I live in Georgia. I recently had foot surgery. This was a personal injury. I am currently out of work on short term disability. I was non weight bearing for 7 weeks. At my recent doctors appoint they told me I could start walking with a orthopedic boot. They also told me to return to work in 10 days.

I got home from the doctors appointment and started to try to walk. This seems to be difficult at the moment. The timeline to return to work seemed odd to me. So I called the doctor.

I asked if this time line was normally. The nurse said yes. I asked how I was supposed to drive in a orthopedic boot. She told me I wasn't allowed to drive. I asked if they would extend my short term disability since I was unable to make it to work. She said that it was my responsibility to find a ride.

I explained to her that I live by myself in rural America. I have a 26 mile drive to work. She told me that she will ask the doctor if he will consider extending it. She also said that she will see if im allowed to take to orthopedic boot off to drive. I asked her how she expected me to go from zero weight to being able to make an emergency stop of a motor vechile with 10 days. She told me that I need to make some phone calls and atleast act like I'm trying.

They never got a call back from the doctor that day. I called them back and left them a message yesterday. Now I'm on day 3 with no call back

P.S. My FMLA paperwork they gave me before surgery states I can't return to work until late December but the doctor cleared me to return to work but they said I can't drive.

They also had me use and remove the heel lifts during non weight bearing part of my recovery. From what I have read the heel lifts are to reduce the amount of weight you are standing on. So they had me go from non weight bearing to 100% weight