Returned to work - it may have been too soon

Hi everyone,

I had a subarachnoid haemorrhage in November and was in hospital for 3 weeks. My surgeon told me to take 8-10 weeks off when I told her I work in dentistry so I did. I was insanely bored at home and my mother was taking care of me so I felt I was good to go back.

I’m working 3 days a week now but by the 3rd day I’m absolutely fried. At first, work were understanding about how I need more breaks and stuff but that’s slowly disappeared and the overtime has snuck back. For context, I was working 5 days a week doing 30mins-1hr overtime daily prior to the SAH and I was severely burnt out.

I have been trying my best at work but there’s always something that happens daily that I’m like oh god, did I go back too soon. I went back at the start of Feb, originally for 4 days but I was exhausted after 3.

My hours are supposed to be 9-6pm 2 days a week and 9-5 once a week. But lately I’ve noticed I’m there til 6:40 most days. I’m doing like 30-45mins overtime daily again.

This Thursday was bad. My alarms didn’t wake me up, I have 6 alarms and I slept through all of them. I don’t even have an explanation other than being exhausted. I felt awful but I didn’t have any patients that day, it was more of a training day with one of the newbies so I was going to explain things to her but I just said I wasn’t able to come in and I ended up sleeping all day, all night and got up late today.

My issue is I do fear I went back too early. Part of me was like wow being home is so boring. Another part of me was feeling like I was losing out on income because illness benefit here is tiny compared to my usual wages. I think I just wanted to feel normal. I just turned 27 and I’m seeing everyone live their lives and it was making me feel useless and upset.

Has anyone else returned to work and realised it was too soon? If so, how did you have that conversation with work?

I have an appointment with my GP next week and the stroke doctor on the 31st so I might wait til I talk to either of them to see what’s next. It’s just hard because I thought I was ready and it’s hard to get through 3 days. It’s like my 3 days are more intense than they were before. A patient made me cry last week and I don’t think I would’ve cried before, I just feel so defeated.