In the last year or so I’ve had to deal with several different medical maladies that sort of come with age. First it was the double whammy of kidney stones last year that culminated with 2 hospital stays, and 2 surgeries to eliminate them. This year I’ve had arthritis in my foot, as well as a hairline crack in one of the bones in the foot, that kept me out of work for a day or two. Within the past 2 1/2 weeks I’ve been diagnosed with an umbilical hernia, which is going to have to be remedied with another surgery, but I’m trying to put that off until 2026; only because we’re now in the busy season at work, what with Thanksgiving and Christmas in such close quarters. I feel I’m needed there, and trying to do surgery that’s going to keep me out for at least several months (to my mind) isn’t a good idea.
Of course, my wife has a different opinion. Work is secondary, and your(my) health should be primary. Which makes sense, if you’re in an industry or workplace where you’re not being physical (an office) and being out for a month or three wouldn’t be an issue. In my workplace, the fact that I’d be out for that period of time would have consequences, but I’m trying to do it in a period of time that would cause the least amount of harm. It’s not that I’m that important, it’s just that things tend to go off the rails when I’m off for a week’s vacation. Multiply that to a factor of 10-12 and it makes me wonder what I’d be returning to. And just how long it would take me to return it to a sense of normalcy. If that would even ever happen.
All in all, from what the surgeon said in our consultation, it’s a relatively minor hernia, which would require a relatively minor procedure to fix. The initial recovery time would be about a week, then I could return to a normal amount of activity, but I expect seeing as they’d be cutting in to my abdominal muscle, I’d have some issues with lifting for a period of time, and that’s what’s concerning me. Add in the fact I’m not in my 40s anymore, so it’s going to take a bit of time to get back to the point where I can be lugging large boxes of meat around without causing a recurrence of the initial problem. I highly doubt my managers are going to be interested in trying to have me do ‘light duty’, because the whole job screams anything but that. I can’t transfer to another department, because no matter where you go, there’s something that weighs more than 20 lbs/9 kgs. And I’d have to learn said department which again would put me at a disadvantage. So I’m just going to have to roll with it and see what I can do in the time that I have.
This isn’t easy. I’ve been working since I was about 16. One other time I was out for several months, when I had my gallbladder out in ’05. But I was working in a grocery store bakery at the time, and they managed without me. So, hopefully the same will happen here. Hopefully. Different company, different variables, similar circumstances. Hoping for the best.