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[tryingtofinish]

Hi,

I'm looking for any and all help on how to re-enter my PhD program. I was supposed to be getting ready for the last big push in January (defense < 6mo), when I got seriously ill. After 8 months of increasing symptoms and serious loss of functionality, I've been diagnosed with severe forms of two separate autoimmune diseases. But this is where things get fuzzy.

I was visually impaired before I started my PhD and had severe, untreatable migraines. Now, with my two new fun friends, I'm visually disabled, chronically fatigued, have heart issues (I'm on congestive heart failure watch) and have severely impaired short-term memory/concentration. Sadly enough, these are simply the symptoms of my disease and don't even begin to touch on the side-effects of my medications. Since the disease normally occurs in older individuals, there aren't many people who are in a similar situation (I'm 31).

My question is this, how should I re-enter my Ph.D.? Do I tell my co-workers/chair/etc.? I can't even pretend to "hide" my disabilities, incapacitated is simply the beginning. So how do you complete a degree when you can't work for more than 3 hours a day - and I can't even work from home due to the constant headaches and fatigue. In order to defend, I have to complete the experiments for my second paper and write everything up. Would it be unreasonable to ask for an undergrad to help with the experiments?

As it is, I'm trying to learn how to orient to a new "normal" and am learning to write down EVERYTHING (some days I can't even follow a conversation). I'm coping and I have a great support system, but I want to finish my degree. I've fought hard to get to this point and I'm not going to give up, I just need ideas on how to re-organize and approach this problem. Thanks in advance!

[crowie]

Go to the Disability Services office and the Equal Employment Opportunity office on your campus (they may or may not be the same thing or run by the same person).  Try to speak to someone as high up at those offices as you can, by walk-in or appointment.  Tell them what you've said here.  Ask them for help with approaching your chair about your situation and ask them to help you assess what reasonable accommodations can be made to aid your progress towards completion. You may also want to contact one of the Associate Deans of the Graduate School, someone whose title suggests they are in charge of student welfare, if there is such a role.  Go to your Chair too, but wait until you've thought through what you want and consulted with an expert about what you can reasonably expect (eg. whether your idea to have an undergraduate help you with your experiments would be a possibility).  This sounds like something that can be sorted out as long as you find some supportive people to go to bat for you.  Create that support network by seeking help from as many offices and places in the university as possible and figuring out how their efforts can be best coordinated.

[msparticularity]

I would also like to suggest that you talk to your doctors and to the disabilities specialist at your university about your longer-term outlook and how that might be managed. From your description, it is not clear to me that you will be able to go on the market to work full-time after you receive your degree. I am wondering, though, whether there are kinds of work that might be suitable for you--and whether there is anything you could do as a part of your dissertation work--or perhaps in terms of publications--that might make you a better candidate for them.

In other words, I'm wondering whether just trying to push through your diss without thinking about what will come afterward is your best move right now.

[tryingtofinish]

Thanks for the ideas! I have tried to contact the Associate Dean of the Graduate College, but since I'm towards the end of my degree, they were very hesitant to help and seemed to believe that this should be sorted out by the disabilities office. Conversely, the disabilities office was offering to get me more time on my homework (I'm not sure where they got that idea!) and were unable to pinpoint other resources to help me out.

Currently, I am in the process of speaking with an ombudsman. I've previously had difficulties with my PI on how disabilities can affect my work, so I'm hoping the ombudsman will be able to keep things in check.

As to working full-time, there is a possibility that I might need to work part-time for awhile once I'm done with my degree. And I'm okay with that... my health comes first. The kinds of positions that I'm looking at all require a doctorate so I'm pushing to finish. The difficulty is that my dissertation work is very biologically oriented and I'm an engineer -- it's a bit of clash to start with and will be hard to change at this point.

[spork]

Are you in the USA?

[tryingtofinish]

Yes, I'm in the U.S. I'm a biomedical engineering candidate in a bio lab (disease application). I have a M.S. in biomedical engineering and a B.A. in biochemistry from universities here in the U.S. I've worked in between each of my degrees, so coming back to school for my PhD was carefully thought out. I really need this degree to do the cool things I want to do.....

I guess I should clarify that I understand that the ADA is in effect and that universities do support the law. I faced one medical crisis during my master's and fought through it. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do it again. :) But a PhD is more complicated than a master's and having been so thoroughly shaken by my situation, I need to make sure I'm being realistic in what I'm doing to get my degree.

I'd just like some ideas on how to 1) not overburden my PI/university and 2) make it clear that I will work as hard as possible within my current limitations.

[msparticularity]

Thanks for the additional information. Given all that you've said, I think the first thing you'll need to work out is how your experiments can be run on a manageable schedule that you can handle without creating a problem for your PI or disrupting the regular lab operations. Is there enough flexibility in the procedures themselves that you can do all of the work required--just on a slower schedule? Actually providing you with an assistant to do some of the work--even an undergrad--might be considered to go beyond "reasonable" as an accommodation if the normal professional expectation would be for you to do it all yourself. By comparison, allowing extended time for you write up the results is likely to be pretty well-accepted as a reasonable accommodation; that is pretty standard for people with health issues.

[macaroon]

What are your health insurance options, and how are you funded?  It seems to me that keeping your funding would be the real sticky-wicket.  Personally, as a PI, I would have absolutely no problem agreeing to one of my students going quasi-part time due to health reasons, and enrolling for fewer credits of "Graduate Research".  However, if you're only well enough to work for 3 hours a day, you couldn't take a TA fellowship.  I'm not sure how I feel about keeping somebody on a research fellowship off of a grant if the individual can only work 15 hours a week permanently. 

As far as the Undergrad plan...  if a grad student of mine wants to supervise an undergraduate student, I have plenty of undergrads that want to enroll in my lab for an independent study.  I'd say yes to that.

[larryc]

I don't know your field but I wonder if it is even possible to finish a doctorate at 3 hours a day? It might make sense to time out for a couple of years until you get better? In any case I think you are doing the right thing contacting disabilities and the ombudsman.

[crowie]

Thanks for the ideas! I have tried to contact the Associate Dean of the Graduate College, but since I'm towards the end of my degree, they were very hesitant to help and seemed to believe that this should be sorted out by the disabilities office.

That doesn't make any sense. If you have a new situation you are dealing with it shouldn't matter where you are in your program (indeed, if you are close to the end of your degree I would think they would want to do as much to help you as possible to get you over the last hump). Sorry they weren't more helpful.  Good that you are working with the ombudsman.