Linda,
Is your goal just to have more time to take care of yourself or do you also worry that working is a direct problem for your health? For example, do you come home exhausted? If so then something needs to change. Work can pay the bills and even give us satisfaction but health has to come first.
Are you thinking about a temporary leave on disability or an early retirement? If it's temporary, it may help you get a handle on your health as you deal with aplastic anemia. If it's retirement, that's a very personal decision and hard for a lot of people to make. Chirley had to decide when to stop working too, although in her case an uncooperative employer was the primary problem. She posted about it in her threads
here and
here.
Is it an all-or-nothing choice for you? Rather that not working at all could you work part time (fewer days or fewer hours) instead of full time?
If you just can't find enough hours in the day for everything you do, you're not alone, and not just among patients. We can all tend to overcommit ourselves. There are lots of time management tips that we can all use to make more time for ourselves but they only go so far. My wife and I learned, when she was first sick, that there are activites you can give up or cut back on once you realize they aren't as necessary as you thought.
The fact that you are worried about being able to take care of yourself says a lot. It sounds like it'll be on your mind unless you do something about it. If you really can't keep with it all, and your family can manage without you working, giving up working will lift a great burden.
Since you'll be at the
Hope, Steps & A Cure Walk in Austin this weekend, I hope you get to ask some other patients about it while you are there.