So, I will be having surgery this summer. I am also doing field work for my thesis this summer. I have been trying to come up with a time frame that I can ask my advisor to let me take off after I have surgery. I don't think I would be carrying anything extremely heavy, but I may be carrying several light traps and a banding kit at one time (maybe 10-15 pounds total). I will probably be climbing over some fences (barbwire fencing and/or steel gates), and climbing up ladders to put cameras in trees (which may include a lot of stretching, since I am short and so is the ladder). Some of my sites are a hike from the access point, also, and some are in hilly areas.

So, all in all, my field work wouldn't be super-strenuous, but it wouldn't be sitting behind a desk, either. I was thinking that I would probably go ahead and take an entire two weeks off, just in case. And then I start thinking about finances, since I am not paid for time that I don't work. So now, I don't know whether to go ahead and tell my advisor once I get my date that I will be taking two weeks after surgery, or to tell him that I will take a week and see where I am after that.

I took two weeks off because I work on my feet all day and do some light lifting. I do not, however, have to climb fences. I think if that were the case, I might take 3 off if possible. I was feeling mostly back to normal by two weeks, but still had some port pain. I'd be afraid that the extra stress on your core muscles with the climbing and stretching would be too much. Just my 2 cents!

That's what I was afraid of. Well, hopefully they will get me scheduled for surgery around the end of July and I can just take the rest of the summer off, since I will be starting classes again around the middle of August. That would probably be roughly 3 weeks.

It probably wouldn't be a problem if the fences were decent, but at a lot of my sites, the owners apparently have never heard the words "general maintenence." We're talking rusted out fences and gates that look like they're about to fall over. Unstable fences aren't fun to climb, even when I'm feeling 100%.

Two weeks would have been enough for me, but it's always best to be safe and not put yourself in a risky spot. Three definitely seems prudent.

I can't wait to hear that you have a firm date and no more question marks, Lauren! I'm tentatively set for rebanding on July 9th, so we'll be baby bandsters together.