working in the Transport  industry n on dialysis how do u handle it
or does your(USA)   Dept of Transport frown upon it

[Riki]

I'm not sure about Dept of Transport (plus I"m not in the US) but there's a taxi driver in my unit who sometimes finishes his run and goes right back out to work.  He's only been on for a few months, so maybe after a while he won't be able to do that either.  Honestly, as long as dialysis doesn't interfere with your work, I don't know why you couldn't continue with it.  My dad is a long haul truck driver, so I have an idea of what it is you do (my guess is that you drive a truck that hauls equipment, or drive a snowplow, or something along those lines).

[beep]

hey Rikki you 're almost right  where do u come from  .unfortuanately in my country(oz)  you have be medicaly fit  and have a medical every so often to prove that u r ..eg my diabetes my heart my eye sight 

[Riki]

I'm in Canada, so I'm thinking that the regulations are pretty close, if not the same.  Dad has to have a medical done by the doctor every year in order to keep his trucking license.  He's semi retired now, so I don't know if he'll be in as big a hurry to have it done as he has been in other years. *G*

[beep]

thanks for that Rikki
I'm in OZ  yeah i had to do a medical also every year for my truck drivers licence. But since i lost my job thru me having so many medical issues, heart diabetes high BP, n now kidney failure on dialysis  i had to let my truck driving lic xpire n retire at the ripe sge of 62

[Michelle2016]

If I were you, I would not tell my employer. They say they will not discriminate against people who have health problems. I never believe them. I heard several people about their bad experiences with the employers. Once they know your situations, they treat you totally differently. They will not help you at all.

I have had dialysis and kidney tx for last 18 years. I never tell people and employers. If I am sick, I call sick. I am 58 years old now. I am still work full time.

Take care.

[Michelle2016]

I am not in transport industry.

[Charlie B53]

Dialysis itself is not a bar to maintaining a CDL.  High blood pressure and/or Diabetes are two afflictions that are addresses in the physical required as either can be cause for a person to lose consciousness and cause an accident.

Depending on your type of Dialysis treatment, the hours required, scheduling drive time may require some 'adjusting'.

Manual PD exchanges may be done in the truck only if you be absolutely certain of cleanliness to prevent any contamination of your connections.

Dialysis should not be a bar to your driving.

[beep]

 that an employer cannot fire you on medical grounds unfortuanately my employer had no intentions of letting me back on the road he did originaly state he was concerned about my med cond.   he just didnt want me on the books anyway that was 3 years ago now ....up till then i was maintaining my health ...but i imagine they didnt want to take the chance they went by the book as long as it suuted them   back to work now??  i seriously doubt it as my health has dropped a bit from 3 yrs ago
so now i'll njoy my dialysis n the rest of my life 
back to my job i reckon my employer jus didnt wanna take the chanceof me collapsing whilst drivin   as it was i was taken by ambulance to hospital twice  so he may have looked into the future
i also believe my treatment times tues & thurs would def have interferred with my work