I had my surgery on May 29th. The first two weeks after my surgery were really great. I woke up in a lot of pain, but i expected that. I came home and was pretty much doped up for a week and didn't do anything. But once I ran out of Percocet, I was put onto Vicodin, and because of that, I thought I was able to do a lot more than I was really supposed to. I picked up my niece who is about 20 lbs, i babysat, but in between i did everything, i always rested. But I've started to get the pain back that was supposed to be relieved from my surgery. The burning and tingly behind my shoulder blade is coming back and last night the pain was going back down my arm. I start work on Monday at a day care and I see my doctor tomorrow. What questions should I ask? Has this happened to anyone else? What is your opinion on my situation?
Well, my doctor actually told me I would be fine in 2 weeks, which i thought was weird because i read people were taking months to recover. I mean, I've been subbing there for a couple days already, and it wasn't so bad. I've been getting as much rest as I can. I'm only working a couple hours a week, but I honestly didn't think the stuff I was doing would cause the pain to come back. My doctor was also aware of when I started work and he claimed I would be fine. Everyone I work with knows about my surgery and that I can't pick anything up, i'm sometimes scared to even pick up my own laptop. The kids I work with aren't that terrible and it's in the afternoon, so hopefully they'll be tired and won't cause me much trouble. I already have to ask my boss to switch the room I'm in because at least if I switched, I would be in the classroom where the kids slept for the first 2 hours I get there. I'm just scared that by asking to switch my room, I'll be asked not to work, or that when I tell my doctor, he's going to tell me that he doesn't want me to work for a certain amount of weeks. I'm not sure what to do. My recovery has been difficult because I believed my doctor that I would be better in 2 weeks, and I'm getting frustrated because I'm still in pain.
Emmaline said:
I would have really hurt myself if I did all that after only a month! I think on our good days we tend to so too much, but I would always pay for it the next day. And I certainly could have never gone back after only 4 weeks, it's way too early for most of us. 8-12 weeks is more of an average.
It's too early to determine if your surgery is a success, but resting more is always a good thing between, No lifting or straining those fragile muscles and nerves that are starting to regenerate. It sounds to me like you need more time, do you feel ready? Day care is hard work.