recovering from wrist surgery and can't wait to lift again!

mmonaghan99

Hi! After a 3 year bout with de quervain's tendonitis in my dominant hand, I finally had surgery. It went well, and my doc says that In about 3 weeks I can start lifting again! Before my tendonitis, I was an avid weightlifter (I like to do the lifting classes at the gym, as well as freeweights). I stopped going to the gym and started a sedentary job, and I've gained about 100 lbs in the past few years. I'm mainly focusing on cardio right now (when I make it to the gym; I'm a grad student so time is limited) but I want to get back to lifting (and yoga, which also uses a lot of upper body strength) as soon as I can.
Have any of you ever had an injury that kept you from lifting, and what did you do? I'm mostly worried that I'm going to go too hard too fast. Any tips for pacing myself while pushing myself to do as much as I can?