How Many Days Out of Work?

Well, I got back in town late Wednesday after spending six days (including most of two on Amtrak) in the Catskills of New York helping my sister out. Her battle with stage 4 breast cancer is a real reminder of the awful things that cancer patients face day in and day out. Love you, sis, and think of you constantly.

Today was my last day of work for a little while, but for how many days? I am getting my neuroma surgery on Monday. One lady at work said “Oh, I had that, you’ll be out a week. He covered it with a bandaide and it barely hurt.” Another lady at work is out for neuroma surgery right now, and expects to be out four weeks.

Then another co-worker said “You’ll be out all week? For a neuroma????” He looked at me as if I had told him I was missing a week of work for a hangnail. “My wife had neuroma surgery and went to work the next day,” he continued. Well, maybe his wife is tougher than I am.

Reading on the internet seems to indicate it is best to keep the foot elevated and rested for 7 – 21 days. They did tell me I will go home with the foot wrapped in a very large bandage.

Here is what I know – after years of suffering from this, I am looking forward to moving on and being in the 80% group that gets some relief from this surgery. It won’t be a piece of cake – unless you compare it to what my sister is going through, and also my friend, Ed, who just had “isolated limb perfusion” on his leg for melanoma. ILP sounds like an absolutely awful thing to go through, and he is still in the hospital a week later with some complications.

I guess I will miss five to 15 days of work, or one to three weeks. All I know is that I don’t want to go back until going back does not slow down my ultimate recovery, which is to be running again in a couple of months. So hopefully, I can work that out with the doctor and not go back too soon, saving the insurance company some money but costing me the full use of my foot for months more. Time will tell, I suppose.