I was operated on by Dr. Arthur Day in late September in 2009. I still have not gone back to work and was wondering how many people have been able to return to a full-time position after their surgery. By the way Dr. Day was wonderful. They anticipated 7 days recoup in the hospital was home after 4 1/2 days.

After I had my surgeries 9 and 10 years ago I returned to work soon after. The docs said that as long as I could maintain a low stress level it would be safe. I felt that it was important to get on with a normal life and at that time working full time was a big part of normal. Soon after I returned to work my bosses piled work on with impossible deadlines and my stress was astronomical. I have a suspicion that I was being forced out, due to the medical leaves and how it affected my productivity, so I left the job. I applied for and finally received Social Security disability and my full-time work career was over. Occasionally I had thoughts that I was being "one of those people", able-bodied but not applying myself to the workforce. At the same time my brother, who also has MMD and had surgeries around the same time as me, went back to work full-time. He was a network admin working at the DHS in Connecticut and San Antonio. His job was stressful, like any job in the government can be, and required him to travel to different offices and set up computer networks etc. In October of 2007 he had a massive ischemic stroke, rendering him unable to speak, swallow or walk. The left hemisphere of his brain was toast. After two years in this state he passed away on 20 October 2009, of a massive infection, acquired from being completely immobile in the rest home.
I write this as a cautionary tale, to be absolutely sure that is what you truly want. My late brother needed to work, and he lived life as he wanted. I, on the other hand, am effectively retired, and I'm ok with that. I don't have the satisfaction of seeing my work in print any longer, I was a photographer, or seeing my work on the Internet, as I was also a web developer, but I am maximizing my chances to see my granddaughter grow up. The choice is yours alone.

I'm so sorry about your brother and yourself. I run a store for a non profit and it can be very stressfull at times. I had TIA's before the surgery, which is what warrented all the testing to find out that I had MMD. I have been out since my surgery for 5 months now. I have tried to have normal long days but find that at times when I start to get tired I have memory problems and at times my knees feel like giving out from under me while I have a dazed feeling go over me at the same time I have to stop everything and lean against something until it passes.. Would love to hear from other people if you have had similar effects.

I went back 4 week after my surgery to my full time production job. I was told to take it easy and if I needed help preforming a task I should ask. I had almost daily headachs but my migraine medication took care of it so I could continue to work. 6 months later I started going back to school for my BS in electrical engineering part time. I still work 40 hours a week and take one class a semester including the summer. The migrains started to slowly decreased. Untill I may have one once a month but the meds take care of it. Last year I was premoted to an engineering aid job and out of production, I started to have more angziety. with all the new responcibilitys and tougher demands on my thinking ablilty. But My husband and I went on a weekend vacation to just relax and I have not had an angziety eposide since. we still do this when he thinks I need a break. Some times we don't leave the house and don't answer the phone.

Everyone heals diffrently. I guess I was lucky. Take your time getting back into the swing of things. Do push yourself to failure, but push hard enough to make little inprovements.

I hope this helps,
Becky

I went back to fulltime work 5 weeks after my first surgery; and did it again after my second surgery.  I’m an IT program management consultant.  I manage multi-million budgeting IT projects.  Dealing with tight deadline and making sure my project doesn’t cause any downtime to the system are typical stress to me on a daily basis; not even mention the endless midnight conference calls and such.  However, this is the job I amd good at and enjoyed.  And by doing so, it makes me feel that I’m still who I’m in my life.  Also, without knowing whether MMD would progress on me, I wouldn’t mind making and saving more money for my son (2 years old) for his future in case something happens to me down the road.  However, I think it’s all depends on the nature of your job and your own style of handing stress.  For me, I try not to get too emotional attached to the job itself; when something bugs me at work, I just deal with it without thinking too deep into it. This way, I don’t need to think about it again and again even after work. It’s all about finding the balance and see how much your body could handle.

I had my surgery on May 13th and was back to work May 28th i am a 911 police dispatcher so my job does get really stressful!!!!  I think it just depends on the person and how quickly you heal!!  I also just had it done on one side!! by Dr Steinberg good luck and dont push it to hard take care

Thanks everyone for your input. I hope to start back to work with the Doc's okay end of next month. Although I've started to have my some of my TIA symptons return this weekend, so we'll meet with the Doc next week to see what they say.  This is a wonderful site with wonderful information for people who don't know what is going on.

Best to all of you! 8-)