I made the decision to get the gastric sleeve early this summer right after school let out. (Really the only time I have to just focus on me). I did the research and knew about the clearances required but I was really hoping to have the surgery before going back to work in the fall. I am not covered my my insurance and I don't have any comorbidities so I'm a cash patient and things are moving pretty fast.

I am just wondering if I should feel guilty about having this surgery if it ends up happening in August and I have to take off a week when I just came off of a 2 month vacation.

Thoughts??

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I teach , too, so i scheduled (and had) my surgery on july 11 to give me plenty of time to recover before the new school year kicks in. I'm only 8 days postop and my energy is returning, but not to its fullest yet. Of course, there's also the lifting restrictions...

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I tried to get it scheduled during the summer but it just didn't work out that way. But I refuse to wait so I'm just gonna go for it!

I'm glad you're doing well @

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I'm also a teacher, I'm scheduled for 7/25. I am really lucky that my insurance is paying-after jumping through 6 months of hoops. I also don't return to school (officially) until after Labor Day. I'm really excited/nervous. I'm glad to hear that your recovery has gone so well Triplethreat

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Do it. Don't wait. You're important.

You need to do this for you. Don't even think about work.

I had mine planned for last July. Scheduling would have been ideal. Instead, I had to have a hysterectomy for uterine cancer. Thankfully, my cure was the surgery, but it put off my sleeve, obviously.

I rescheduled and took a week off before Christmas. It was no problem and I could have gone back after a week or 2, but had 3 off.

Edited July 20, 201610 yr by DaisyAmy

I am entering my 4th year teaching high school & 2nd year of graduate school. I'm a bit of a workaholic, and was able to get surgery scheduled for the week before our fall break in October. I am really beginning to worry about how much the pre & post op diets will zap my energy. I am constantly on the go & don't want to fall behind, but I am not waiting to have this surgery! My boss knows that I'm having surgery but not specifics, and is extremely supportive of me taking care of myself. Any tips for energy boosts?

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I am having the same dilemma friend. My surgery date is August 15. My first day back with students is August 29. This 2-week span will be enough time (I'm hoping) for me to recover. I am concerned about missing professional developments, open house, and other new school year necessities. However, I refuse to push my surgery date back further (winter break). I am unyielding on this. I will do what I can, when I can. We give so much to our students, but this is for me!

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I rescheduled for Sept. 8. It was supposed to be July 18, but life happened and things needed to be rearranged. I won't postpone this again! I teach in special ed, one-on-one, and will be there for the first 2 weeks of the school year. This will give me time to set the schedules, write lesson plans and sub plans, and make sure everything is running smoothly for the new school year. My substitute is a woman who regularly subs for me, as well as for the other teachers in the room, so she knows my kids, their strengths, and their issues. It's early enough in the year that we'll still be reviewing (heck, we sometimes don't see kids for the first week or so; teachers like to keep them in their classrooms to foster friendships and set the classroom environment, etc.), so I'm not going to worry about missing out or short-shrifting the kids. I've postponed this surgery twice due to illness; I'm not going to postpone again. Three's a charm!!

I'm a week out from being sleeved and the first three days I had so much fatigue. My surgeon wants me to do as much as I can as soon as I can, and as per his orders I did start 20-30 minute walks the day after surgery. By day 5 my energy level was fine and although I am really missing textures and flavors, I'm on day 8 and I feel really good. My abdomen is still a little swollen but I've lost so much that it is actually smaller than it was. I'm at a week long seminar for PD and it has been really good for me to interact with others and to stop focusing so much on my physical healing. I also worked until I went into labor with two of my kids, so I think for me, getting my mind off my discomfort is very important in the healing process.

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I am in education and a doctoral student. I took this summer off knowing that the distraction of surgery would be difficult to surpass. RNY surgery is August 3rd. Return to school is August 15th... But I am I a leadership position and need to do half days on the 8th. School starts on the 22nd. It will be a one moment at a time process as we had to completely tear down our rooms for an overhaul of the fire alarm system which won't be complete until the 12th of August.

It is going to be a challenge that may take my entire family helping decorate for our open house on the 18th of August.

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I am a professor in education (taught special ed for 13 years and have been in higher ed 11). I was sleeved on June 23 of this year, but tried to get my act together to do it last summer and spent an entire year regretting not going ahead and having it done. If you can swing it, I say go ahead. I will tell you that I was EXHAUSTED and in a good bit of pain week 1, but had to get up and pack to move week 2. The first few days that I spent working around the house, I could work for about 10 minutes at a time and then had to rest. (I highly recommend not moving twice and having surgery in the same month.) I just went for my one-month follow-up today and still do not have my full stamina back. Sometimes, I get dizzy when I stand up or work a lot. I have not been lifting heavy stuff, but packing and moving is more strenuous than my day job. I taught special needs pre-k for a couple of years and I am not sure how those of you who teach little ones will have enough stamina to go back quickly (I didn't notice ages - maybe you are much younger than I am!) Most of my P-12 teaching career required lifting and positioning children with physical disabilities which would have to have been limited during recovery, but that is probably not a problem for general ed or resource teachers. I am not trying to discourage you because I wish I had gone ahead with my surgery last fall. I just want you to be prepared for decreased stamina. Also, I have read a lot of people talking about wavering emotions. I haven't had surgery-related emotions per se because of moving stress, but not being able to eat when I was stressing over house stuff has been difficult. I think you need to be prepared for that as well. Good luck to you!!!

I am a lunch lady and hoped for the same thing, I started in March and here I am with a surgery date or insurance approval (as of right now) I'm already looking at the school year calendar for my next option (I'm thinking I will need 4 weeks because of the limit on lifting) so I'm hoping for thanksgiving or Christmas break

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Edited July 26, 201610 yr by amyflores

I'm a school bus driver and am on track to be ready for sleeve surgery around mid- to late September, but we start school on Aug. 17. My surgeon said typical recovery time is 2-4 weeks, but because I'm not allowed to return for half days I'm thinking my time off will be closer to 4 weeks (and I won't be able to drive a bus until the doctor clears me). I've been debating whether to use 4 weeks of sick time in September/October or wait until December to take advantage of two weeks off at Christmas. I have plenty of sick time (9 weeks) and I want to get started ASAP, but at the same time I would feel guilty taking a month or so off so early in the school year. Summer would have been ideal, of course, but the timing didn't work out that way. And I've met my deductible and coinsurance, so waiting until next summer definitely is not an option.

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At my two week visit my surgeon said I've healed so well that he amended the lifting restrictions to 25 lbs until one month and then no restrictions. Everyone heals differently, so be sure to listen to your body.

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I am a teacher. My surgery is Aug 3rd. I should be ready to go by the time school starts.

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