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Countdown to Surgery


Debi

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I thought I would post so that I could talk about my feelings somewhere. Today was my last day of work, Monday is my surgery but I have a few things I have to do this week. I need to clean, stock up on groceries, go to pre-op on Thursday at the Center and I want to have some time to spend with my son before I leave Sunday.

I thought I was going to be emotional this morning, I felt it just under the surface but managed to complete the day without breaking down on my job. It was the finality I guess of everything..like so many other people, my work is such a part of my life and starting my leave of absence sort of strikes home the fact that this IS it! People at work gave me a big surprise party with a cake, balloons, gifts and all that. Slightly surreal, but at least they didn't have a pair of lungs drawn in icing on the top of the cake. Seriously, it was nice and I thought I would cry but I didn't. I haven't yet.

Found out from my boss that my short term disability isn't 60% of my salary after all, which is what I had been told. It is actually $170 a week which I cannot believe that anyone can actually live on! I'm a bit irate about that..my company is a large corporation which professes (of course) that they look after their employees. My boss was stunned when he got off the phone with the corporate office..all he could do was keep apologizing. I am just fuming, I have worked for this company 4 years and as a salaried management employee have put in MANY unpaid hours in addition to loyalty, blah, blah...and they don't think enough about me or anyone else to have a decent disability plan. My boss told me that the HR person in the Corporate office told him that they didn't want to have a bigger "payout" because this may "encourage" people to be sick. This is so totally ludicrous. They don't want to have a bigger payout because they don't want to pay any more money to get a better policy. But, I found out from the disability insurance people, that the corporate office has a separate policy which pays out 60% with a cap of $1500. Anywhere else, whether salary or hourly, it is 60% with a cap of $170.

Sorry for ranting..that was just a blow to my peace of mind. I could've made it through with 60% but now I'm totally at a loss. My boss did tell me that he was going to give me a week of comp time (he felt worse than I did) and I have a couple weeks vacation. So I'll be okay for a little while. I am just so mad that I can not have financial peace of mind through this and that I had been misled in being told that it was 60%. I would've gotten an independant policy months ago.

Okay, I think I'm done ranting for now. Sorry to bore everyone but all this is so new to me..I never even thought about disability insurance or anything before this. I just assumed that the insurance the company provided was adequate. It seems every day I'm learning something new!

How can anyone afford to be sick??

Debi

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Debi,

Sorry to hear about the disappointing disability payments. You don't need to be worrying about paying your bills at a time like this.

I've always maintained...if you talk to your creditors before you get behind and tell them why you will be having trouble, most will be understanding.

I'm sorry we are going to miss each other at CTCA. I can only hope you are as blessed by the staff and the facility as Mike and I were!

After your surgery - you will probably be on 7th floor. Say hi to nurses Tonya, Lisa, Beth and Nina for me!

Many prayers and big hugs coming your way until you go to Tulsa....It's always the "waiting" that gets ya down.

Love and hugs,

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Debi, sounds like the people you work with are very supportive, it is a shame that the people you work for are not!!! Shannon is right, you do not need to worry about paying your bills at a time like this. She is alo correct that if it ever comes a time where you feel you cannot make payments to your creditors you need to contact them. I am a mortgage underwriter and have seen this numerous times. The only other thing I would sugest is try not to use one of these consumer credit agencies, again I have seen it numerous times where the borrower makes the payments to the agency and the agency does not make payments to the creditors in a timely manner and it hurts the borrower more. I would file bankruptcy before I would use one of these but contacting your creditors is the first step--enough of that. Good luck with the surgery, you are going to a highly rated place to get it done and we are all here for you. I will say an extra prayer for you. Hang in there and keep us all posted.

David C.

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Hi Debi---I know worrying about money and how you will pay your bills is disturbing---I live by myself and own a house (at least I own it with the MTG company) with no one to help---you are stressed about the operation enough---and bills are worrying-

at the time of my operation, my company had only the state disabilty (now it is 100% pay---and 60% if over 12 weeks)

however, they made up the rest and paid me the full time I was out-----they also set me up with a PC at home (did not have one) sent a tech out to my house to set it up--(i live quite a distance away) -and I dialed in to work part time---this is a fairly small company ---so for them to do that was simply wonderful--

cannot believe your company will not pay you---makes them look very bad ---would think this would be a good pr for them if they paid you---this is not a cold you have and I really doubt it would encourage people to get operations so they could take advantage of the sick time

I wonder if you could "borrow" on your future vacation? are you able to take out a loan on your charge card? Can you borow from your 401K (if you have one) to get you through?

Do not rush back to work as you can do more harm then good---just focus on healing and resting---

regards Eileen

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Debi, good luck with your operation!!!!! I know how corporate issues can suck! it is amazing to me how little they give to someone who is out of work for ligititmate reasons, how DO they live? But do take Mrs. Mike's advice and do not worry about that, worry about you getting better!!!! :D

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Debi,

Just wanted to wish you success with the surgery. I am praying for you. Don't worry about the bills (I know, easier said than done), but hopefully something will show itself and come to your aid. I will pray for added support for you.

When Keith and I received our first unbeleivably large medical bill I was so worried because we really have no money saved, and nowhere to pull any from. The next day at work I found out they had held a secret raffle with people donating items in Keith's honor. It was small things that the other employees gave, like a pan of brownies, a car wash, things like that, and the raffle had been taking place for months prior. They never knew about the bill. But the end result was that the day after we received the bill they told me about the raffle, and they collected enough to cover the entire bill. God really does work miracles. I'm praying for just such support for you too.

I am so sorry your company isn't there to support and show loyalty to an employee that has always been loyal to them. I guess another good question is not so much how do people live with that payment, but how do the people at the company live with themselves.

God Bless, and Best wishes

Carleen

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Thank you to all who replied; your support means alot to me even though I don't really know you.

One of the other posts on the board is about someone's dad that died. It clearly put things back into the proper perceptive for me. I'm whining about my job not paying me and the bottom line is, so what? Yes, its important to have financial security but there are things more important, and finances like so many of you have attested to, always work out someway. My problems stacked up against someone else's...well, I can handle mine right now. Someone once told me that we are all dealt a deck of cards..and chances are that if we could change our deck..we would still keep the same deck.

Thanks again to all of you...Eileen I envy you! I used to work for 13 years for a company that treated me like gold now I work for the anti-christ I think!! Mrs. Mike ..I will tell all the nurses hello for you...I'm sure I'll post again before I go in. Tomorrow is my pre-op and I'm actually looking forward to it. I think I'll feel at ease once I see the place.

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I too will send up a special request...here goes....

God, Shelly again here....yes ... yes I know I have become quite the Jabber Jaw lately but ...well Debi is having surgery soon and I would appreciate a great outcome....hmmm whats that god...oh sure I will tell her you said ok... I know your busy. Dont worry God I will pass the message on for you. Ok god Talk to you soon..yes soon god.

Ok Debi, God said no problem he will take care of it.

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Just remember how many people here would love to trade places with you and be able to have surgery. You are very fortunate. Take care. We will all be thinking of you and join us at the chat room as soon as you're up to it.

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