Hello Bandsters,

I am in Nursing school and was able to schedule surgery during the later part of a break, but will only have a few days until I have to be back in school. We are not allowed to miss much. The nurse at the bariatric center says I am cutting it too close. I think I might be able to pull off one week of recovery time. Is this enough? I really don't want to put the surgery on hold and school is non-negotiable.

Thanks,

Nakniwa:wink:

Hi I too am nursing student similar situation

If you don't have a grueling clinical, or can schedule during period without clinicals, a week will be fine. BUT there are lifting restrictions and that may be problematic for you. I HAD scheduled mine well before the semester start but had problems and had it on a friday (missed a skills lab) and had class that next tues. I was fine because my clinicals (pediatrics) didn't start until day 10 after my surgery.

My surgeon said he has nurses who go back to work with just 1 week post op but he recommends 2 weeks.

AND of course a lot depends on you. I recover VERY fast from surgery...no pain, minimal gas, etc. We're all different.

Thanks much, RestlessMonkey! How neat that we are both in nursing school, you can understand the pain, and I don't mean surgery, lol!

No kidding! Honestly I had my pedicatric class right after my surgery and that helped during recovery...

this semester I have 3 days of clinicals each week and that "surgery on Friday, back in class the next Tues" thing wouldn't have worked for me!

If you recover fast from surgery and are in pretty good shape otherwise I think you can do it!

I was worried about staying hydrated BUT fortunately never had any problems drinking Water, so that wasn't an issue (because there's no "keep the water with you and sip" during clinicals, is there? We're lucky we get to use the restroom, let alone any leisurely water sipping!

I've never had surgery so I don't know how I'll respond. I am hoping for the best. Luckily I only have one day a week of clinical, I am hoping my clinical instructor is cool, I don't know who she is yet so I hope she's understanding about me missing a day and not lifting for the first few weeks. Sounds like you are in a tough program with three days of clinicals a week!

I'm a senior...thank goodness! I will say that, at least in my state, (so maybe not true in yours?) by law we can only miss so much clinical time and anything beyond that, they MUST fail us, even if we're at top of the class. So I missed skills lab (4 hours...pediatric stuff) but didn't ever miss a clinical. Just plan it to have as much time off as you can, or as much "easy" time...lectures etc.