A God-send for surg prep

[Kay]

Hi Everyone, and Happy Saturday!

I'm so excited about what I just found! Since I'm new to this board and haven't found 500 hours to go back and read all the incredible information posted here, this has probably been posted before, so excuse me for repeating! But to me, this is as much of a God-send as finding this forum,
so I have to share it with all my new and jittery pre-surg family...

I was watching the movie on the Cleveland Clinic site that shows the aortic valve replacement procedure. That's really good BTW! Anyway, in exploring the site after watching the movie, I read about gudied imagery and how the CCF lets you listen to the CDs in the OR. Probably common knowledge to the rest of you, but I had no idea it was allowed. I followed a link on the CCF site to the HealthJourneys website and found these great resources, which I immediately ordered.

http://www.healthjourneys.com/product_detail.asp?id=119
http://www.healthjourneys.com/product_detail.asp?id=91
http://www.healthjourneys.com/product_detail.asp?id=29

One is a cassette that deals specifically with recovery and ICU, and, YES, it talks about the tubes! You can listen to a sample, and it is so comforting and reassuring I knew I had to have it to go to sleep by every night until my surgery. The other two are CDs, one dealing with surgery and recovery and the other a cardiac wellness package. You can listen to samples of all of them. One listen and I was sold! The voice on the tapes and CD's would calm me NO MATTER WHAT! (At least I think that NOW!) We'll see how cool and calm I remain through the real deal!

Oh, the CCF movie if you haven't seen it is:
http://www.clevelandclinic.org/heartcenter/pub/guide/disease/valve/valvetreatment.htm#aorticmovie
It lasts about 5 minutes and I found it very reassuring. Makes it look about as easy as a little simple trimming and sewing on a new button. Thankfully they don't show the procedure of getting there and back!

Thanks again to all of you for all the wonderful support!

 

[Phyllis]

Kay,
You might also want to watch Dr. Lawrence Cohn of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston do a miniamally invasive aortic valve replacement.
It may be found at: http://www.brighamandwomens.org/surgerywebcast/default.asp

 

[Kay]

WOW! My Health Journeys CDs (that I linked you to in a previous post) are in and I've listened to them several times over the past 3 days. They are fabulous. There's one for preparing for surgery, one about the recovery room and cardiac ICU, and one to listen to during the surgery. I can't tell you how soothing and peaceful these are! A beautiful soothing voice and wonderful music. Very calming. When I meet with my anesthesiologist I'm going to arrange for them to be played for me in the OR and again in the recovery room. She even talks about THE TUBE and calms me down about that! With the help of these fabulous CDs and the support of all you great folks at vr.com, I'm planning a much calmer trip up that mountain!

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support.

God bless you,

Kay