Early this year, my wife slipped on some ice on her bike and came down hard on her shoulder. Since then she’s mostly been able to work, but often has to take time off because the pain is too bad. As she had the accident while she was on her way to work, it’s treated as a work injury and she hasn’t had to pay for her treatment or worry about the consequences of taking time off (it would have been similar if it were in her own time, just paid for by her own insurance). Her shoulder still isn’t better, so they’ve given her 4-6 weeks off work with four or five hours of therapy every day. She doesn’t have to pay for this either, and she’s on full pay during her time away from work. It sucks for her to be in pain so much, but we’ve had practically no financial fallout from this and our premiums won’t be affected. People at work are understanding and just tell her that she should have taken time off earlier. She’s also been offered psychological help in case she’s affected by the pain or whatever else she’s going through.
Because of all of this, we will stay in the same home with the same jobs and my wife just has to focus on getting better while I can continue my studies. A lot of people here seem to imagine that it’s similar in America, with some slight variations. They’re usually pretty horrified when they find out the truth. It’s kind of like this, but where people realise the crisis that would have ruined them.
