Hi all,
thanks so much for your responses. As a teacher, taking any block of time off is especially difficult. It's even worse if you teach a tested subject like I do (freshman English). I do NOT want to short-change myself this go-round, but I'm also hampered by the time constraints. Though it will be tough to wait, I think I might set my surgery to a few days before Thanksgiving break. That way, I'm only taking 3 days and then will have the entire week plus two weekends to recover. I hope that will be enough. If not, I'll have to slog through three more weeks before Christmas break. I would do it tomorrow if I could!