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How long were you off work after surgery?



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I'm having surgery on Wednesday and returning Monday.

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I had bypass was in the hospital for 4 days, but was able to work after. I pretty much was never in pain. I had a surgery on Tuesday and got home on Friday later afternoon, so went to work on Monday, but I work remotely , so no commute or walking, but I felt up to it if I needed to. But dont be too hard on yourself, if you feel on Sunday like you need more rest, let work know you will probably not be back in until Wednesday, you need to be easy on your body the first few days after surgery.

Wishing you good luck and a healthy speedy recovery!!!!

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I had surgery on Monday and am returning to work tomorrow. I work from home and my boss understands that I’ll be stepping away from time to time to rest, walk around, etc.

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I had surgery Tuesday and was back to work the following Monday. Pain was fine but I was super tired. I had to take breaks frequently and took a nap after work every single day the first week back.

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I may be an outlier on this,

My team put me out for 7 weeks, as I have a physically demanding job, I am a long haul covid person and have MCAS as a result. I never used my sick time in the 25 years I have been with the district so I had around 1000 hours of sick time to use. I would do what feels best for you, my surgeon says most people are out two weeks, but again everyone is different.

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3 weeks off for a medium demanding job. On my feet back and forth a decent amount. Going back 5/30 with lifting restrictions of no more than 15lbs for one month. My surgeons office states 3-4 weeks for gastric bypass (me) and 2-3 weeks sleeve.

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It just depends on how you recover & how your body reacts to the changes. My friends & I had desk jobs too - quite mentally demanding & reactionary. One was back after a week, another took three weeks & I needed four (I always take longer to recover from everything). Best advice is to have a contingency plan in place with your employer - ability to take more time if needed, to return part time or with reduced hours. Just don’t push yourself to do more than you physically (& mentally) are able.

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I had surgery on a Thursday. I flew home overnight Sat-Sun. I went to work that Monday. I was tired. But I was flying from Vegas to Ohio. That time change plus the surgery had me off a little, otherwise the work day went smoothly. I have a desk job as well

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Desk job, working from home. I took 2 weeks fully off, and another week with half days. I think week four I warned people I may be adjusting my schedule if I was exhausted and needed a mid day break. My company is mainly based in South Africa (I am in the US) so that worked pretty well.

Pain wasn't the issue for me, I never had to take pain meds at home. Rather, I was exhausted. I needed afternoon naps daily for almost a month after surgery. Also, I really spent that time focusing on my eating and drinking schedule since I really had to force myself to stay on top of it. I also was focusing on getting in movement via short walks, etc. Once I did start back, I had to start coming up with solutions to when I needed to eat relative to meetings and that sort of thing. I could see that being challenging in some work environments.

If I had been commuting, there is no way I could have done it. I would have been rung out after the morning commute alone!

My company was very understanding - I kept them in the loop from the beginning that my plans might change depending on how I felt and they were great. I was very lucky in that regard, esp since I had only worked there for 3.5 months before I had surgery. I think the openness (not about what my surgery was, just about the fact that some recoveries are easier than others and it is not predictable) was helpful.

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I was back to work in just over a week. I was not full strength but I work a desk job so it was fine.

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Two weeks here and I wouldn't like to have had to go back any earlier than that. Desk job too. I agree with @Arabesque that it would be sensible to have some contingency built in to your leave. I hope everything goes really smoothly for you.

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Today was my first day back. If i had to commute, i would not have returned this quickly and would have taken at least 8 business days off.

I was able to get up and walk around which helped immensely. Since I’m still on liquids, sipping Water and Protein Shakes was no big deal. I used my lunch time to take a 30 minute nap and will take another one shortly. My job is pretty sedentary; needing to get up and walk will be harder when 4th quarter starts and I’m in meetings all day but i have a while away to plan for that.

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6 weeks. Took full advantage of my Short term disability but I know not everyone has that luxury. I spent it preparing for the change in habits mentally. I work from home but it’s mentally exhausting sometimes Long hours.

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    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. LeighaTR

        I hope your surgery on Wednesday goes well. You will be able to do all sorts of new things as you find your new normal after surgery. I don't know this from experience yet, but I am seeing a lot of positive things from people who have had it done. Best of luck!

    • Alisa_S

      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
      · 1 reply
      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

        Now I have a whole new big, bigger, biggest, best days ever. I am out there with those skinny people doing stuff i could never have dreamt of. Food is now an after thought. It doesn't consume my day. I still enjoy the good home cooked food but I eat smaller portions. I leave food on my plate when I am full. I can no longer hear my mother's voice saying eat it all up, ther are starving children in Africa who would want that!

        I still cook for family feasts, I love cooking. I still do holidays but I have changed from the All inclusive drinking and eating everything everyday kind to Self catering accommodation. This gives me the choice of cooking or eating out as I choose. I rarely drink anymore as I usually travel alone now and I feel I need to keep aware of my surroundings.

        I don't know at what point my life expanded, was it when I lost 100 pounds? Was it when I left my walking stick at home ? Was it when I said yes to an outing instead of finding an excuse to stay home ? i look back at my last five years and wonder how loosing weight has made such a difference. Be ready to amaze yourself.

        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

    • CaseyP1011

      Officially here for a long time, not just a good time💪
      · 0 replies
      1. This update has no replies.
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