So, I work for a tiny business in town and while I am able to work from home (IT) I have no sick time remaining due to getting sick so many times during autumn because I have 2 little kids, one in school, and one in occupational/speech therapy (significant autism) and it was a particularly bad year for flu, cold, and Covid, etc. I get 80 hours of sick/vacation time a year. Sometimes my boss will cover me, liek when i had a baby and got 3 days off…
I have also been dealing with debilitating back pain due to a severely herniated L4-L5 disc. Sharp sciatic pain up and down my left leg.. it often freezes me in paralyzation due to how it hurts so severely when changing positions at times. So, I had spinal surgery yesterday (microdiscectomy) and my boss (who charges $150/hour for the work I do; I get about 1/5th of that) seems to be concerned about when I will get back to work. Granted, I did tell him I can't drive for two weeks and that i'll be a bit groggy the first few days after surgery. However, I was just looking at the pamphlet the doctor gave me and while it says I shouldn't drive for two weeks, it also says i shouldn't return to the office for work for 6 weeks. thing is, my bedroom is basically my office. I tried working a bit today and just couldn't easily work on the computer, despite having a nice laptop. might have to setup the ipad so it's lighter.
boss sends me a text today saying….
“how you doing, approaching the end of a full day?”
i have no savings left, no retirement left, im tanked by medical bills… i made it so far and i can't even afford to live anymore. my wife can't work bc she has to care for our autistic 2 year old..
i'm so lost and tired of living paycheck to paycheck with barely any safety net.