Hi there... I think its courageous of you to still be working but honestly you shouldn't be.

I get that your family depends on you but you are seriously ill and need to be at home focusing on healing. Aside from it being physically difficult, you are on chemo, which compromises your immune system. Working with children or in a crowded environment is just asking to end up in the hospital. Is there no way you can get temporary disability? I know I don't know your circumstances financially so I can't really comment, and definitely won't judge but maybe your family should be helping you rather than be depending on you at this time? Ultimately it's a big health issue for you to be working. If you're job was independent and at your leisure - where you could do it and schedule appointments around your health, then that's a different story since you probably wouldn't be as stressed or exposed to all those people (stress is also bad for you as you are already compromised by the radiation.) I never got to the point where I was unable to talk though it was uncomfortable for me to do so. I was also tired, and frankly from here on in it gets worse with the worst of it being the two weeks after radiation finishes. I was blessed in that I was never raw or had open sores though I did have blisters (un opened ) in my mouth - at least that was what my RO told me. It still hurt but not in a debilitating manner - even at my worst I only used pain meds for a week. But I was very fortunate... and apparently I'm not the usual.

The drs. can prescribe all manner of pain meds but I am not sure how they will effect you, so that might make working even less of a possibility. I finished my treatment in May (the 4th actually) last year and felt okay enough to go back to work the end of june-- but didn't until Sept as I had short term disability.

When I did use the pain medication it was a 5mg oxycodone, and all it did was make me sleepy. You really should be home resting...

hugs.