Oh fucking hell, I am going to have to call in sick on my NYE night shift!

[HTKB]

I've got tonsillitis. I am probably feeling as ill as I have ever felt as an adult. Temp intermittently going up, along with shivers and shakes. Agony speaking or swallowing. Incredibly weak. One side of throat visibly blown up.

I have penicillin, I am gargling with Corsodyl every couple of hours. I am taking cocodamol and ibuprofen.

I am supposed to be working tomorrow night shift on labour ward. I got the whole of Christmas off in return for doing this shift. I also had two days off three weeks ago because of that crappy virus going around.

Fuck! Any ideas what to do?

You can’t help being ill. Ring in sick, you have your prescription etc. to prove you’re ill if it’s queried / challenged.

On no, poor you.

It's bad timing, but you can't help being ill.
Can you phone them now so they have as much notice as possible to find someone else?

Nightmare.

But just to back you up that I had tonsillitis for the first time last year and I have never felt so ill in all my life. Worse than proper flu, mastitis etc. It was beyond horrendous.

It can't be helped. Be kind to yourself

It is shit, and there will be some miffed colleagues but you can’t help it. Ring them
now so they have plenty of notice.

If it's a strep infection then you definitely don't want to go into work as it could be very dangerous for the babies .
I'm a nurse too, it's awful when we are ill but we are also human . Take the time at home to rest . Sounds like you need it.

Oh lord! You poor thing. You sound properly ill, but it's not going to go down well!

Do you have an on-call system? So the MW on-call could be called in and at least get lots more money for working it?

I agree, call your LWC now and give them max amount of time to find another person to cover. You might feel better by NYE if the ABs kick in quickly?

I am debating whether to call them now or tomorrow.... still hoping I will wake up tomorrow feeling much better. Also thinking there will probably be a bit of "but how does she know she'll be sick tomorrow night? There is over 24 hours to go!" type attitude.

We’re really well staffed for NYE, I genuinely wouldn’t worry. Rest up!

Call in sick, it is genuine and cat be helped. After I had my second DS a midwife who was clearly not well and not able to concentrate properly because of it was supposed to be checking DS's oxygen sats and took so long and made such a mess of it it had to be done again at which point he was rushed to SCBU and then she came in and said she was going home as she was poorly. People really don't need sick people working on the labour ward.

Ring now. You won’t be well enough tomorrow.

Call them now and give them the heads up.

Sorry, I know that’s irrelevant if you’re not well staffed, but just meant I am on labour ward too and all the stress was around Xmas, lots of people willing to work or pick up new year extras esp with Sunday pay running in to bank hol pay.

Ive had that once and felt like total hell. Call in asap and let them know. You have my complete sympathy!

You are well enough to be posting on MN. So if that's the most ill you've been in your life you are very lucky indeed. But you're obviously not well enough to go into work. You do sound a bit of a drama queen.

Ring them now. You are not lying. Tell them the truth and give them as much time as poss to get cover. You cant help the bad timing. If its tonsillitis you are not going to magically be well or non infectious by tomorrow. Bite the bullet and let them know.

Call today while the agencies will be open to enable them to get cover.
If your throat is swollen on one side, have you excluded Quinsy?

Phone them now. You're not going to be well enough to work by tomorrow, sorry. Also, I would rather have to work harder to cover a colleague who was off ill than work alongside them and risk catching it myself, and I would rather deal with the labour ward being short staffed than risk you passing an infection on to myself or my new baby. It can't be helped, and you won't be well enough by tomorrow, tonsillitis just doesn't work like that. The more notice you give them, the more chance that they can find cover for you.

Call work now. You won't be much better for another few days and it's important to rest while you recover and finish the antibiotics (but you know that already!) Tonsillitis is horrible and I hope you feel better soon.

vivienne It doesn't take a huge amount of effort to post ffs.
I posted once when I thought I was dying. It was 3am and I was panicking. It was just a little bit of pneumonia...
Who pissed on your chips this morning?

if you are ill, you are ill. Are you a midwife? Is it actually advisable to attend to labouring women and newborn babies with tonsillitis? I doubt.

viviennemary Really? My grandfather died of lung cancer in hospital and was posting his final goodbyes on FB to family memebers overseas 2 hours before he passed away. So thats bullshit. It doeant take anymore strength to post a thread than to phone in to her workplace!

I do love the sanctimonious people who compare picking up a phone and tapping a few keystrokes to running a marathon.
'Well if you can post on MN from your bed in a lying down position you are clearly well enough to do a 12hour shift making life or death decisions'

Sorry not convinced. And phoning is out of the question surely if speaking is so difficult.