I don't want anyone at work to know I'm having surgery. I've heard them talk about another person that had lap band surgery. Sometimes it is not very nice. I've been leaving work early and using vacation day's to attend classes the last 6 months always saying I had dr appointments. I ran into the guy from work that had lap band surgery at one of the information sessions. I ask him not to tell anyone and last week he ask me right in front of another co-worker when my date was. So I had to tell her and also ask her not to tell anyone. I'm planning on telling everyone I had surgery for a hernia, and only tell the HR director the truth. I'm a receptionist at the front desk so everyone will know I'm not there, also because I never miss any work. Let me know what you told everyone

I have not told many people because I don't think it's any of their business plus a friend had bypass surgery in September, was very open about it, and got a lot of grief. I'm not real concerned about what others think but I don't want to have my energy sucked by negative thoughts and statements. In the past when something like this happens, I.e. information that concerns me becomes gossip fodder. I have found that if I just don't say anything to anyone, keep to myself for awhile, and do nothing to add to the gossip whether positive or negative, it stops. If it doesn't, thin I do believe that legal action should be taken.

I told two people at work: my assistant who has been great, and my boss. I told her I was keeping it quiet. She proceeded to tell a number of people. She's very lucky I decided against taking it to HR.

I tell those people who haven't been clued in that I'm counting every calorie and going to the gym 5 times a week. Both very true.

I'd say it depends on the kind of people you work with. I've worked with some really nasty people and some really nice people. You have to know that if you just tell one or two that more will find out - people talk. For some reason, many people don't have enough to worry about in their own lives so they have to involve themselves in everyone elses. I guess it's just human nature?

I want to thank everyone for all the great suggestions. One of the problems I have with telling people at work is they do not understand what lap band really is. The woman that I had to tell at work, told me I will do much better then the other man because he does not have will power. He has lost 80lbs in 7 months, I told her that you lose much slower with lap band, not like other weight loss surgery where you lose very fast. I also said he was doing great. I don't want to have to explain everytime someone tells me about someone they know that had weight loss surgery. I guess I don't want to be under a micro-scope. I'm a very private person

I know when I was deciding whether to have the surgery or not, I didnt tell anyone except my husband because I wanted this to be totall my decision, and my failure or my success. So far, it's been little failures and major successes and i'm very glad I had the procedure. But after the surgery, I too wasnt sure if I should or even wanted to tell anyone. Then about 6 wks after my surgery a good friend at work caught me in the lunch room and asked me outright if I was ok. She said she knew i'd been out for a while with surgery, and now I appeared to be losing weight. She assured me I looked great because of it, but she and a couple of other of my friends were afraid to ask, because they were afraid to find out why I was losing weight. She told me they thought I had was really sick, maybe even cancer, and didn't want to talk about it. She was so relieved that I was ok and losing weight by choice and design and not because I was sick! So, i'm glad that I told them.

But it's a very personal decision. I've become very open at work about it now, and answer any and all questions that come up. There were a lot the first few days, but now not so many. In fact, people at work are very supportive!

Good luck to everyone!

Rhonda

I actually told almost everyone at work (about 10) individually that I was having the surgery. This was after I had a date set and was getting ready to be off. They were all thinking I was preggo because of all of my "dr appointments". LOL. So, I handled each peron directly so that if they had any questions they new I was there to answer them. Also, if I told everyone myself, I didnt have to worry about others telling. I know that this kind of thing just gets out so I started it myself.

ONe funny thing: The monday after I came back to work there was a huge article agains bypass surgery on the front page of the newspaper :w00t: so, everyone was like, did you read?

But, everyone is very supportive and it is nice to have people constantly telling me I am doing good