Short Term D question

Hi, i am planning for surgery in November. I will only have about 5 sick days i can take with my unpaid FMLA, seeing as i have to be able to lift 30 pounds to return to my job i could be out 2-6 weeks. I am considering Short term disability, my employer has Aflac. How can i get them to paid for the time off and the hospital time? I know it has to be medically necessary but they also say they do not cover "pre existing conditions" which could include obesity. Obviously im not planning on telling the Aflac rep of my surgery intentions.. I just don't want to waste the money out of my pay if they won't cover my time off, I cant afford to be out of work and sadly it will all go on credit cards if I cant come up with something. ð??"

Can you go back to work on "light duty". You may feel great much sooner than you are expecting but you'll still have to be careful with the lifting.

I had my surgery on a Thursday last June. Went home the next day around noon. To be honest, I had to look at my stomach to see if I really had the surgery. I had no pain what so ever. I didn't feel anything.

I took the next week off and went back to work the following Monday, so I missed a total of 7 days of work. I'm a school food service director, the school year was over so I didn't need to be on my feet. I was basically at my desk.

Best of luck with your surgery!!!

On May 2, 2019 at 10:37 PM Pacific Time, freshstart2018 wrote:

Can you go back to work on "light duty". You may feel great much sooner than you are expecting but you'll still have to be careful with the lifting.

I had my surgery on a Thursday last June. Went home the next day around noon. To be honest, I had to look at my stomach to see if I really had the surgery. I had no pain what so ever. I didn't feel anything.

I took the next week off and went back to work the following Monday, so I missed a total of 7 days of work. I'm a school food service director, the school year was over so I didn't need to be on my feet. I was basically at my desk.

Best of luck with your surgery!!!

No, i already asked HR. They only do light duty for injured on the job. Also since my job involved client care and lifting i'd be useless to them. But the only lady i take care of that is a lift is probably 70-90 pounds and i can go back at 30... So i could always get help or have someone do her for me? Just hoping i feel as good as you did! :) Did you have RNY? And thanks for the luck :)

Carefully choose your AfLAC plan, most policies have an 'elimination' period, where if you sign up today- you need to wait 6 months etc to use the benefit. I have AfLAC and couldn't use it many years ago due to that rule. I wouldn't consider obesity pre-existing in the context of their short term disability plan, but I could be wrong. Also their hospitalization plans, if I recall, were for ICU care, unlikely for weight loss surgery.

Be really careful with lifting. Just about every doctor's plan I have heard of has a limit of 10 pounds for 6 weeks. This us major surgery, and I wouldn't mess around with it. That's a big, life threatening risk.

I said 4 weeks but I think it was 6 weeks. Glad you said something.

I wouldn't be lifting. I have to be CLEARED to lift 30 pounds to return to work. The only lady i lift daily multiple times is 70-90 pounds and that will be months and they will have to work with me on that.

Basically, this should be something to consult your surgeon's office. Do you have pre-existing conditions that can be attributed to obesity? These co-morbidities should make the surgery medically necessary and should cover your disability and this is something your surgeon's office should be able to address. Even if you do not yet have co-morbiities i.e. high blood pressure, sleep apnea, osteoarthritis, diabetes, etc. you are at high risk of those happening and your surgeon's office should be able to make a case for that and if you have to be able to lift 30 lbs, it should be a non issue. I was not allowed to lift more than 10 lbs for a month so minimum time is a month before you can return to work.

The only one that counts with my insurance is fatty liver. Kind of sad that hypothyroidism and hashimotos does not count. :/

I'm sorry I said 4 weeks but Grim Traveler is right, 6 weeks limitation of lifting more than 10 lbs. I had to have my brother or nephew come over and carry in water cuz of the weight lifting even after I returned to work.