Pre-Surgery Jitters
Pre-Surgery Jitters
Nadine, here are some things I can share about that completely understandable fright beforehand and how I dealt with it.
1. Try to identify exactly what your fear is. Are you afraid of not waking up? Are you afraid of the potential pain? Are you afraid of the aftercare? Or are you afraid of how everyone else will do while you're incapacitated? Once I identified the specifics, I was able to start addressing those things that alleviated my concerns. What I found after my very honest assessment was that I was worried about everyone else - my business (I own a small business), my elderly father, my recently incarcerated brother, my handicapped daughter, etc. I had only minimal fear of the surgery, I realized, so I concentrated on those things that did frighten me. Spent extra time with employees, lining things up for my dad, etc. This helped immensely.
2. Use deep breathing and visualize your breathing. There are many good books on this but to summarize the best suggestion from Dr. Andrew Weil: "Watch" your breath come in all the way from a few feet away from you, through your nose and into your lung as you inhale and then reverse that as you exhale, taking especially longer to exhale at the end (most of us cut that short at the end). I can use this technique for just about anything that stresses me out.
3. Harness any spiritual energy from both inside your body and from/to external sources. You don't have to be an overly religious person to believe that thoughts, prayers, "vibes", energy, etc. all enter our body and collectively give us more power than we could on our own. I practice both traditional Western religion and Eastern spirituality. You don't need to practice either - just put your faith in the fact that if you open yourself to those thoughts, prayers, etc., you will be stronger.
4. Stay busy. I was SO busy the week before that I found myself just waiting to be able to be laid up and rest! I did not subscribe to the theory that you should "take it easy" before the surgery. I also used vr.com a tremendous amount those last few days - it really helped. Can you work on a room in the house? Anne-Marie and I both fixed up rooms as ?Recovery Rooms? and had fun doing that.
5. Let go. I don't know where you are on the control continuum but I am somewhat of a control freak. That my life was in someone else's hands seemed abominable to me at first. This whole experience has been very good for me for letting go of a whole bunch in my life. I KNEW I had a great surgeon, cardio, anesthesiologist, etc. and that they almost laugh at how routine this is.
6. Visualize, visualize, visualize. Visualize your heart healing after the surgery. Visualize that you will meet some great people at the hospital taking care of you (two nurses and the anesthesiologist made specific trips to visit me just before I left). Visualize that which relaxes you. While I lay on the operating table (more like a board), I visualized a favorite lake I went to as a kid. Can't remember anything from when I was under but I bet that lake came up while I was asleep.
7. Treat Yourself! ? Treat yourself to things this week that you normally wouldn?t. I love Italian wines but I normally pay less than $15 a bottle (I usually only have one glass). In the weeks beforehand I treated myself to $40 bottles. Exquisite, although now it is hard to go back to the cheaper stuff!
I hope this is of some help. If I think of anything else, I'll add it. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
Paul
