I am wondering what the average amount of time that people took off from work for recuperation following sleeve surgery. I am having the surgery on a Thursday, and was hoping to go back to work on the Monday 10 days following. Is that unrealistic?? I work at a job where I’m sitting all day, but it’s very busy and stressful. 

The title was supposed to say “how long out of work.” I am new to this site and I can’t figure out how to edit the subject line.

I would definitely wait. I’m 3 weeks out on Wednesday from sleeve surgery and I’m still exhausted and drained. I don’t even have energy to brush my hair. But I’ve also had complications with mine.

Everyone is different, but 10 days seems a little brief. At 10 days will you still be on a liquid diet? I was able to take almost 6 weeks off due to my work schedule. Also, my work is very active and requires me to be on my feet each day and I typically put in 10,000 steps during an 8 hour shift. I think 4 weeks would have been the earliest I could have returned. Again, everyone is different so speak with your doctor. Best of luck!

I'm hoping to take a short time off of work when I have my surgery. I can work from home so that's an option to be able to stay home but still earn a living.....

Hi! I had surgery 7/13 and was scheduled to go back 7/27. My surgeon's office told me that I could go back after a week because I have a sitting job that is also stressful too but I definitely needed that extra week. I actually ended up taking off an additional week just to be safe. Hope this helps!

I had my surgery on Thursday and am headed back (to my dining room table) tomorrow. So not even a week. I do feel like I will be able to handle it, albeit at a slower pace than usual!

I had surgery last Wednesday and I'm headed back tomorrow for a half shift. I actually work in surgery, doing sleeves, so I think they just want me to come in to see how I'm doing.[emoji23] I told my boss that I've been woozy so hopefully I'll get through it unscathed!

I took of 3 weeks. I'm working from home doing Telehealth. I am 5 days out and exhausted. No major complications (no major pain, no nausea, no vomitting, no reflux, incisions healing) but I am fatigued, my tongue is coated white patches and some brown colors that mostly scrape off) from my chocolate protein shakes, chewing multivitamins, etc.. I assume. If it doesn't clear I probably call doc in a few days. I shouldn't be dehydrated because I'm drinking fluids all day (64oz). Maybe I should do 64 water plus the liquid meals. I walk around the house and get dizzy. Make sure to take enough time off because I am thinking I should have taken 6 weeks.

I took off three weeks but could have gone back after two. I had a desk job, though. If you're on your feet a lot, you may need longer...

Thanks for all your input. I have enough time to take off more than the 10 days, but it’s just hard because I enjoy the judge that I work with and if someone else fills in, it’s going to be a disaster, which will reflect on her. But maybe I should take extra time if only to show my supervisor the workload is too much lol. Since being back at work full-time, they didn’t give us any time to deal with the four months worth of backlog, and took away our supporting help so we are just swamped and buried all the time and it’s very stressful

I scheduled 2 weeks off, but realistically I could have gone back after 1 week. Then again, my job is sedentary computer work, so less demanding than for many others.

I had gastric bypass, but I went back to work 11 days after my surgery. I had surgery on a Thursday, took the whole next week off, and went back to work the following Monday (I am working from home most of the time now, but I usually have to go into the office once per week, so I went in on Monday and worked from home the rest of the week). I have a desk job and I was fine. I could have gone back the previous week if I really had to, but I was definitely better off taking the week off because it's a lot of work to get all the protein and fluids when you can only drink an ounce at a time. By the time I went back to work, I was able to drink fluids at a reasonable pace and didn't have to pay so much attention to it. I sipped water all day at work and had a protein shake for lunch and I was good.

I purposely had my surgery in the summer which allowed me to recover in a month. But I remember asking my nurses how do other teachers do it? To which they replied, they take two weeks for Christmas Break or an additional week off during Thanksgiving/Spring Break so 14 days.

I had VSG on a Monday (5/18) and back to my desk job on that Thursday. So just 3 days for me. I was fortunate to do it during COVID, so was able to work from home in T-shirt and shorts. Not sure I would have been ready to dress up and go into work that quickly.