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  • After Surgery: When Do You Return To Work?

    Posted by Bailey Vincent on February 26, 2020 at 10:08 am

    Question: How long do you take after surgery to get back to life?

    I am just a few days out from sinus surgery, and still don’t feel like myself at all (I actually feel worse currently, before hopefully feeling better). Despite feeling terrible, I have to return to work tonight in some capacity. I often return to work or dancing well before the designated time that doctors say so (in this case, two weeks of minimal moving and weekly debrieding, and then a slow return). I just can’t afford to take the full amount of healing time off.

    Does anyone else do this or do you have any recovery experiences or advice to share?

    Jenny Livingston replied 4 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Jenny Livingston

    Member
    February 26, 2020 at 10:45 am

    I’ve had five sinus surgeries in total, so I thought I had the recovery phase down. But a couple years ago, my recovery was far worse than I had anticipated. Three weeks out, my entire face swelled up and I was in such extreme pain. At that point, I regretted getting the surgery because I couldn’t imagine ever feeling better. We determined that I’d developed an infection, which was remedied by a short course of antibiotics. And then FINALLY I started feeling better.

    Finally being able to breathe and no longer having debilitating sinus pain/pressure was such a foreign and wonderful feeling! It just took a while to get there. What I learned was that for me, Tylenol was the best pain reliever for that specific type of pain. I was shocked because I generally think Tylenol is pretty worthless (hah!). But I don’t like narcotics, and ibuprofen wasn’t super helpful. Extra strength Tylenol was my unexpected miracle. Also, keeping something cold on my face/forehead really helped. At one point, I’d used my cooling packs and forgotten to put them back in the freezer so I ended up using a frozen burrito on my forehead for relief! 🙂

    I hope that your return to work goes well and that you can manage to balance work and recovery. It’s like walking a tightrope, but sometimes it’s just what has to be done. Life doesn’t stop for sickness or recovery. You’ve got this!

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