Family, gotta love them

I've been trying to explain to my parents why I'm not currently job hunting, and why I'm not going to be taking any classes this summer.  My mother understands, perhaps because she's gone through something moderately similar with her hip replacement.

My father has been wondering aloud on a daily basis why I'm not job hunting right now, and explaining that no one is going to want to hire someone who will have to go out on medical leave for at least two months hasn't cut it. I'm obviously just being a wuss.  And then earlier this week he ran into a young man on campus with his arm in a sling and got talking to him.  The kid had a similar surgery to what I'm going to have, but his was about two months ago. He's still using a sling a lot of the time, and his rehab team have just started letting him use his hand to pick up relatively light-weight objects, like a cup of coffee.

Suddenly with outside, independant verification (NIH, Mayo clinic, Yale, etc online apparently don't count/sigh) Dad can suddenly understand what I've been talking about for over a month and why I'm doing what I'm doing (or not doing).

So now I just have to fill out paperwork to see if I can be counted as "disabled" either temporarily because of the shoulder (sadly, I think I won't be for long enough unless, God forbid, something goes wrong in surgery) or perrmanently because of the knee. Any degree of disability might make certain types of assistance available, and right now any extra funds coming in will be a Good Thing. Also, sad to say, being officially "Disabled" might make me more employable, because folks still have to tick of those EEOC boxes.  It's stupid, but as long as it's there, I might as well see if I can use it to my advantage. I've got a family to help support.

Now, if anyone can find a job which doesn't mind a new employee leaving for two to three months of medical leave right after starting , I'll be happy to apply. At least I can truthfully say I've never had to leave a job because of something that was my fault.