Well, after going bac kand forth in mymind about whether I need to get this done ... I had an epiphany on Valentine's Day ... here's what happened -

So I gave my boyfriend a list of gift ideas for me last month about what he could get me for v-day, one of them being a gift card to NY &Co. He called me on v-day from the store and asked me what size tops and bottoms I wore .... not to purchase any clothing for me, but to see if I could even fit anything in that store before he bought the gift card. He said when he wakled in he didnt think that I could fit clothes from that store. I felt really embarrassed and sad about that whole conversation. I cried after I hung up with him and when I told my mom the story some tears started to roll.

That just tipped the scales in the direction toward getting the surgery. Well the next day (Feb 15) I got the call that my insurance approved me for surgery. My date is March 9th .... I felt very nervous ... but it's going to happen. I'm forcing myself to just go ahead and do it. I've been overweight for 22 yrs (Im 28) and I just need to stop playing around and make a change.

SO ... now Im faced with the challenge of what to tell my job. I dont what them to know what's going on because I know certain ppl will not preserve my privacy. Im thinking I can tell them that I'm getting a thyroid operation, that way the weightloss after surgery will make sense???? But I'm not sure if that's the best story I can come up with.

Did anyone else get "creative" and tell their job something regarding their absence for surgery?

Tell them you're taking time off. It's totally none of anybody's business and trust me, you will be judged for your decision to have wls by some of your co-workers. I had my surgery on 1/11/11 and as far as anyone knows, I just hung out at home, took my Christmas tree down, worked on some at-home projects, etc. My weight loss has been relatively slow so I didn't have any explaining to do in that department plus my work implemented a wellness program that everyone was excited about. I work with my sister so she's the only one that knows. I'm down almost 50 lbs in 13 months. I wouldn't have been able to pull that off if I'd had gastric bypass because the recovery time is longer and the weight loss is more drastic. With the band, I was only off a week and my weight loss is similiar to any other diet. I may tell everyone some day but for now, it's my little secret!!!

I didn't go into details with my job. I just told them I was going to be out due to surgery...they didn't ask what type of surgery I was having! whew!! but if they had I was going to tell them I was have hiatal hernia fixed.

Congratulations on your decision to go forward. With respect to the job, I told my boss, that I was having a medical procedure. No more detail then that. And since he assumed it was female related, he didn't ask anymore questions. That worked for me.

I just was "sick." I had my surgery on a Thursday, was back to work on Monday- I have a very sedentary job, though. You legally don't have to tell them, I don't think- your time off is yours to use as you want.

Good luck!!!!

i told my job i was gettin a hiatial hernia repaired,got a note frm my dr i could return without restriction that was all they needed. iam a cna....i was out for 9 days

Well I dont want to use vacation time (Im saving it for a cruise to the Bahamas). I have sick leave that I can use as I please BUT if Im out for more than 3 days I need to provide a note. Im sure the doc will write me a very vague note with no details, and Im sure my job will accept it. So in order to use the sick leave I pretty much HAVE to tell them that Im having surgery, or that I have strep throat or someting ....

And I know my boss and I are open about pretty much everything ... so I want to at least have a ficticious procedure in mind, so maybe I'll go with the hernia thing.

Wish me luck!!!!

I had a very vauge note written for me. I was out for 2weeks. On a side note to your boyfriend next time he should just get an American Express gift card an then you can use it anywhere.

My husband had to learn too

I had my surgery on Dec 22nd, That was a Thursday. I took Friday off (and we got Monday off for the Christmas holiday) and I was back to work on Tuesday. If you have the surgery on a Thursday, you can take Thurs and Friday off and be back to work without problems.

I work for the hospital where I had mine done, I chose not to tell anyone at work as well. There was 1 person that found out (due to looking in my medical record) and confronted me. I went to my boss and told him that she violated HIPPA and that was the end of that.

Its totally your choice to tell people or not. I, personally, felt it was better not to tell everyone, i would rather let the results speak for themselves. They see me in the lunchroom eating healthy, so as far as they know I'm just doing all the right things.

Yea I feel people just feel so strongly about it ... like they know what you've been going thru and your weight struggles ... and what you have tired and didnt succeed at to lose weight ... I've decided to only tell very close friends and family that can relate. That's it .... no one else gets to know.

Good for you, my boss also assumed it was female related and I did not correct him. My work requires FMLA paperwork for any sick time of consecutive three days. I don't know what the surgeon wrote, but no one ever asked me.

my dr using just puts for illness and leaves it at that. I did tell my immediate supervisor so she knew what was going on, I told a few office staff after, but thats it, I work with 150 people but I rarely see them as they work out in the field. I told my sister and my female cousin. and the rest afterwards. You should just ask dr to put due to illness and see if that will work.

My office has 50 ppl, and I see 42 of them like every day. I'm open with my boss, BUT he is open with his wife (whom I also work with). And she tells any and everything.

Hernia is it!!! Im so excited now that I have that checked off the list.

liquid diet next, then next thing you know I'll be shopping for clothes for my cruise!!! Hopefully size 12-14 clothes!!!!

I haven't told anyone, but my husband and doctors. Everyone else just thinks that I am on a diet, and I like it that way (PS...no one has asked either). If you have to tell your boss the truth, let him know that this is confidential information and not to be passed on to anyone (wife included). I would feel very violated if the wife of my boss, went and discussed any personal details of my life with anyone...and your boss needs to know that. If you must make up something about surgery, hernia, womans issues even dental surgery are likely not to get much discussion, should the word get out.

On another note, good luck with your surgery!

I was an independent contractor and did'nt get sick time. I told my boss I was taking a week off for a medical procedure.

I explained to my surgeon that I didn't want to tell my office what I was doing, but that I knew someone would ask. His advice was to just say I had abdominal surgery. After googling it myself (I wanted to make sure lapband wasn't the first thing that came up), I found that there were a number of procedures that came up, so I went with that. No one has questioned it, with the exceptions of people wondering why I'm having so much protein and not "real" meals.