lay off=strength loss (how much??)

The doctor put my wife in the hospital 11/19 for complications due to pre-eclampsia (pregnancy induced hyper tension).This took me away from the gym since I was at her side every minute possible for the entire time = 3weeks w/ her then the rest of the time going to visit my little girl in the neonatal intensive care unit until she was disharged 1/16/03.

My first day in the gym was 1/19/03.I know better than to think I could jump right in where I left off,but my God I felt sooooo wweeaakk.What a wussy workout it seemed to be.I'm sore as hell & feel like I'm starting all over.
I've never had such a long layoff so I was wondering how bad I can expect the strength loss to be & approximately how long to get back to full speed.I know we all vary ,so I'm looking for some input from you all.

"It's not how much you lift, it's how you lift it." Don't give it a second thought. There are a few reasons you lost strength and I think the layoff is the LEAST of them. What about your wife? Man, that must have been a hell of a lot of stress for you to endure and for a long time too. Stress will sap more of your strength than anything else. The good thing is that working out will help reduce that stress. The more you workout the less stress. The less stress the stronger you feel. The stronger you feel the more you workout. See where this is going? There's something called muscle memory and it's a really cool thing. It's very difficult to get to a certain level of strength but, once you've been there, if you happen to fall back due to an extended layoff it doesn't take nearly as long to get back. Don't worry, just keep lifting.

Just give your muscle memory a little time to kick in and you'll be back on top of your game in no time.

ditto...don't freak out too much about it. give it a little time and you'll be a monster before you know it.