Ugh. Do you have differentiated "sick time" and "vacation time" or are you on a "PTO" (Personal Time Off) system - which covers both? I was under PTO for a while. it is nice in a way for the privacy, but it is messy if you run out of time and then get sick... or conversely are sick a lot and have no time left to take any "real" vacation." plus it has to accrue... which doesn't apply to differentiated sick time - ugh - it was weird.

But i digressed before even starting. I had been wondering if you felt you could benefit from a medical leave of absence for a time. Clearly your docs would have to write up the medical reason but it can be done in a vague way - such as "rehabilitation after trauma" or "convalescence after trauma" i dunno - they come up with all kinds of things. I am not sure what the laws are as far as medical disclosure but the releasing MD should know. If you did this, I would go through your GP, rather than a neuro, even if the neuro is actually behind/in contact with the GP.

In any event, I believe (not sure) only HR would be aware of the medical reason. Your boss should only be aware it was medical. You cannot be fired or laid off during a medical leave of absence. They are required to keep your position available you for 1 year of med leave. After that they can replace you, but I was thinking in terms of a single semester/rest of semester.

Now that you mention this culture thing... I don't know. But i thought i'd toss it out to you anyway.

((( hugs )))

~ waves ~