AIO? One of my managers took away my accommodation of being in a chair at work, even though I have expressed pain and urinating blood without it.

For context I have a kidney stone, due to this I got very sick and almost became septic. I was in the hospital for nearly a week. The hospital did a surgery the first night I was admitted and implanted a stent in me from my kidney to my bladder. I have recently posted a little bit of my experience at the hospital in another AIO post, where my roommate in hospital drove me mad after I was recovering. Anyways, I am still waiting to have surgery to remove the stone itself.

I came back to work 3-4 weeks ago, where I told them I need to mostly sit, due to the moderate pain and irritation the kidney stent has caused. I had a note from my urologist saying I needed to do exactly that as well. The symptoms of my kidney stent are: blood in urine if active or tube rubs against lining, kidney, or bladder walls. Flank and back pain. Urine reflux (this is so terrible and it’s probably the worst thing I’ve felt so far). Nausea if in moderate pain for a while. Not being able to tell if I have to pee or not. Feeling bloated. The entrance to my urethra burning, when urinating and also when not urinating. I work in a pretty active job and I knew I could not fulfill my normal work duties, so my urologist brought in a note of my accommodations which said mostly sitting.

The first time I showed one of my managers the note (let’s call him manager B) and manager B put me in a department I had to be physical in. So eventually I said fuck that and left the department without telling him, and went to the Halloween section. The next day I told them I needed to sit, and didn’t take no for an answer. So manager(let’s call her C) said I can be in appliances for that shift. I was stressed out because they didn’t have an exact place for me to be yet.

That was when I talked to the store manager, where he said I could greet and stay in one area, and occasionally fix things up. I agreed and took a chair with me every day. Two weeks went by with no issues, and I had a pretty okay day of work each day. Despite still being uncomfortable, I wasn’t in pain. Yesterday, manager B told me I shouldn’t sit and that I had to front face the store and take the stock tags off since I came in early and there were barely any customers. I did not like this, but agreed knowing I had a full day and that I could sit down after. This was a huge mistake. I was in moderate pain after and sitting down helped not increase it, but by the end of the day I couldn’t focus. I was restless in my seat and could barely form any complex thoughts, or pay attention to the computers (I decided to do training due to the pain). I went home in pain, urinated, then went to bed extremely early at 5:30-6:00 pm after rolling in pain. I’ve been taking medications to help but it is barely helping.

Today when I walked in, I had come an hour early.But when it was time to go outside and take my chair with me, manager B came in and stopped me. He said “do the regular things, greet customers and tell them where to go and what you need. But you cannot sit, you cannot take a chair.” I remember staring at him and blinking then asking “can you repeat that?” And he restated what he had originally said and added on “we can’t have you sitting out there.” I said okay and stood there. I started to tremble and tear up. I ended up going into a corner and crying for an hour, trying to contact my HR manager. She didn’t pick up so I left a voice message of what I needed and asked her to call back. Eventually a friend asked me what was wrong and I said I couldn’t tell him without crying, that’s when a customer came up to me and asked me a question where an isle was. I answered him and he noticed my face and asked if I was okay, where I said yes a few times despite being teary eyed. He told me he understood how I felt and told me to feel better. I went to a corner and cried again.

I’m waiting in the break room for the managers to get out of their meeting, and I’m going to tell them I can’t be standing for more than an hour without moderate pain. I’m also going to ask the store manager if I can clock out and go home. I feel like shit physically and mentally. I feel like they do not care about my well being. I feel neglected and pushed aside. I’ve asked them for help and accommodations multiple times, where they pushed me off. I think they just do not care about my pain, because it’s not able to be visually seen. I’ve told them before that I’m literally urinating blood. This can slow my recovery from my surgery coming up to break the stone apart. I can get my stent dislodged, and they know this. I could have died from my kidney stone, and yet I cannot sit.

I feel so frustrated, and upset. Am I overreacting to everything? I feel like I’m not. What steps should I do next? I’m thinking of contacting my urologist for actual painkillers instead of taking Tylenol like they said.

I will update soon when my managers come out of their meeting. I am still sitting in the break room, in pain, and wanting to go home. Today has been a horrible day. I used to love coming into work, but ever since all of this I have been uncomfortable, miserable, and feeling like my higher ups aren’t taking me seriously. I have been bottling up my feelings ever since I started working again, and today has been the worst day of all.