Breast reduction approved by insurance. What do I tell my boss?

[IcanMakeit 1,319]

I'm so happy to have received the approval letter from my insurance company today for breast reduction. But now I'm trepidatious about telling my bosses that I will be taking more time off for surgery. They were pretty nervous about me being gone for two weeks when I had my WLS in May. Now, only 6 months later, here I am asking for time off again. I had originally planned to wait until next year. But my back pain has been so severe that I don't want to wait. I want relief now.

I work for a very small company and when I'm away, my work just piles up. Last time, I hired a bookkeeper to fill in for me, but she was only able to do the easy, routine tasks. I don't look forward to having to catch up again after another absence. How do I reassure my boss that everything's going to be ok when I know my absence will really be disruptive?

[thesuse2000 698]

The only thing I can thing of is - could you possibly work from home a bit while you're healing?

Mostly I just wanted to say - wow! Great job on coming so far so quickly! And congrats on getting approval on the surgery. I wish you luck getting through this with work.

[IcanMakeit 1,319]

I guess I could set things up so that I could do some work from home. It's a hassle because some of the information I need only exists on paper, but there are plenty of things I can do on my laptop that would help keep things moving at work. But I wonder if I really will have the energy to do much directly after surgery? I was pretty tired after the VSG.

[thesuse2000 698]

Yeah, I don't know much about the recovery from breast reduction. Might be good to at least offer to do it, if you're able to - just to show that you're making an effort to make things easier for your team.

Edited November 14, 2014 by thesuse2000

[Bandora 136]

The surgery is a medical necessity and you should not feel bad asking for the time off. Check with your surgeon to see what realistic recovery time is. Maybe you could work a modified schedule?

[Scamp 207]

I would say 'I have a medical problem I need to get sorted/fixed'

I have had a breast reduction and I had no pain at all... So if you tell them you cannot do any heavy lifting afterwards - And you need maybe 1week off - You should be fine

You can tell them if you are fine - You will come back early?

Good luck to you

Edited November 14, 2014 by Scamp

[Miss Mac 6,262]

With weight loss surgery, there is no immediate difference in one's appearance, but with a breast reduction, everyone is going to know as soon as you walk in the door. Plus, you will no doubt be tender for a while and not want people to touch you, hug you, or shake your hand too heartily. Tell the truth and run!

[IcanMakeit 1,319]

I don't know what I'm going to look like immediately after surgery. I thought that because of the swelling, it might not be apparent that I've had a reduction. I guess I need to ask more questions when I next see my surgeon.

As far as work goes, I decided that I'll make sure there is no backlog before I leave and set up my laptop to work remotely as necessary. I think things will be fine. The place isn't going to blow away just because I'm not there!