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6 min read
Discover how Dale Smith overcame a serious health condition to continue doing the job she loves.
A few years ago, Dale Smith was unable to walk more than 10 or 15 paces at work before leg and toe pain forced her to sit and rest. As assistant manager of a grocery store in Beebe, AR, that was a big problem. “I have to constantly be on the floor walking,” says Smith, now 61.
Following a visit to her cardiologist, after she had a heart attack a year earlier, Smith learned she had peripheral artery disease (PAD), a narrowing of the arteries that mainly occurs in the legs. She had an angioplasty procedure done in a leg artery and began taking medication for pain and cholesterol.
Recently, Smith’s smartwatch told her she walked 15,000 steps pain-free, and she has kept a job she loves.
“I’m thankful I have a really great boss who understood fully and told me to take as many rest breaks as I needed,” she says. “But I did worry before if I could keep working.”
If you are diagnosed with PAD, your doctor hits you with a lot of information about exercise plans, diet, and medication. Making PAD treatment fit with your job may get less discussion. Even though PAD usually affects people in their 50s or older, that can leave a decade or more of working years to consider for people like Dale Smith.
“PAD is all about lifestyle adjustments, and work is a major part of everyone’s life,” says Damon Pierce, MD, a vascular surgeon for Virginia Mason Franciscan Health in greater Seattle.
Pierce had a PAD patient, an auto mechanic, who worked for 20 years in a shop with bonuses based on job speed. Over time, competing against younger mechanics in physically strenuous work that required him to get into and out tight spaces under cars, the mechanic’s PAD-related leg cramps worsened. But he was able to negotiate a workload that was less physically intense. Still, continuing job stress eventually led him to quit for a supervisory role in a new shop with a less demanding pace.
Typical PAD symptoms — pain or cramps in the legs, hips, or buttocks; trouble walking; sores or ulcers on the legs or feet that don’t heal — are not always severe enough to require a change of job. But discomfort can affect productivity. It’s smart to initiate adjustments that help keep you comfortable and pain-free.
Make sure that your work life fits with the treatment plan your doctor provides. You may need to ask your employer to make accommodations.
To help you manage your PAD on the job, here are several doctors’ recommendations:
Make time for exercise. A 10-minute walk isn’t the kind of exercise that helps manage your PAD. Instead, combine part of your lunch hour with other break time that allows an hourlong, vigorous and beneficial walk, Pierce suggests.
Take mental health breaks. Job-related stress raises the risk of hospitalization for PAD,