home-based business

I work 100% from home and was wondering how long it will realistically take to be able to sit at my computer for an hour a day up to several hours/day? I don't plan on pushing it, I just want to know how long I'll need to plan not to be at my desk. Thank you!

Hi Christine!

I moved this question to the Pre-Op forum since you are pre-op! This is the place to ask your questions about your concerns.

You'll find that many women are different. Some return within a few weeks to a home-based desk. Others find that sitting is difficult for more than a few minutes at a time.

I'm sure other members will chime in and provide other feedback for you too!

Hi I am nearly three weeks post op and dont have too much trouble in sitting for prolonged periods of time. Just make sure that when it hurts you move around a bit or rest.

My main problem is the cloudiness in my head after anaesthesia. Its still there sometimes worse than others. Having a single train of thought is fine but trying to do the woman thing and multi task sends my head in a whirl!

Everyone is different however and its just a trial and error thing to see if you can still run your business soon after surgery. I tried to do my husbands account on day 6 and could only manage to sit for a short time and my head just couldnt balance the bank statement!

Take care and good luck!

Looby

I'm a graphic artist - desktop publisher for a yellow pages directory. I worked from home part-time during my recovery. I started slow, an hour here, an hour there and then worked up to doing 6 hours a day the last week I was home. So, by the end of week 2, I was starting to sit at the computer long enough to accomplish work - the first step was getting off the pain meds so I could concentrate and not do all my work in bizarre color combo's.

The big thing for me was not to try to do too many hours sitting in the computer chair at once right off the bat. Sitting completely upright does put a certain amount of pressure on your belly after surgery. Take breaks often - like get up from the desk after an hour, lay down for 10-15 minutes so you're semi-stretched out, perhaps use that time to put an ice pack on your tummy, then maybe a 10 minute bit of walking (shuffling) around the house before you sit down to another hour later in the day.

I did talk to my doc in advance about my working from home after a couple of weeks and he gave me the advice to not jump completely in with both feet. He told me to keep track of my total hours per week, and gradually increase how much time I was in the chair on a per week basis - to spread it out over 7 days instead of cramming it all into 5 if I could.

If you can at all ease back into the work, rather than having to put in 8 hour or more days right off the bat, the better for your healing. I hope this gives you a bit of a gauge - of course everyone's different in how they heal.

Hi Christine,

I dropped in to visit because I'm post-op for a second time, having had my TAH incision reopened to remove a massive amount of adhesions, ovary with cyst, appendix strangled with scar tissue, etc. Don't mean to scare you, I have a weird problem with developing large amounts of scar tissue. And I am so happy I insisted on getting this surgery done, my appendix was in horrible shape! (and eveidently causing part of the pain!)

My hubby and I own an on site repair business; I run the home office on my own. I had my TAH on May 16, 2001, staying 6 days in the Castle due to an infection and was pushed into working again by the 31st of that month. I was in considerable pain and miserable, it took forever to heal. I also continued to bleed sometimes (with no cervix, mind you).

By September 2002 my doc did a laparscopy and found that I still had endometriosis, adhesions had glued my organs into a ball and stuck them against the back abdominal wall after the TAH.

This time I had to return to work 8 days post-op, (my surgery was the 10th) and although I'm healing, my body tells me to back off on a daily basis. I am constantly forgetting things, and as my "boss" I would rather give myself another week or two off. But my other "boss", dear hubby, won't let me. (this is the same man that handed me a cordless phone, clipboard and the schedule as soon as I got home from the hospital after an accident where my ankle was shattered and put back together with a handful of titanium screws).

Listen to your body. Sitting at a desk isn't very comfortable, but if you have to, then stay there for an hour and return to your couch, bed, wherever you are comfortable for a few hours before going back. I try to return calls every 2-3 hours, and I've left most of my paperwork until I feel up to doing a bit at a time.

The more you rest, the faster and better you will heal. Working from home can be very hard, even just office work, my doc told me 4-6 weeks - and that's knowing I work from a home office. Your body needs all the resources it can take from other areas to heal what is actually a controlled injury. So let it decide what you need. Listen to it.

Sending prayers and good thoughts your way,


Deb
who's closed the office for the day and is off to watch Key Largo.

I work about 90% from home (occasional travel). It was about 7 weeks before I was back to my job full-time. I logged on to work the week after my surgery and was totally exhausted after 2 hours. Just sitting at the PC really took a lot of abdominal strength.

My surgeon had told me to advance my activity 1 hour each week and to lie down and rest 1 hour in between my "up" time. That advice was wonderful and by following it, I did beautifully post-op. Even with only working a few hours a day, by working at home I was able to resume work much sooner than if I worked outside home. I tried pushing it at 5 weeks and worked a full day without a rest break. That really make me feel awful, so I went back to taking the rest break and hung in there until I was able to be "up" for 8 hours.

It is good to have activity goals, but take care of yourself!