Articles and News

January/February 2004 issue of More Magazine:

Copyright Lois B. Morris

Excerpt from article entitled "The Sick-Day Dilemma--When boomer women took the work world by storm, we were afraid to take a day off. Now, as we reach the age where illness becomes more common, we still aren't sure how to deal with being sick"

by Lois B. Morris

The "Perks" of Being Sick

For Diane Earhart, diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, an auto-immune condition affecting the central nervous system, met with mixed support. The Federal Aviation Administration suspended her medical certificate, in effect yanking her license as an air-traffic-controller at St. Louis Downtown Airport , as well as her pilot's license, pending a medical evaluation. But many of her colleagues stood by her. "Everyond was pretty stunned how this could happen overnight--to become incapacitated and potentially lose my job," she says. After a six-month appeal, she got a medical certificate under special consideration that allowed her back in the control tower and the cockpit of her plane.

MS affects people differently: Some are extremely disabled, but many are not. After the numbness, double vision and balance problems Earhart experienced in her late thirties were diagnosed, she began taking a then-recently approved drug called Betaseron, which decreases the number of MS attacks. Earhart had to demonstrate that her condition was stable and that her medication did not cause her to suffer side effects. Now 46, she shows no overt evidence of the illness.

She was aware of some grumbling among her colleagues, currently all men, when she was given preference in scheduling shifts and getting a parking spot close to the tower, from which she could start her car's air conditioning by remote. (Like all people with MS, she is very vulnerable to heat and lack of sleep.) But Earhart attributes this to run-of-the-mill office griping. "We're in a pretty small tower, and each of us knows how to push one another's buttons. Boys," she teases, as if to emphasize her point, "are babies."

At work, she gets similar assignments as her colleagues, so she doubts that anyone perceives her as limited. Though MS does not affect her job performance, Earhart knows that could change. The disease is unpredictable and if it progresses, she could lose her air controller and pilot's licenses. She has to seek medical certification every six months. She tries to keep the worry that MS may affect her employability in the back of her mind. "I have all my eggs in one basket," she acknowledges. "Aviation is all I know. I have no Plan B."

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