I was sick with over 40 degrees C fever (104F) for a couple of weeks and got a doctors note to be off work and recover. The day before that sick leave ended I found myself in the ER with doctors rushing to hook me up to five different machines and running every test and scan they could on me cuz they were concerned my heart was failing, my heart rate was very fast and my oxygen levels were very low. I was in the ER for over 28h and they didn’t even put me in a room, I was in a open space where they put patients they want to be able to see at all times.
It turned out I had a huge lung embolism, or blood clot in my lungs. That explains why I could only breathe very shallow breaths. I was in the ER over night and called my work in the morning to let them know I couldn’t come in. I’m sure I sounded like death and I told them I’m in the ER with a lung embolism and I can’t come to work. Honestly at that point I didn’t even know if I was going to live since the doctors seemed so scared. It seemed quite obvious to me that I wouldn’t come in for the rest of the week. You know what my manager said?
“Okay. Call us tomorrow morning to let us know if you are coming or not.”
I was to baffled to say anything except goodbye and hang up. I ended up being moved from the ER to a supervised ward and there I stayed for six days before they let me go home. The doctor put me on two months sick leave and then when I went back to work I started on 25% of my time to not overwork my damaged lungs.
I had been feeling so guilty about being sick and causing them trouble with scheduling but after that call my guilt was completely gone. They didn’t even ask if I was okay or express any concern for my well being. Not once in those two months did they ask if I was okay or recovering well, they only wanted to know the day I’d be back.