X-post A new adventure, might have to postpone VSG

Well, I have been looking for a teaching job for a little over a year. Well, today I got a phone call and an offer to teach part-time. Since the school year starts Monday, I may have to postpone my surgery. Essentially, I can ask Kaiser if I can do it o the first day of Chrismas break and recover for two weeks. Or, I can let my new employer know that I have a medical procedure (not going to mention what) on 9/13 and take that day off, and return to work on Tuesday. I would only be working Tuesdays & Thursdays. I wouldn't tell my surgeon what I was doing, he would not approve. This would be the back-up plan as I really would like to recover for a couple of weeks. Anyway, I am also going to have to take a pretty big pay cut in order to accept the job, but with teaching jobs as hard to get in CA as they are, I need to get in somewhere. I am going to also ask my current boss if I can drop down to part-time. I'll let you all know how it all comes together. Yes, I would be dissapointed if I have to postpone, but I can't turn down the offer as I would be waiting another year to try for something else. Of course explaining to Kaiser why I needed them to move faster obviously didn't work. If they had let me go to another facility or worked with my potential schedule, I would have already been sleeved and wouldn't need to rant a bit about their foot dragging here.

 Thats definitely some good news but I realllllly wouldn't recommend trying to go to work 5 days later. I could barely stand up straight and walk at 5 days out. I went back to work 10 days out, but couldn't manage, so i only worked 2 part days and then took the rest of that week off. 

I know December seems like an eternity away but you would really appreciate the down time to recover - this isnt the most difficult/painful surgeries, but it is still a very major surgery. 


Congrats on the offer though!

If I get to choose, I think putting it off till December would be the best, the only real problem I can see if if the surgeon is already on vacation. I mentioned this posibility to him at my consultation, and asked about Christmas break, he said he was taking vacation during that time and so was the other surgeon. Of course there is no way Kaiser is going to approve one of the other facilities since I've already been assigned to a surgeon. I have a call in to his nurse about the scheduling, I should know something about that tomorrow.

Congratulations on the job offer!

However, I absolutely discourage going back to work after 5 days.  You're having major surgery under general anesthesia.  I had a very easy post op course, and on my 5th day out I felt great.  But when I tried to go to the grocery store I was utterly exhausted after 20 minutes out.  I broke out in a cold sweat, felt dizzy, and the check out clerk felt so bad for me he took me in the express lane despite having about 20 items.  I slept for hours when I got home.

The last thing you want to do is create additional medical problems for yourself and end up missing a whole bunch of work.

Congratulations on your opportunity!  My surgery was a really easy experience compared to some on the forum, and if I'd chosen to do so, I could have gone back to work 5 days later.  I chose to take the 7 days I'd planned on, though.  I actually did our final walkthrough for our house the day after surgery ... and closed on the house the day after that.  I felt better than I thought I had any right to, actually.  I hope your experience is that easy; however, I definitely think you should make sure that it's not going to jeopardize your new job if something happens and you can't come back the Tuesday after surgery (that is, if you do the September date).  Just cover your bases!

Good luck!!