How do you afford 6 weeks off work?

I'm trying to figure out everything in advance...I will have to have the surgery in between semesters of school. Right now between working six days a week and going to college full time along with becoming a stepmom to three kids in March I have to figure out if a hyst would be the best thing for me or if maybe I should just try to push it off for a few more years. Oh yeah and getting my diabetes under better control too. Stress so is not making that one any easier. I'm so glad that I found this website cause it has made me aware of a lot more that I need to consider than I initially thought.

Oh wow reading some of your stories just breaks my heart about your lack of finances etc. during such an emotional surgery. I was so, so, so lucky. My boss paid me my usual pay (dental hygienist) all six weeks. He is really good about health issues. He pays me to go to my doctors visits also. He was very good last October with my melanoma surgery etc.. I am a lucky girl in that respect with this boss.

I work full-time and my company has a team of Benefits Coordinators (part of HR) whose job it is to make sure employees know all of their options. Under the FMLA (which is a Federal law and open to all in the states), you are entitled to medical leave without worry of losing your job as a result. Granted, this doesn't mean you'll be paid during that leave, but knowing you have a job to go back to is comforting.

Most states have Short-term disability available to full-time employees which you and your employer pay into throughout the year. Your HR person should be able to direct you in how to apply. Some companies have payroll continuation for short periods of time (mine pays 100% for the first 15 days and then my short term disability kicks in at only 67%).

As some have already discussed, lots of employers will allow you to "borrow" future vacation/sick time. This is in their best interest as it costs less to keep a good employee than to train a new one. Depending on the size of company you work for will often determine how quickly they will come up with options available to you. Smaller companies often have HR teams which are more concerned about the company's immediate bottom line than they are about long term effects (costs involved in replacing employees).

One final bit of advice, which may sound a bit corny, but is very true. Don't be too proud to ask people for help. Someone had mentioned calling utility companies, etc., but I would include everyone you interact with in your life. As we humble ourselves and allow others to help us we actually bless their lives. I have had several sisters in my church bring dinners over to our family while I've been recuperating and while we appreciate it, I know it is blessing them (think about the last time you did something charitable for your fellow man... boy that feels so good).

I send my happiest thoughts your way and hope you find the right combination to take that stress/worry off your shoulders so you'll be able to just focus on your health.

I am very thankful that I am getting paid in full because I work for a smallish company. My aunt had surg. in may and was in the same boat as you, but she took a loan from her 401k so she could still pay all her bills. You may want to look into that. I do know that there are penalties at tax time for that, but if you are running out of options it may work for you. Good Luck

My state pays a very small amount for disability ($174 a week). I am using all of my benfit time. I only have a small amount of sick time using more conservative measures before my hyster.
Good luck, I hope it all works out for you.
wooshmoosh

Thankfully my work offers FMLA with pay. I only receive about half of what I bring home a week now, I am very thankful for that because thru all of this I used up my vacation time and personal days. And I was lucky to get scheduled for my hysterectomy Oct 8 of this year or else at the beginning of next year I would of had to meet my $2000.00 deductable. They just called me and said I only need to pay $17.25 for the entire procedure, hosp. stay, etc. If anything I have learned through this so far is "faith".

You need to check with your human resource department at work. They will have short term disability paper work that they have to provide for you. I believe that disability pays @ 80% of your salary, that is what I was told but you should check. Once you get the paperwork, there is a section you need to fill out and then you need to give the rest of the paper work to the surgeons office so they can fill out the rest and submit it for the payments to be received. I was told this today by my Gyn/oncologist. I haven't had the surgery yet but I plan on having all paperwork done now so I can concentrate on my recovery after surgery, knowing money will be coming in...Good Luck to you...I hope you take my advice.

I filled the paperwork out today and will deliver it this week. 3 weeks and counting. Each day of my symptoms seems to get worse. I wish the surgery was tomorrow.

I was extremely fortunate in that I had the foresight to elect the short term disability benefit. Never thought I'd need it, but ultimately decided "better safe than sorry". So, I'm being paid at 100% for almost 7 weeks. Thank god.

I have the long term disability and not the short term. I never thought Ii would of needd it. You did good.