How long until you went back to work?

[Sreeves 56]

Hello everyone~

I am facing a very frustrating situation. I had timed my surgery for around the time I would not longer be employed. Or so I thought... What should have been a done deal unraveled and now we have no idea when our department will be reorganized. I am a medical transcriptionist and I work from home, so it isn't like I have to do a lot to get to work, lol. I have used up all my sick time getting ready for surgery so any time off I take will be unpaid, which can only go on for so long. Ugh, I am kinda freaking out now.

I don't actually have my surgery date yet. I guess I am just freaking out about still being employed when I do have it. How weird is that??

So, anyway, how long were you off before you went back to work? Did you start slowly (like half days at first) or did you wait until you could put in a full day? How long until you were not completely worn out after a day of work?

[Amyllf2 206]

I teach online and in person. I was doing online work on day 3 but not for any extended period of time. On Day 7 I went back to the classroom for 3 hours plus 2 hours of driving. I was very tired but I didn't lose that feeling for almost 2 months. I should have not gone back to the physical classroom until week 2 or 3.

[Sreeves 56]

Wow, day 3! I took a week off after my Lap Band in 2007 and at that time I worked in an office. I remember feeling very fatigued for a long time after that surgery and that was was a breeze! I am hoping my work will let me work part time split shifts so I don't overdo it but I figure I will need at least a week before I can even do that. I am just praying it isn't going to be longer than that.

[DaronB 103]

I'm in a similar boat, but I plan on returning to work about a week or week and a half. I can hurt at home or hurt at work and get paid lol. As long as my surgeon is ok with me going back, I will.

[Getting-used-to-new-me 119]

I was lucky(?) I got three weeks off. My co-workers got two weeks off. I think it depends on what our surgeon's group said regarding our unique health statuses, in total.

If I could have, I would have had four weeks off. I can't recommend anyone getting this surgery to begin with, let alone getting back to work within a week. That's superhuman! It's definitely not what I could have done.

It takes our bodies one to two YEARS to accommodate all the changes. So the longer the better.

[Pixers 26]

I had planned on going back to my office job after a week. My surgeon was ok with that if I felt up to it. He retired during my 6 month Dr supervised diet. My new surgeon said no way. That I would need at least 2 weeks off. This Wednesday it will be 4 weeks post op. I find out if I can go back to work after that. I developed an infection in one of my incisions.

Plan for the worst and shoot for the best!

[winning_by_losing 107]

I planned for the worst, so took a week off, then worked from home for 2 weeks before returning to the office.

I felt good enough that I could easily have worked from home around day 3 or 4 as mentioned above and after getting cleared to drive at my 1 week post-op, I felt like I could definitely have started back to the office then (though I was a bit timid as my office is almost 50 miles from the house).

As for the starting slowly - I did take the first few days a little easier cutting back to about 10-12 hour days instead of the usual 18-20. But had I needed to, I'm sure I could have pushed through a full day if necessary.

[esskay77 785]

I started working from home about 3 days after surgery. I went back to work after 2 weeks but really could have gone back earlier. You will be tired no matter what so take it easy whether you go back to work sooner or later. I really wish I had gone back sooner--I had just started my job (was also trying to have the surgery between jobs but that didnt work out). I took it easy and can work from home when needed so I felt comfortable going in that following week. But, everyone is different. If you can work from home, that would be great because boredom does set in! lol

[DaronB 103]

The reason I'm personally planning to return in one week is because I work as a scribe in a doctors office and am out of vacation until November. I can afford to miss one pay check but I'm not entertaining that thought. If my surgeon says I can return in one week, then for financial purposes, I will.

[Sreeves 56]

I do think it will help that I can work from home. My granddaughter starts school full time this year so I will have a few hours of peace and quiet in which to work. I don't plan on going back to work right away after this job ends (back to school for me!) and I was really counting on living off my severance pay for a while so that I could start school not totally exhausted. Oh well. Stuff happens. I am really grateful I am getting this second last chance so I will take what I can get.

[rubyred138 17]

I was off for 4 weeks but my surgeon originally only wanted to give me two weeks off. I have heard of some people going back to work after a week and I also know of some people who had 6-8 weeks off. Honestly it just depends on your body. Some people are in a lot of pain and on their meds, I didn't take any meds since the day of my surgery. I really wanted 6 weeks off because at 4 weeks I was still extremely dizzy, nauseous, and tired. When I went back to work on week 5 it was hard but not impossible. The hardest part was getting up early in the morning and not taking a nap during the day.

[ready to get this show on 7]

have used up all my sick time getting ready for surgery so any time off I take will be unpaid, which can only go on for so long. Ugh, I am kinda freaking out now.

I feel your pain, Sreeves, I ended up getting docked days last year for all my gastric (lap band caused) problems. And, I've been worried because I don't want to do that again this year. But, I've decided that as long as I can find a ride and I'm not high on pain meds, I can be uncomfortable at work (teacher) just as well as at home.

So far as your questions go, I took 2 weeks off when they did the lap band and all was well by the time I went back to work. I'm way curious about the experiences of others (who've had bypass), though. The two people I know who had it say the recovery was hard, but one had never had a baby and the other had never had a kidney stone, so I didn't have an accurate pain scale, lol.

[ready to get this show on 7]

I teach online and in person. I was doing online work on day 3 but not for any extended period of time. On Day 7 I went back to the classroom for 3 hours plus 2 hours of driving. I was very tired but I didn't lose that feeling for almost 2 months. I should have not gone back to the physical classroom until week 2 or 3.

I teach, too, so thank you for your story, Amy.

[terry1118 1,274]

My team recommends two weeks for non-physical jobs and four weeks for physical jobs. I work in a bank so I took two weeks but could've gone back after one. The second week felt more like a vacation than a recovery. :-)

[Pixers 26]

I was off almost 5 weeks. I had planned for 2 weeks off but then I got an infection. I have a desk job. Monday was my first day back. It is going ok. I do get tired during the day but I am pushing through it.