9 to 5
goldenshell84
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Huge dilemma.. teachers/counselors, please weigh in?
in 9 to 5
To make a long story short, I have stage four endometriosis and there are very few surgeons in the country who perform excision surgery to treat it. Many perform laparascopy instead which is not as effective and the endometriosis grows back. I had that kind of surgery last August and have been in horrible, chronic pain since about three weeks after surgery because it grew right back. Almost every one of the top excision surgeons out there is an out of network provider for insurance. This makes sense; they are specialists in their field and want to get paid as such. I'm sure I would do the same. Unfortunately, we have no out of network insurance coverage. We appealed to our company and they would not budge AT ALL. The out of pocket cost of the surgery would be around $15k. Through an amazing stroke of luck, I was referred to an excision specialist who takes my insurance. I traveled down to see him (6 hours away) for a consult and we planned to do the surgery in June for a few reasons, one of which was to make it easier for work. I am a counselor at a school and obviously I wanted to do whatever I could to avoid missing work during the school year. Recovery takes 2-6 weeks. I called earlier in the week to schedule the date for the surgery in June and got a call back today that the doctor is LEAVING!!! If I don't do the surgery before he leaves, I will not be able to do it with him at all if I want insurance to cover it. There is exactly ONE DAY on which he can do this surgery before he leaves. I have absolutely no flexibility on the date at all, whatsoever. It happens to be the first day of AP exams, and I am my school's AP coordinator.. this is one of my major job responsibilities. This literally could not be worse timing. I have to be at work those two weeks... and of course those are the two weeks that I'd be at home recovering since the surgery would be on the first day. I guess there is a possibility I could be there for part of the second week, but I will absolutely one hundred percent miss the first week of AP exams. I don't know what to do. I feel like I have to have the surgery. We have the worst insurance ever and what are the chances that I am going to find another endo specialist who actually accepts my insurance?? I know it's never going to happen. But then again, I do not know WHAT I would do about work... I would really be dropping the ball in a big way by not being there and everyone would understandably be very upset. There are no other counselors at my (very small) school - this is entirely my responsibility. What would you do in this situation? I'm literally on the verge of tears right now. And I have until tomorrow to make a decision one way or the other.
Re: Huge dilemma.. teachers/counselors, please weigh in?
You will be of no use to anyone if you are in pain. You have to put yourself first, or else you will not be capable of doing anything for anyone else. Take care of you. Maybe you can prepare ahead of time, by speaking to your supervisor about coverage during your recovery period.
good luck!You can take a medical leave of absence cant you? What happened if you had to have some other kind of life threatening surgery and that was the only time...they would get over it. If you tell them know, maybe you can start getting things in place so everything can go as smoothly as possible. $15k is $15k.
I think your health is the most important thing. Things at school will go on. I ended up getting pregnant and having my maternity leave in the midst of my pet project going live at school. I had to train someone to take over while I was out and then pick it all back up when I came back. School life goes on.
If you have absolutely only one day, then you have to jump on it. I don't think anyone could ever fault you on that. I know it's not comfortable talking about health issues at work, but in this case I totally would. I'd let them know the severity and the financial implications. I can't imagine my school's administration being anything but supportive of a situation like this.
I hope it all works out! Let us know what you decide.
Absolutely have the surgery.
Stuff happens. What if you had a death in the family during that time? Or you were in a car accident? You would have to take off work. In a situation where you don't have a choice, you have to do what you have to do.
No job responsibilities are ever more important than your health.