Short Term Disability?

*First post as a new member*

My surgery is scheduled for the 20th, and I start my pre-op on the 13th.   Do most folks go out on Short Term Disability during their recovery?  My doctor has said that I would need to avoid strenuous activity and lifting anything more than 10lbs for a few weeks as it may cause a hernia.  I have a desk job, but working downtown means I usually have to schlep a good number of things on my 1/4 walk every day (laptop, drinks, lunch, paperwork etc).  I'm wondering how long I should plan to be out of the office for, and I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences.   Thanks!!

My short-term disability plan doesn't kick in until the 4th week out of work, and I took 3 weeks off, so it didn't apply. Some of my coworkers had to come back on modified duty due to the lift restrictions, but my job description only says I have to lift 15 lbs, so my surgeon cleared me for full duty when I went back to work.

Short term disability takes a few weeks before they will pay you -- you either have to use vacation time or time with no pay for those weeks.  Usually, if you have a desk job, you'd be back to work before your benefits kicked in.  If not, you could use one of those rolling backpacks == then you wouldn't have to lift anything.

I took 5.5 weeks off. I know I'm in the minority but I really valued the time to get used to my new routine and focus on eating and drinking correctly. My short term disability kicked in after 1 week.

I think mine kicks in after a week as well.  You have a very good point about the routine.  I have a very stressful job which often includes 12 hour days, so I want to be sure I am well prepared (physically & mentally) for my return. 

My short-term disability kicked in once I was out of work more than 5 days.  Max 60% of my salary.  Mine is a desk job but is stressful like yours with long days.  After checking with my surgeon at the two week visit, I chose to stay out for four.  It was the Nov/Dec timeframe and I didn't want to be around all the goodies people brought in until I was had established regular eating and exercise habits.  Plus I was still tired from eating under 500 calories and needed to take short naps.  I felt much more prepared to deal with everything when I went back.

I only missed 5 actual workdays in the week I took off after surgery, and I'm a professional dog groomer so my workday is a bit more strenuous than a desk job. If I worked at a desk job I would have been fine the third day after surgery, I felt pretty much normal by then except for bloating and muscle soreness. I know many people take off more time, but I consider myself lucky since I bounced back quickly and had no complications and was able to mee****er and protein goals pretty much from day one. 

I took off 6 weeks. Short term picked up after the first. Like the others had mentioned I too wanted to have a routine established for vitamins/medications and meals.  

It depends on the state.  I live in NJ, and disability kicks in right away as long as your doctor signs you out.  Now the checks don't come for a while, but they do eventually come.  Disability payed a certain amount and then I supplemented with my sick time so I still got full paychecks.  It just saved me some sick time.  I took 3 weeks off.  I was still tired when I returned to work at my desk job, but mentally demanding type of place.  I napped every day when I got home, and I am so not a napper.  After about 6 weeks, I was good to go.  Still low energy but very manageable.  Good luck to you!

I took a total of 8 weeks off and my STD kicked in after two weeks.  Some are very cheap dates to the anesthesia.  I was quite listless for a good 5-6 weeks.