Having bypass on Wednesday, lots of questions...
I am looking for support here. I am disabled by my back but I can work from home and I do tax returns and run the office from my home. I work with my exhusband and the business is in my home. Soo. I am a revision from lapband which my body has not been able to accept to bypass. I wanted to get it all done before tax season but the clinic took forever and now I have surgery scheduled on Jan 30, Wednesday. My partner (ex hubby) is furious that I would have surgery now, as our tax season is just beginning. I am not happy about it but I don't want to wait until after April 15 either. I know I would just keep gaining weight slowly as my lapband is emptied now.
I could cancel surgery. But I don't want to. Once I am home from the hospital, I will be moving to my office, which is next to my bedroom and my bathroom. I don't have to lift anything. I will be answering phones, making appointments and doing tax returns on the computer. I really just do data entry as my partner signs and really does the returns. This tax season is being pushed back because of govt rules so I really don't think it will be too bad. But I am alone and I don't even have a ride to the hospital.
Also, I am on meds (pills), long acting morphine, so it can't be broken up, and I am really wondering how hard it will be to get down my meds? Will I need to get liquid medicine? Any insights would be greatly appreciated!!!!! I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Tracy
I was back to simi normal life 2 days after surgery. No lifting, vacuuming, or picking things up was the only normal things i didnt do. I did nap on and off for the first 3 days. They should give you a liquid pain med, I was given Loratab. You can swallow your pills the next day as long as you can handle them. Might want to ask the doctor about that since you will be on a liquid pain med for a week or so after RNY. They might be able to give you something closer to what your using just in liquid form.
I had my surgery on 12/17 and I also do taxes but not at home. It's hard to advise. I am older (61) and it's taken me a while to get my energy back. I went back to work at 2 weeks but couldn't work a whole day, just too tired. I would say, if you aren't jumping into 60 hours a week, if you can work a couple of hours and take an hour break for a nap you might be ok. You'll also need more time for eating, I find that working while I eat is bad, I eat too fast or don't chew enough.
They were going to schedule me on 1/15 and, if I couldn't get it done in Dec, I was going to wait. Also I was a little foggy for a couple of weeks (maybe from the anesthetic or pain drugs) but not sure I could have handled it.
OK, I guess you have to make the decision based on the hours you work, the time you have to be available for the phone, the amount of concentrating required. Also, if you do have complications what are the options for someone else to pick up the slack.
Good luck to you, whatever you decide.
Linda
Thanks so much for the fast and thoughtful responses! Some people say wait and others say no reason to wait. So it's up to me. I am going to get my pre-op physical tomorrow and I will ask my doc what he thinks and I asked at the clinic today and they were pretty much not worried about it all.
My office is right off my bedroom and it has a comfy couch and recliner. I work in there where I will answer phones and make appointments. Then I will have to do tax returns on the computer. I live in a very strange situation. I live with my husband, but we have been "separated" for 2 years. He lives downstairs and I live upstairs. His office is downstairs. We run the business together and get along great usually. He has a girlfriend. So we live as roommates.
I really tried to get the surgery way before this time but the clinic was so slow. Thanks again everyone! Tracy
Besides lifting restrictions, the biggest challenge that I hear for most post-ops is the lack of energy in the first weeks after surgery. I didn't have too much difficulty with a huge energy drop, but everybody reacts differently.
If your office is in your home, and you can rest when you need to, I wouldn't postpone the surgery solely for work. You will need to be more diligent about drinking your water and protein -- I resorted to alarms on my cell phone to remind me to drink a protein shake.
Best of luck in your weight loss adventure!
I am self employed and work from home. I had my surgery on a Thursday and was able to start working about 4 hours a day by Monday. Each day I was able to do a little more and work longer. By ten days out I was back to my regular schedule. The benefits of working from home is that I could nap in the afternoon if I needed to and work later into the evening to make up for it. I definitely wasn't feeling great that first week but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't sit and do office/computer type of work.
Like you have heard from everyone = we are all different - I had my surgery on Monday and didnt get out of the Hospital until Friday. Between the pain and the exhaustion, I dont see how you are going to be able to work right away.
First off, you say you are on long acting Morphine - that is the first thing you are going to have to figure out before you have the surgery - we can not absorb long acting medications post op = you will not get the pain control that you do from your morphine if you continue to take it post op and most surgeons have patients on either chewables, sublinguals or liquid meds for a few weeks or many for a month while your stoma heals and the swelling goes down to allow room for the pills to fit through. Some post ops are allow right away but not many. My surgeon doesnt allow us any pills until our 5 week follow up and I was glad because when I tried for the first time, the larger ones I had a hard time. I am sure the smaller ones would have been okay sooner but I wouldnt have wanted to take a chance of anything getting stuck - things need to heal and let the swelling go down. The opening of the stoma is only the size of pencil eraser at the time of surgery. So anything bigger than that wont fit.
For pain control, my surgeon gave me liquid morphine and you might ask your pain management doctor for that as well. You might also look into the Duragesic patch which is fentanyl = it goes directly into the blood stream, so you dont have to worry about absorbtion- I wear one and have for years and then only use a narcotic pain medication when needed for breakthrough pain. The patch you wear for either 48 hours or 72 hours. IT gives you continuous pain control and is great for people with malabsorbtion and severe pain.
As far as your surgery goes - make sure you have someone to take you to the hospital and someone to bring you home. You also have to have all your supplements and foods that you will need already in your home so that when you get home from the hospital, you will have the correct foods and liquids to eat and drink. This is absolutely imperative that you are prepared especially if it is tax season. You wont be able to drive for about 2 or 3 weeks and it is almost a full time job the first few weeks making sure you are drinking and getting in your protein. My surgeon basically had us using a 1 ounce medicine cup and told us that we had to drink 1 ounce every 10 minutes all day long for the first week. The second week it increased to 2 ounces every 10 minutes and finally on the 3rd week we were allowed to add some pureed foods and that actually made it more time consuming because you had to time your liquids and solids - after your drink, you have to wait 15 minutes to eat, and then after you eat, you have to wait 30 minutes to drink - it was like a schedule all day - trying to get in our 64 ounces of fluids, 6 to 8 small meals of 1 ounce of protein and atleast 1 protein shake. That was my full time job the first month. Finally at 1 month, I was allowed to have solid foods which made things a little easier with meal planning.
You are going to be exhausted at times and need to take naps. Dont try to push yourself too much. If you need to work for the next few months - believe me, I know what the hours of tax season entails - my dad was an accountant - I never saw him from January til May 1. Dont overdue it and then not be successful with the surgery. It might just be worth putting it off until May. I know for me, I put mine off several months so I could be free of all things that were going to side track me and also things that my were going to cause my surgeon to only be around a few days a week for the month, so I waited an extra 2 months and it was worth it.
