This is particularly disturbing... assuming that your co-workers are also nurses. Where is their empathy? I can't believe that their main focus is on how much time you might get off. As for the "nurse" attempting to dissuade you from having the surgery, that's just bizarre. If this had been a procedure for a different disease, ie. a " real disease" , I doubt if there would be the same level of indifference.
It's hard to respect people who show such little concern for the health and well-being of others.
Just curious, but is the co-worker who is trying to talk you out of the procedure, also obese? Sometimes, it seems, people who don't have the courage to have bariatric surgery themselves or who can't afford it (if not covered by insurance), try to sabotage the decision of those who want the surgery.
To hell with your pin-headed co-workers. Where were they in 2013 when the AMA classified obesity as a disease?
It is also evident that you are basically a nice person. After all, you still want to be polite even when you tell them to take a hike! (Hey, that almost rhymes.)