Um.

[kaberett]

Can people, like, talk to me about the economics of doing a PhD part time? Because I think I need to at least consider doing this part-time rather than full-time at least temporarily (witness the last month, the majority of which I have spent asleep and incapable of sitting upright for more than about 5 minutes without noticeable impact on brain function), but I'm terrified because I have no idea which of ESA, Housing Benefit etc I'd be eligible for, and how much of my savings I'd go through before they arrived, and if they'd even make up enough of the shortfall.

Comments

[davidgillon]

Might be worth putting out a request for advice via @PHDisabled on Twitter, that's picked up a whole bunch of followers in the process of doing a PhD while managing disability, so hopefully at least some of them have run into the same issues. There's also a bunch of blog pieces by their contributors at http://phdisabled.wordpress.com/ though I don't know if any are directly relevant.

Having BTDT with the bendiness, sitting and a job if not the PhD, I'll have a think about whether I had any good coping strategies that would help, but nothing's springing immediately to mind - sneaking off to the disabled loos for a rest was about as close as I got to a viable strategy while working for evil ex-employers inc. Actually something does spring to mind that I probably didn't do enough of - I took a camping mattress into the office and used it for rests from sitting at lunchtime, that would potentially be easier to scatter through the day with a PhD environment than the software environment I was in (I tended to push it until I ended up curled-up on the floor in the foetal position, unable to think straight, which didn't impress management). On the same principle @Spoonydoc got a sofa provided to allow her to lie flat while she was doing her PhD - though easier to work that way for a mathematician than for most, can't recall if it was via DSA or ATW, but she's very approachable. Might also be worth following @Bendygirl as she's mentioned this weekend that she's going through similar issues WRT her bendiness and managing a job (already part-time/work from home) with an unstable c-spine.

David from Worldcon.

[kaberett]

Thanks for the pointers!

[davidgillon]

Further thought: one thing my physio had me doing in order to try to get me able to sit longer was alternating between two radically different chairs so I was using different sets of muscles. I ended up with an individually fitted office chair (at one time we had this on a bar-stool height base for lab work) that was technically designed to be individually customised for people with ortho issues, but it stopped short of being fitted with specialist ortho stuff like lateral supports, and a Balans kneeling stool. IIRC she wanted me switching between them every 20 minutes and doing stretches as I did so - though she admitted during our more recent sessions it's actually totally pointless having me do stretches as my ROM is so large.

[(Anonymous)]

Years and years late and may not be seen, but is part of the record. I find that there is still a need to stretch but a different range of motion, so some of the traditional stretches don't work and I might need more tools or a person to avoid injuries elsewhere. I've also found it's the same with strengthening, using my own body as resistance is a bad idea, mostly that means either pilates reformer or a physio providing the resistance.