One of the last things Lisa Hammond remembers about being prepped for a rotator-cuff procedure last year was the medical personnel prying a BlackBerry out of her hands.

Hammond, the chief executive of Femail Creations, a Las Vegas-based shopping-catalog company, was on a deadline: She had a date to repair her torn shoulder, but she needed to email approvals for her firm's latest catalog. Hammond  says she managed to do both as she was being wheeled on a gurney into the operating room.

Getting a high-powered executive to stop working, even after major surgery, is a challenge surgeons say they frequently face. According to doctors, hard-driving corporate types can be both the best and worst surgical patients. On the one hand, they are extra motivated to heal quickly so they can return to work and get back to an active lifestyle. But they are also prone to ignoring doctors' orders about when they should return to work or how long they should spend in physical therapy.

"It's a plus and a minus," says Anthony Frempong-Boadu, a neurosurgeon at New York University Medical Center. "You're happy these type-A-plus guys are motivated, but you can't get them to lie still. They'll ask you, ‘Can I fly to China next week.' And God forbid it's bonus season."

Job pressures and workplace competition may drive some executives to return to work earlier than they should. Others have difficulty adjusting to the loss of control while being laid up.

"Big-city executive types are used to looking at a situation, making a plan of action, and seeing the result come about instantaneously," says Bradley Weiner, an orthopedic surgeon in Orange County, New York. "It's always hard for that person to be on the patient side. No one rises to the level of C.E.O. by being laid-back."

Frempong-Boadu finds that corporate executives often try to coordinate their surgery to coincide with slow work cycles.

He recalls one patient who converted his hospital room into an office just hours after having cervical spine surgery. The room was buzzing with the sounds of a portable fax machine, and the patient was propped up with a laptop, BlackBerry, and Edge Wireless PC cards to insure broadband access. The patient's executive assistant (who was "dressed to the nines") sat by his bedside as he issued orders in his hospital gown.

Recovery time from back and neck surgery can vary widely, but Frempong-Boadu recommends that patients don't return to the office for two to four weeks. That advice is rarely heeded.

Joe Hurta, 34, a former patient of Frempong-Boadu's, had back surgery on May 31, 2006, and went back to work in two weeks instead of the recommended four. As the National Football League's player-personnel coordinator, Hurta, a former Marine and triathlete, thought that June (the league's slowest month) would be the ideal time for recuperation. But he says he quickly became "bored out of his skull" with only the World Cup soccer tournament to occupy his time.

"I did try to get back as quickly as possible," Hurta admits. "I may have rushed going back to work-in fact, I know I did. I probably should have waited another week or so."