Pre-Existing Conditions

I’ve encountered my first experience with pre-existing conditions. On Feb 14th, I will have used up the short-term disability insurance coverage and should switch over to long-term disability coverage. Although I didn’t start medical leave until November, I was diagnosed 2 weeks prior to the start of the insurance coverage in October. I am still in the evaluation period for long-term disability insurance, but likely will be denied due to the pre-existing condition clause.

I have a decision I need to make: do I return to work? do I stay on CA Disability only? I’ve been taking the targeted therapy well and could return back to work while waiting on the next step in my treatment – surgery. Once I have surgery scheduled, I can go back onto medical leave. It may be awhile before I’m even able to have surgery due to COVID-related conditions having priority for ICU/hospitalization at the moment. The COVID vaccine roll-out has been painfully slow and likely to stretch out well into the year. Pray for wisdom while I contemplate these options.