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Women's health

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Time off after hysterectomy

4 replies

Annab1983 · 06/04/2021 11:47

I had a total hysterectomy 10 weeks ago, had several complications during and post op that set my recovery back.. surgical menopause also. Am due back at work next week and physically doing much better but am still so completely exhausted and have brain fog and feel sick at the thought of trying to work on top of this.. lay awake last night worrying about it.. would it be unreasonable to ask for another couple of weeks off? Think my GP would be fine to issue a fit note for that. I work in a stressful job that requires like legal/social work etc and just don’t feel up to dealing competently with other peoples complex and emotive issues right now, bad as that sounds. tbh the physical issues I was having, the pandemic and wfh was all getting on top of me before all this.. Theres no impact on pay but just feel bad as they are understaffed etc and I have been off for 10 weeks already.. in another couple of weeks my young kids should be fully settled back at school/nursery which would help as I haven’t had a minute to myself this whole time.. my boss is lovely but obviously would want me back ASAP and I would dread telling them.. but am I just putting off the inevitable and will another few weeks help in reality, would anyone have any insight? Thanks in advance!

OP posts:
Rainbowshine · 06/04/2021 11:51

It won’t do anyone any good if you go back too soon and make yourself worse. Contact your GP, it’s better that you’re as close to being fully fit as possible when you go back.

Annab1983 · 06/04/2021 13:17

Thank you for your response Rainbowshine. That makes sense it would be worse to go back and then go off again. I would probably just run myself into the ground first though! Could I ask if you didn’t know the details (don’t want to get into the nitty gritty of gynae issues with colleagues) how long would everyone expect someone to be off after this kind of op? All nhs sites say 6 weeks for most kinds of surgery which seems to be the consensus but I have found this not to be the case! I know I shouldn’t care but I actually love where I work and the people and know they will be badly inconvenienced by this and don’t want them thinking badly of me

OP posts:
emmathedilemma · 06/04/2021 17:24

I've always been under the impression that 12 weeks was about the norm for a hysterectomy. If you've been off that long and are as wiped out as you say I'd also asked for a phased return to work with shorter days or just a couple of days a week at first so you don't crash & burn.

Rainbowshine · 06/04/2021 17:31

Quite frankly it’s none of their business, how long is normal or average for a specific surgery. Your GP says you’re not well enough yet, that’s it. Their issue is the workload, and they will just have to find a solution to that.

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