having surgery

[moonlight43058]

Hi all,

I'm new to this so sorry if my questions are silly. My job consists of lifting and restaining animals as a Veterinary assistant. I have developed a hernia possibly 2. I have been told by my Dr that I can not lift for 6-8 weeks after surgery. But my job IS lifting and wrestling with BIG dogs. I talked to our office manager the other day and she was saying I could use my vacation time. Does this seem right? I'm almost positive that I got the hernia on the job. I actually had to have hernia surgery done in 2000 after they no longer allowed us to wear jeans and made us wear scrubs so I didn't have the support. I used vacation time then. Now I have another but the surgery is going to be more involved because they can't do it laproscopically. Should I bring up workmens comp to my bosses? I'm alittle afraid too seeing the economy is so slow they might just decide to lay me off after 23 years. Thanks for any answers

Kim

[fencer11]

The first thing you should do is talk to a lawyer.My wife was a vet tech as well and I understand what kind of restraints you must perform, and I myself had 2 hernias that were the result of my job.I think that any Dr. would say that yours is work related and if you tell your employer that you believe it to be a comp case and they layoff/fire you there are other benefits ( I am collecting unemployment because I was fired due to the injury)Make sure your Dr knows the extent of these restraints and ask if they would like to try to hold my 120 pound Doberman while you clip his nails ( can't be done by me at 6'3' and 280 pounds)Good luck with your case!!!

[1171]

if your doctor thinks it was caused by the job you should file a comp claim. they will pay disability until you can return to work.