anyone with "heavy duty" jobs?

HI, I am a nurse, so I am required to be on my feet for long periods of time and also lift. I thankfully am still on maternity leave for another month, but then I head back to work. I am doing very well in my recovery, but still get reminders every once and a while when I have overdone it. On days that it is hot and humid I get swelly belly much worse. I just thank my lucky stars I am on maternity leave still. How are you others doing that need to do lifting and such? Oh, btw, I am 3 months out, will be 4 months post when I head back to work.

I just went back to work a few wks. ago. The first wk. was very hard. I work at a plastic molding plant, so I'm on my feet 12 hrs. and lift heavy bxs. The swelly belly was awful at first, but it seems to be slowly getting better. You really have to be careful when you lift anything. When I would come home I would use a heating pad for the swelly belly, that seemed to help. Since you have another month that's even better, you'll have more time to heal. Dress in comfy clothes, I made the mistake of wearing jeans my first day back and boy did I regret that. After my swelly belly started the jeans seemed to cut right into me. Also when I'm at work I don't drink any soda or eat salt, so that might also be the reason my swelly belly isn't so bad anymore. I drink ice tea and eat more fruit. I also started slowly exercising again and I think that has helped too.

thanks Jd, anyone else out there?

I started back to work at the beginning of my seventh week. I am a Sous Chef & went back to the whole shebang--lifting, bending, racing around,-- full time...ouch! I get very few breaks too, maybe five min. here & there.

I stuck with it though: went through all sorts of different pains, pinches, and fatigue. I also noted that in times of stress I would have more pains.

I just today finished up a 12 day work week...it pretty much finished me up! I feel like I did at two weeks post-op--HURT. That was definatley toooo much, but I had no choice. I did call my doc to check about the hurting; he said I was doing to much: ya think?!?
I just had to rest when I could.

Point is, you do what you have to do. I took good care of myself during my six weeks of recovery and my poor punctured body has been repaying me by doing its best.

I really wish I could of had eight weeks off before returning to work, but that was not the case for me.
The longer you can take off to heal & build strength the better.

I would so LOVE to not have to work! My recovery period was very dear to me. I try to hold that peace I felt close, but the real world can be so very harsh and exhausting!
*** If only I could escape the rat-race!

I clean houses for a living, I consider that pretty heavy duty. Climbing lots of stairs, moving furniture to clean behind, bending, vacuuming, mopping etc. I am 8 weeks today and just went back "full time" this week. I don't have the stamina I had prior. I usually clean 2 -3 houses by myself a day. But I'd never survive the day if I did that all week. I'm fortunate to be able to adjust my schedule to accomodate my bodies needs, but by 12:30 -1:00 I'm ready for a nap and can only wish I could take one . My belly still swells too, but for the most part I feel great, I couldn't have said that 2-3 weeks ago!!!
Only the occational zinger to remind me that I just had major surgery!!!
Penny

I'm a paramedic. I went back to work (in dispatch) 13 days after my hysterectomy. I went back to full duty 6 weeks out. I still get swelly belly in the afternoons and my surgery was in December. I had to lift a 280 lb patient with just my partner on the first day back on the street. It wasn't too bad. There are days when I feel a pulling on my left side was the ovary was. I'm off the hormones, so I'm having the hot flashes again. On some nights, it seems like they go on all night. I'm lucky that my partner loves to keep the ambulance cold. Everybody will tell you not to push yourself, but it seems like we all do. I do try to practice good lifting techniques, even asking for assistance when I need to, using my legs to lift, etc., but some days are worse than others.

I am an LPN in a nursing home/acute care and I work 12.5 hour shifts, I returned to work after 5 weeks and its been very hard. This is my 3rd week back and im really tired a lot. I just rest as much as I can and do my best at work. I try not to do much lifting, I simply say I cant do it yet and ask the aides to pull up patients. Im not going to take the chance of hurting myself or my patients. The hardest part is that Im on my feet almost the whole time, by the end of the shift im ready to go home and put my feet up. My belly feels like its got lead in it and weighing it down, sometimes I wear my abdominal binder and it helps with that heavy feeling.