I am new here. I have my referral to see the surgeon but haven't scheduled my appointment yet. I was wondering if anyone here is a bedside nurse at a hospital and how long you had to take off after surgery before heading back to work?

Thanks!!

I am hoping the info I have is wrong. I know that the surgeon is very particularand cautious and the fact that I work on the bariatric unit there would be no way around it, if that is the case. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I had my revision from band to sleeve on Apr2016 and at that time I was a floor nurse on a telemetry unit. My revision was done in one surgery and only had to spend one night in the hospital and was released the next day with no complications. I took two weeks off and went back to work doing light duty for another two weeks. The first couple of days was very difficult for me, meaning that my abdomen was still sore and I had to be extra careful not to be doing any lifting or bending. I was mainly doing administration work such as patient admits and discharges and passing meds for those who needed help. After about one week of light duty I was feeling much better and had lots of energy. I still took it easy and followed my doctor's advice because I did not want to hurt myself in the healing process and I did not want to take more time off than I needed to. One of my co-workers had gastric bypass and she took six weeks off of work, not because she had complications but because she had that much time that she could use to take off of work. You know your body best and you don't know exactly how much time you need to take off before returning to work until after you have the procedure. I was ready to go back to work after two weeks but my body was telling me differently and that's why I was placed on light duty. I remember leaving work crying my first day back because I was in a lot of discomfort and felt I returned to work too soon. Listen to your body and take the time to heal and enjoy the new you.