Medical retirement

[Otherplans]

Today I received some bad health news. After long term sick leave and treatment, my consultant has said he'd support medical retirement from my university post as I'm not going to get better. I'm in pieces. Not sure about finances. Otherwise I hope I'll be able to do some writing and research of my own, as I have so much left to say. Has anyone been through this? Have you managed to stay academically active in some way?

You poor thing! I haven’t got personal experience, but my cousin went through similar, at a reasonably established stage and he’s found himself quite busy with a combination of sitting on interview panels, editing a book series, reviewing book proposals for publishers, the odd invited conference talk, guest lecturing on colleagues’ courses, research reviewing for the EU, PhD examinations. Some pay better than others and of course you have to be quite ruthless about saying you have to be paid when people try and take advantage. As for keeping up in the field, I think the more you do the easier it is, though of course it depends on how fast moving your discipline is. One benefit from lockdown is it's become normal to do stuff remotely, so no one turns a hair if you cannot travel.

Wishing you all the best.

Thank you. That's really encouraging. I am allowing myself one night of wallowing and will have to get practical. I hope the process of medical retirement won't be too arduous.

Also see if you can retain some sort of affiliation status so you continue to have library access.

One of my best friends in academia has been diagnosed with a cancer which is likely to kill her in about 5 years (although I think she's very likely to live longer, but she's preparing to die). She's medically retiring quite soon, on reaching 60, but finishing books and staying active in a research project. She's very pragmatic about being plummeted into Stage 4 - there are treatments, but Covid.

That's a good idea impostersyndrome.
Missmarple i hope i have half her courage! I need to stay active too. I don't yet have an accurate prognosis.
Am stupidly still concerned about a malignantly competitive male colleague. My brain needs to catch up with my situation.