Had surgery two weeks ago for the removal of 2 big lumps on my breast and waist under General anaesthetic. initially I thought two weeks should do the trick, but alas, am still struggling for normalcy. I have not been going to work and i can't even bring myself to read even in bed; can't sleep on both my sides and now my back aches. As you can imagine my thesis is on hold. Consultant says it could take another two weeks to recover! Is this the normal time frame? GP was acting all grumpy when I was asking about the time frame; saying "u can go back to your books in the library tommorow if you like! it can take you 6 weeks, 4 weeks, bla, bla" Has anyone had a similar experience and if so how long did it take you to be back the roll? another thing i feel bad about not going to work ( I teach in FE part time), cause my students are a little bit behind.

With the combination of surgeries in different places it's probably difficult to know what your recovery will be like. I would say in general, allow 6 weeks for recovery from abdominal surgey unless it's keyhole or similar. Also, a lot of people get depressed following surgery for reasons not entirely understood. Apparently general anaesthetic can take a while to bounce back from (never had problems with it myself but never under very long).

Your gp sounds like a real hero - if you need to - could you see a different one next time? If you have really persistant pains you might need some physio or something. Mainly though, I expect it will get better in time but might linger on for while. Do mild painkillers help?

Thanx Smilodon for your response. Yes mild pain killers do help esp when going to bed. I think u are right about the depression bit. i feel a combination of things; a mixture of guilt for not doing my research and not going to work accompanied by a sense of futility. sometimes i get up in a good mood and make an attempt to read or something but then something small just steals the good mood. I hope this will soon pass and am planning to go see another GP as there are several within the practice.

Don't feel guilty. Write the next 2 weeks off as sick leave then if you are able to do some reading you can feel virtuous. I was laid up with back problems for 6 weeks during my MPhil and all I could do with read and I was impatient to get on with my project since it was a just a short masters type. But actually the enforced delay turned out to be for the best - I did more, earlier, thorough reading than I had planned and my project was very much better for it.

A few slow weeks won't make much of a dent in a PhD - I've had quite a few for one reason or another.

Tsipat, hope that you are feeling better and have a good recovery, that sounds like a major amount of surgery, not too mention the stress and strain that goes with having health concerns. I think to some extent having to deal with health problems is very traumatic just as a mental exercise, even not taking into account the stress and shock to the body that surgery must be!

I had very minor out patient surgery with general anaethesia a few years ago, and was told to take a week off sick just to recover from the effects of the anesthesia. I was not ill from the anesthesia itself ( you hear horror stories of people being sick, etc) but just dizzy and tired and unable to concentrate-was told that was just how the chemicals move through and out of your system. Anaesthisia is a poison to your system in a way. So it seems like it would be very natural that you would still feel so ill after a major bit of surgery.

After a week I was not even back to normal, although much better, but it seemed to take a month before I really felt like myself again. I just tired easily. Smilodon's advise to take some sick time and just heal sounds like the best!!!! Let us know how you are getting on!

Thanking you folks, will be taking one day at a time.