guess who's back, back again....

Today, two weeks after my operation, I returned to work.

When I initially spoke to the surgeon about the procedure, he suggested I'd need a week off work; then, when we booked the surgery, he suggested I'd need two weeks... so I arranged that with work... and then on the day of the operation itself, he signed me off for three weeks.

Great.

Apart from a lingering concern about exactly *why* I'd need to take three weeks off work, I didn't really think for a moment that I wouldn't be back at my desk after two.  I 'd asked about what sort of pain I could expect after surgery, and when the surgeon told me he would be sending me home with ibuprofen and paracetamol, I knew I'd probably be okay.  That's discomfort rather than real pain, right?

Thankfully, that's pretty much how it transpired.

After worrying that I wouldn't know what to do with myself, I've actually kept myself pretty busy over the last fortnight.  I've not even watched all that much TV (except when the cricket was on), and I've been doing loads of reading and trying to make sure I get enough walking done to hit my daily steps target.

Have I missed work?

Hell no. Let's be honest, although I really like the people I work with, there's pretty much nothing about my job that is worth getting stressed about.  That doesn't stop people getting stressed and trying to transmit that stress and drama to me and my team.... but I find that a really helpful perspective to hang onto, and I try and transmit that to my team.  In fact, our team motto is "Save the drama for your llama".  When things look to be getting a little fraught, I point at the llama and we all take a deep breath.

So, I didn't miss work, but I did miss my team... and as I seem to be healing pretty well, I went back to work a week ahead of schedule.

When I got back to my desk this morning at a little after 07:30, I found this on my keyboard.

I think they sort of missed me too.

It was good to see them and I've been smiling all day.