Okay Now I am worried.

I read in the forums that I need to take at least 6 weeks off of work for the DS especially since I have a nursing job. I have 3 weeks at the most. Anything other than that will put me in debt and cause me major financial issues. I have short term disability but it will only cover 60% of my paycheck which will do nothing for me as far as keeping me from losing my butt. 

Can I get some posts on how long you were out and what job you do, please? Has anyone else went back to work in 3 weeks with a job that requires a lot of walking and lifting 5 pound charts etc. I can get away with not lifting patients but I still have to walk a lot and drive a couple hundred miles a day. I am a Hospice Field nurse. 

Is this even going to be doable for me? =(

I'm an RN (I don't really like to bring it up on the forums though).  I am going back to work this weekend which will be almost 7 weeks.  I took that much time off because I'm constantly lifting/rolling patients, bending and squatting, etc.   I really felt like crap the first month BUT alot of it was related to nausea, which I found out was related to needing to increase my Prilosec to twice a day.  Once I got that under control, I was a new person.  But I think even without that, I was just exhausted all the time and would have been a danger at work.  My brain was also pretty foggy!

Now the only home health nursing I did was 2 days of clinical time during nursing school.  But I don't remember it being very physical.  I think if my nausea was under control sooner, I *maybe* could have done it at 3.  But how is your access to a restroom?  Are you in a rural location with no gas stations nearby?  That would have been a problem for me because you certainly can't be stinking up a client's house.  Also, are you administering meds/setting up IVs/etc?  Even though it's hospice, I would be scared of giving anything other than easily-calculated PO meds without someone to verify the dose.  My brain was not up for math for a while.

But that's just my experience.  I'm sure you'll get others that say you'll be fine at 3 weeks.

 

Most of my clients are in nursing homes and the two home patients I have are fairly easy. I see about five to seven a day usually in one nursing home per day. So I am in that nursing home for about three to five hours depending on the condition of my patients.  I can call and discuss meds  with my RN partner and the facility nurses. I have contracted with the same five facilities for five years so they all know me very well.  

We are required to have one skin assessment per week and my partner and I both see the patients every week so she opted to do the skin assessments for me until I recover which frees me up from to much lifting and turning. For the most part I am rarely alone without help from a CNA or another nurse if needed. They are simply a yell away.  I would just have to poo before I left the house to go see my home patient then stop somewhere in between. I would hate to stink up the facility bathrooms. That would be embarrassing. Hopefully spray will help. 

I am sure I will be exhausted though due to lack of calories. I do a lot of walking, standing and driving. I can sit when I need to though. I guess I will just have to be honest with those around me and tell them I just had surgery. I need some help. I really do not think anyone would call my office and complain on me. I hope not anyway. I hope this works. 

I think as long as you aren't having complications....you should be ok if you are in a nursing home.  You will always have help.  You have other people to verify meds.  You have aids that can help.  And you'll have facility bathrooms (which isn't as big of a deal compared to stinking up a prissy office bathroom).  You can go sit at the nurses station if you are tired (because lord knows I wouldn't sit down in some people's homes!) That's much different than straight home health.  

I think if I had my nausea under control and would have been eating/drinking more at 3 weeks I could do that.  BUT...you just never know how your recovery will be.  But I think it's doable at 3 weeks out.

Politically though I must be careful to not upset the nursing home staff. I would like to keep my contract there.  As far as meds go I will be on my own with my partner on that. Nursing home nurses are unfamiliar with most palliative meds and hospice care.  I think I will be okay though...

I still think I will be okay as long as I do not get any more home patients by the time my surgery is done. If I get more home patients then it pretty much is the same as home health care only worse. 

=)

I'm not an RN, but believe me, with SLE and fibro, I've spent a lot of time around all things medical.   I was also responsible for my Mom and two of my uncles (one in tandem with Mom) during the time they spent in nursing homes, so I'm familiar with the terrain. I was not in school when I had my surgery, so time off was not an issue, but I had to figure out ways to be mobile and take care of my new health requirements.

 I would really be more concerned about the risk of infection to the incision(s) than anything else.  Are you having open or lap?  Open will leave you with a 6-8 inch midline incision starting proximal to the angle of His. (I'm studying to become a bariatric RD, and I had to take A&P),   With lap, you'll probably have 6-8 incisions of about an inch in your upper and lower abdomen (3-4 up and 3-4 down). Germs have a way of finding the opportunity to invade "weakened" areas, so keep them covered with bandages until you're good and healed.

As for the poo smell, invest in Ozium.  Medline has a no fragrance pump spray odor eliminator that's used in health care facilities.  Purchasing/requisitions should be able to find a source for you, or your local home health care store might stock it.  Sometimes even uniform shops have it.  Plan on unexpected "poo time" when you're early out.  It takes a while for your body to get used to the new configuration and regulate itself.  I've also heard of folks who have had no poo issues whatsoever,  but it's not the norm.

Pack high-protein snacks that are portable with little or no refrigeration or buy a kit that comes with a freezable pac ( the ones with the blue stuff in them) you can put inside the lunch kit. I think you can even buy them separately at Walmart.  Natural cheeses work well as snacks, though they can get a little oily if not refrigerated.  Pack a Blender Bottle with your protein shakes in pre-measured pouches. You can buy milk at a convenience store, or fill a thermos at home.  Ziploc snack size bags are good for carrying your pre-measured shake mix.  One of those soft side insulated lunch kits that zips up is perfect, but with a Blender Bottle, you'll want to take the metal whisk ball out of the cup and carry it in a separate part of the bag, so it won't make so much noise. They are collapsible if you pinch them together and tuck them inside a pouch, if your lunch kit has one.

These are some of the survival tactics I used when I was going to class and had to take DS-friendly snacks as well as lunch and shakes.

I'm sure everything will go great for you! 

Hopefully, Lap. I would hate to deal with an open surgery. I have done that in the past with my gall bladder. It sucked. 

One thing you want to note is that STD is usually paid for post-tax out of your check (unlike health insurance, which is paid pre-tax).  The benefit for this is that you will receive your benefits tax-free, so your check will be more around 75% of your pay.  

Also note your 8 lb limit for 8 weeks, which may be a challenge for handling patients.  The last thing you want is a hernia to require even more time off of work.

OH thank you! This I did not know. That is some good news to hear. That might do the trick then. 

I too am a Hospice field nurse. I had a tough go of it for a couple of months because of bathroom issues,something you won't be able to predict.. Bathrooms can be few and far between when driving out the in country. I tended to need one "urgently". Tried to not use clients for several reasons. Even now, 6+ months out there are days that are a challenge, have tried to narrow it down to what could be the cause but there seems to be no correlation to what I eat, just some good days and some bad.