Back to work after surgery and anxiety ridden... :(

:glare:Ok so here I am almost 3 weeks out of surgery, and while I have lost 15 lbs, I still havent returned to work yet. I am a neuro-trauma ICU nurse and I work 12 hour shifts on a very busy floor in Philly. Sometimes my patient load can be very heavy....2 patients weighing 250+ pounds each at times is a little stressful on the body!!!

My situation is this.....I was to return to work today and I got soooo anxiety-filled that something was going to happen to my port or my band if I return to work not feeling 100%. I know that feeling of something foreign in my body will probably not go away for a long time (if ever!!), but I just nervous that I am going to do some damage to myself while in this fragile state of healing.

I currently have a 25 pound 9 month old that I'm not supposed to be carrying around (yeah like that;s a possibility!!) so now I'm wondering if work is just gonna be too much right now. I do have a great group of co-workers that are extremly helpful and I am prepared to explain to them that I NEED HELP, BUT AT THIS TIME IN MY LIFE, I CAN;T BE A HELPER

So I'm looking to see if there is anyone out there that had any problems going back to work after surgery, and if there is a possibility that anything could cause harm to the band???

Or if there are any nurses out there who may have been in this situation....how didi u deal with it??

Thanks for all the support in advance!!

Go weight loss!!

hey there- i didn't know you were an ICU nurse!!! I am an occupational therapist and work with newly injured spinal cord patients......so i had to go back to work on light duty (cannot lift more than 10 pounds until im 6 weeks post op). My dr. wrote the note and work has been really great about it. I don't know if light duty is a possibility for you or not??? Let me know how it goes. - Leslie

OMG WHAT A SMALL WORLD!!!! IM IN THE NEURO ICU....SPINAL CORD INJURIES, BRAIN TUMORS....OTHER TRAUMAS LIKE MVA's.... WE REALLY DONT HAVE LIGHT DUTY, BUT I WILL FIGURE SOMETHING OUT!!! THANKS DOLL!!