About 10 years ago, on a Friday evening, I suffered a tib/fib fracture. The next day (Saturday) I called my supervisor and told him what happened. He said just keep me informed.
Four days later, the following Tuesday I saw a ortho. He scheduled same day surgery for Thursday, 6 days after the incident. I had spoke over the phone with my supervisor every day. The following Tuesday, 11 days after, my wife brought home work for me to do. She did this for another week, I was able to keep up with my paperwork and phone calls. After a week I hobbled into the office and from then on worked at least 6 hours/day. I was allowed time in the morning to go to PT (a few hours- 3 day/week) and twice/month Dr. visits.
If I were to add up the total hours that I didn't work it would be about 21 days worth. My employer paid me my regular salary, I couldn't file for state disability and I had VSIS disability (this is offered to fire/EMS who are injured while doing those activities) because I didn't lose any salary due to my time off.
Not all companies are as understanding as mine but I think that when an employee makes every effort to minimize the amount of time off and puts in effort then the result is different from those who milk the system for everything they can get.