Nervous-I tell my boss I'm not coming back from FMLA

[brewens]

5. I went through that a couple years ago. It was tough. Mine is orthopedic problems. I was out

having a total left hip and knew I also needed the right hip and right knee done. I reached a point where if I went back, the issue was going to be making it until I had enough FMLA to have the right hip done. Then probably the same with the right knee.

I made the call to go on long term disability. In my case it was easy to show that I would reasonably expect to be off the full year required, so that was no problem. Then Liberty, the insurance carrier mandates you apply for Social Security disability so they become supplementary.

S.S. was a slam dunk. My arthritis now has me needing both shoulders done now too. I'm 60 so the S.S. is permanent as far as I know. I'm still fighting with Liberty, but they don't even know about the right shoulder yet. I had the right hip done in June and am holding off on the knee for COVID risk.

The worst part for me was the two years it took for Medicare to kick in. Once I had that, medical bills weren't too bad.