! Re: yet another how much time off work question

[Guest guest]

Hi !

Just thought I'd add a bit of something to your post here.

I'm not sure how long postop you are, I'd have to look back. But I

had to have upper and lower done twice, 6 months apart. My son was

18-months-old for the first surgery and 24-months-old for my

second. I will never forget the exhaustion I had just trying to be

the bare-minimum mommy during those early weeks. I had my mom come

for 2 weeks to care for me, and my mother-in-law to come and stay

overnight to care for the little one. I just knew I wouldn't be

able to do both. I only thought I'd need mom for 1 week and could

have let her go, but it felt so much better to have her the extra

week. By the end of Week 2, I was alone with little guy for a good

part of the day and I was exhausted ... you know they exhaust you

anyway!

You are right that folks who haven't endured this don't and can't

really understand. We may appear " back to normal " in a few weeks,

but we are weaken. My surgeries were 7 and 8 hours respectively.

That has to wear your body out, not to mention all the healing it

has to do afterwards on minimal food intake. All this to say,

listen to your body, try to get as much help with the little one

when you need it and yes, I agree with Cammie, that your sitter

shouldn't question why you need her. But if it makes you feel any

better, at 3 weeks postop someone said to me quite nastily (and I

won't say who it was) " Don't you think you should be feeling better

right about now? " Nice ...

And to all those heading into surgery, this post is not to scare

you. I didn't feel awful at 3 weeks postop ... just tired. You

need your rest. My surgeon also said 3 weeks until back to work,

etc ... I needed 6 and 5 respectively.

Continued Good Healing!

Irish!

> > > Thanks, Marsha! My surgeon's office called me back and said " 4

> > weeks

> > > minimum. " Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel as good as you do and

will

> > be

> > > able to do a bit of work from home.