STRESSED- work night shift & worried about gastric bypass

Hi everyone! I am looking for other people that work night shift and that have been successful after gastric bypass. I am still pre-op, but am having surgery in March. My surgeon suggested that I try to switch for days, but it's just not possible with my family at this time. I am a nurse and work 3 12 hour shifts a week. My schedule is pretty much always the same. I will work Sunday and Monday then off T-W-Th. Then Work Fri and Sat and be off S-M-T and work Wed and Thurs- and repeat. Wondering how people who have similar schedules work their diets and vitamins and all of that. I have 2 little ones so I don't always get a lot of sleep.. I will work 2 nights in a row and I will stay up all day my first night and then work and then sleep all day my second night.. then the next day when I come home, I usually stay up all day and go to bed that night. My surgeon said it's not good to flip flop- but like I said that's our only choice right now. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm so worried!

I don't really see why it would be any harder to get your meals and vitamins and stuff in working nights.  I mean, when you're up all night and you sleep all day, you eat when you're up, right?  So that's when you'll eat after surgery, too.  I take my vitamins with my meals and so it doesn't really matter what time my meals are.  I take my first dose with my first meal, another dose with my lunch, another with my dinner and the last dose right before bed.  Doesn't matter if I'm going to bed at 9 pm or 8 am or whatever.  Before I go to bed, I brush my teeth, I take the dog out to pee, and I take my last dose of vitamins and meds.

I would advise being prepared to take enough time off work. I was exhausted for about 5 weeks total. I went back to work after 2.5 weeks, but I do not work 12 hours shifts.

I agree with Kelly that you should be able to do your vitamins regardless of what shift you work.

I work overnights, but I'm not a nurse, I'm a hotel receptionist. I definitely attribute a lot of my unhealthy habits to this lifestyle. I also flip-flop back and forth between being awake during the day and at night. I'm still pre-op as well, so I can't answer your question either, but just so you know there are others in the same boat as you! 

I think your surgeon's concern is due to the fact that poor sleep schedules lead to increased cortisol and other hormone issues that contribute to obesity. But-we do what we can do! With planning, should be able to be successful. I used to work crazy hours (36 straight, 80 hrs a week) and I will again. It is hard in a hospital because of all the snacks around and they are hard to resist in the middle of the night. But there are temptations for us all!!

i work tues thru sat 12am-8am. i flip flop my sleeping sched on sat and  sun. as far as meals and vits/meds i just wrote a sched for them for the time im up and around my mealtimes.  i have lost 71.5 since surgery, 9/25/13 and i feel great so i wouldnt think it necessary to change work schedule. its just a mattef of doing what other people do during the day at night instead. good luck.

I'm a bit perplexed by this. How is it any different working nights than days? You follow the same eating and exercise schedule but 12 hours off from those that work in the day time. 

I get up at 5a most of the time. I was up at 4 this morning. I will be up until 10 or so tonight. Should I have problems vs. the person who gets up at 8a and is up until midnight or later? 

You'll put an alarm in your phone reminding you to take your vitamins...just like so many day people do. 

You'll put an alarm in your phone reminding you to eat regularly...just like so many day people do. 

I am not really sure what the actual issue is. I don't want to demean your schedule...but you are talking about figuring out how to work 36 hours and make this work with a whole lot of free time in between. I worked 57 hours this week and made it work. 

My base advice is this: Tell yourself you can or cannot, you'l be right. LOTS of nurses on this board and I am sure others work nights and hopefully will chime in, but I am just not seeing the issue. 

It' really NOT as simple as you think ...   it's to do with the transition from nights to days - no one lives their life working nights every night of the week!!!!!

For example, it's very difficult for diabetics to work night shifts.   It takes a great toll on your body to keep adjusting your schedule every couple of days.   

I hope this gives you a greater respect for people who work night shifts - I stopped working them when I was in my late 30's and am forever greatful!!!!!

It' really NOT as simple as you think ...   it's to do with the transition from nights to days - no one lives their life working nights every night of the week!!!!!

For example, it's very difficult for diabetics to work night shifts.   It takes a great toll on your body to keep adjusting your schedule every couple of days.   

I hope this gives you a greater respect for people who work night shifts - I stopped working them when I was in my late 30's and am forever greatful!!!!!

I managed the eComm site of a large financial services company for years. I had to work emergency night shifts for merger or OLB disruptions and planned night shifts for installs and implementations. I am not without understanding of the hell a night shift can bring, but it IS doable. I moved to the business side at 42 because i was tired of the 24/7 nature of eComm. 

Then I don't understand the dismissive tone in your original reply.*   If you have worked nights, I don't get why don't you understand how hard they are and how they mess up both your physical, social and psychological being - especially for someone who has very young children at home and clearly nobody to help her!!!

I HATED nights and had problems, sleeping, eating even pooping!   It was the more debillitating thing I have ever done - especially as a young mother (my son was a toddler)

Empathy and actual experience is a wonderful thing to offer on here, Eli, and it's a huge part of support to people on here.   You could have offered her that you worked nightshifts for years and had no problems with any of it - I probably would have known that you didn't  personally   (although you haven't done it since surgery - nor with very young children probably - so really can't say how it would affect you now).   It would have been a point a view - even if irrelevant to the question of how to work nights after surgery???  

* Believe me, I'm well aware of tone in replies - it's why I'm always being accused of being a horrible *****  when I'm really such a nice *****!