This was brought up in a 2015 forum....But I need an excuse. to tell my coworkers. If they found out I will loose my spot. I am a firefighter , so they will have no mercy.

If you need more time you could always say there was a complication or infection.

1 hour ago, MarvelGirl25 said:

Thank you for starting this convo again! I've been trying to find an excuse too. Im also worried about the recovery time. I was thinking of saying gallbladder but someone told me recovery time for that is only a couple days. I want to take a week or two off for this just to make sure Im ok. I don't know what kind of surgery has a week recovery time.

I swear I once got 2 weeks off for wisdom teeth removal.

Hernia repair?

9 hours ago, JanJan19 said:

I swear I once got 2 weeks off for wisdom teeth removal.

Hahah wow i hope I get that lucky!

Oh! Wait, I think it was when I had my tonsils removed, as an adult. Which is no joke. You could easily buy yourself a week with tonsils and also buy yourself some time on the recovery end, not eating much cause you just don't feel well. I would imagine a lot of dental work could work here too. Really, when I had my wisdom teeth removed I had dry sockets after & it was a good week of misery. Same with tonsils. I was for sure not eating much after both of those.

I said gallbladder. And 14 years later no one knows.

On 6/10/2019 at 5:43 PM, Michael S said:

This was brought up in a 2015 forum....But I need an excuse. to tell my coworkers. If they found out I will loose my spot. I am a firefighter , so they will have no mercy.

Like others have mentioned, you can say you have a hiatal hernia that needs to be repaired. That’s what my surgeon told me to tell people. Pre-op/post-op diet is similar to VSG as is the immediate weight loss that follows.

I didn’t tell anyone at work. I said I had to have a minor surgery and after I would be on a medically supervised diet. My HR person tried to get it out of me, but nope! People have different ideas about WLS and I thought our CEO might resent my insurance (through him) paying for it.

@Michael S 's struggle will be all the meals firefighters eat together. A short term excuse to be out of work is easy, it could be anything. But for the next 6 months to 1 year, @Michael S 's eating habits will be drastically different then the norm. If he doesn't want to tell his coworkers about WLS, then he needs to have a rock solid alibi, and stick to it.

I speak from experience on this. My job requires many many shared meals with coworkers, associates, customers, etc. For the first year my stomach capacity was so small it was 100% apparent to anyone I was dining with that I wasn't eating normally. Over, and over, and over again I had to give some reason I was eating so little. If I hadn't had a solid medical excuse, someone would have staged an intervention thinking that I either had a eating disorder or was not taking care of a serious medical condition.

On the Keto diet, because basically you are and because of that your tolerance for carbs and sugar are really low. As for the days off due to surgery tell them it was something personal. I was a teacher and had the band over summer and said nothing except to a few friends, they were worried because I was dropping weight quickly. Then one day one the meanest girls in the class said, you know we notice are you dying or something? I assured her I wasn't.

I finally used Keto Diet and also, that my allergies had flared up. Anyone who has known me very l9ng would know I have fought quite a battle with them in the past. One semi- friend told me if I had completed my series of allergy shots, I wouldn't have any problems! The fact that when I was terminated from my job and lost that insurance, I had no money to continue, did not enter into her mind. Perhaps she thought my pretty face would be enough payment. So to her I let my allergist take the blame instead of my bariatric surgeon. Oh if she had been a nicer type I MIGHT have told her the truth. There are people I have been totally honest with but MY LIFE-MY BUSINESS - if you are not paying for it, you are not required to KNOW ANYTHING!
As Edith Anne on Laugh- in and Manny Yocum from Little Abner have said" I HAS SPOKEN!"

On 6/14/2019 at 3:29 PM, JanJan19 said:

Oh! Wait, I think it was when I had my tonsils removed, as an adult. Which is no joke. You could easily buy yourself a week with tonsils and also buy yourself some time on the recovery end, not eating much cause you just don't feel well. I would imagine a lot of dental work could work here too. Really, when I had my wisdom teeth removed I had dry sockets after & it was a good week of misery. Same with tonsils. I was for sure not eating much after both of those.

I dont know many people who got their tonsils removed as an adult so that might be perfect.

Owwwww i cant imagine being in that much pain. I need to have 3 wisdom teeth removed and I have been avoiding it... for a few years lol

On 6/14/2019 at 7:41 PM, LL1982 said:

Like others have mentioned, you can say you have a hiatal hernia that needs to be repaired. That’s what my surgeon told me to tell people. Pre-op/post-op diet is similar to VSG as is the immediate weight loss that follows.

You see, I'm paranoid. My thought process is this: If I say hiatal hernia, once they see me dropping weight they will think I lied about the surgery and know that I did have stomach surgery but not the one I said.

Maybe a simple vacation abroad will do it? I wont get to use my sick time but it might be worth the hassle of trying to explain myself.

Edited June 19, 20197 yr by MarvelGirl25

I didn't tell anyone what surgery I was having except for our department head. I just said "surgery" and left it at that. No one asked.

On 6/11/2019 at 8:45 AM, Michael S said:

Thanks for your responses. I may go with gallbladder. I am just worrying more about recovery time. An injured firefighter is like an injured quarterback. You sit the bench ... you loose your spot.

What did you end up doing?