Hi, I have had a bilateral wide local excision and bilateral sentinel node biopsy just over 2 weeks ago. I seem to be making a good recovery, I’m back to driving and walking quite well, just avoiding heavy lifting, hoovering etc. I’m signed off work initially for 4 weeks from date of op, and some people (family and friends) think that is too soon to go back. i don’t get my results till 6 weeks post op, and not sure of course what that will bring! Current plan is to have radiotherapy a few weeks after the results.
I could go back to work, then take time off again, work would be fine with that. I’m just torn between feeling that I hope that don’t manage TOO well without me (!) and making sure I have enough time to recover.
Has anyone else gone back to work before getting results, and did you feel it all worked out OK? I can mainly work from home at a desk based job.
Thanks
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Hello @sunlover100
I hope your post surgery recovery is going well.
I wanted to share my experience with you: I was diagnosed in July 2021 with a small DCIS and I had a WLE and SNB a couple of weeks later. My physical recovery was relatively quick and I too feared that work “needed me”. This wasn’t really helped by my BCN being (in my view and in retrospect) a bit blasé in terms of my questions about returning to work, and the “sick” note which helpfully(?) talks about you being “fit to work” when you physically you don’t feel “too bad” but in reality you are really not sure which way is up. My radiotherapy was about 13 weeks after my surgery and I ended up being off work for six months in total from diagnosis.
For me the hardest part of my treatment was the impact it had on me emotionally and psychologically: it was my oncologist who looked me in the eye and said “if it was me I would not be returning to work until I was crawling the walls and there is nothing else I’d rather do” it was the most helpful conversation I had through my treatment: she also pointed me in the direction of the local Maggie’s who were fabulous!
The impact on your mental and psychological health of a breast cancer diagnosis is not dictated by the size of your tumour or your treatment plan, almost everybody talks about the rollercoaster that you go on as part of the diagnosis and treatment plan: it comes out of the blue and you get thrown into a world over which you have no control.
I appreciate every individual and their circumstances are different: financially there was no need for me to return to work as my company’s sick pay policy covered most of my time off and after that my husband’s income meant there was no rush for me to return (incidentally your “sick note” is only so your employer can claim statutory sick pay from the government and isn’t actually a “judgment” on your “fitness” to work or not) but mentally I really needed that time off.
I returned to work 18 months ago, it took around six months to start to feel “normal” again (looking back it wasn’t really helped by a more senior manger being a bit over zealous in “caring mode” but realise now that is more to do with her general management style) but now work is actually much much better than it was pre-diagnosis ironically enough as I now appreciate how much I allowed work to control me rather than me controlling work!
Please make sure you do what is right for you!
AM xxx
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I didnt go back to work before getting results but I did return to work whilst I was waiting for the OK to have radiotherapy.
Although I only had 5 sessions I chose to use some holiday to cover it.
I had in total 9 months off work. That was after 2 separate mastectomys and 6 rounds of chemo.
I worked closely with my manager and our employers occupational health service with returning to work and overal just how I was.
I did nearly return because I had a 2 week gap between finishing my last chemo and my next surgery but was very much so advised agaisnt it 
.
Unfortunately I had wound complications with both surgeries which hindered my healing process therefore delayed treatment so as the reply above mentioned everyones circumstances are different as are everyones bodies.
Id just advise speaking with your employer to plan what returning to work would look like for you. And listen to your body!
Sorry if ive babbled on. I sometimes write replies and delete them thinking no one will want to hear my advice and i say to much so I hope some of what I’ve said helps if not that it bumps your post helping others find it to give more advice 
Hope your recovering as well as can be expected
Wishing you all the best 
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