There are a number of things that can be done pre-surgery that will assure that you have the best possible chance of getting through the surgery with no (or as little as possible) lasting difficulty. Even successful surgery can be a challenging experience and you deserve to take care of yourself in the best way you know how.
This is a list of possible ideas and few people will have the capacity or the need to carry out all of them. I hope you’ll find the actions you’re most drawn to, and that they will help you feel more supported and safe both before and after your surgery.
Pre-Surgery Actions
● Educate yourself about what will happen; determine if you will need an advocate or helper at the hospital; learn about what is needed after the surgery (home help, rest time, help with mobility).
● Support yourself in being assertive, so that you’re able to ask the doctor all the questions you need to make an informed decision.
● Identify resources for the O.R. (music, security blanket/item) – it’s best to clear this with the hospital staff in advance to ensure that any items can be taken into the O.R.
● Spend some time writing a list of instructions you would wish to give surgeon, anesthetist or O.R. staff prior to surgery (asking for reassurances as they go under anesthesia, having the surgeon give news of successful surgery immediately, etc.). To the best of your ability, write this with the thought that it’s your absolute best-case scenario wish list, with no thought to how they might react. Maybe you’ll end up sending your whole list – but this way you can always decide later about which items on your list you feel comfortable sharing with them.
● Visit the hospital and recovery room prior to surgery. Minimize surprises.
Plan Ahead For Self-Care During Surgery:
● Consider requesting preemptive anesthesia. Preemptive anesthesia means that in addition to the general anesthesia, the patient is given a local anesthetic at the site of the incision. This has been shown to greatly diminish post-operative pain.
● Request that any talking in the operating room be reduced to the necessary and the neutral— thus reducing the possibility of overhearing talk while you’re unconscious that might have some influence on your waking state later.
● If at all possible, arrange to be accompanied by someone you love and trust-someone who can help you to stay calm:
● At the time that you go under the effects of the anesthesia. (If allowed). For most of us, this isn’t possible, but you can spend some time choosing a person or animal to imagine with you as the anesthesia is administered.
Plan Ahead For Self-Care Post-Surgery:
● In the recovery room (the time when you first wake up). If you have a friend who is a doctor or a nurse this is best—it may even be possible for the friend to be present in the operating room. Some clients have taken advantage of this supportive presence and the highly suggestible quality of the anesthetized state to come up with a list of positive suggestions, and have their friend read them aloud during the surgery.
● In the recovery room, when you are emerging from the effects of the anesthesia, know that you may tremble, sometimes with considerable intensity. This is one of the very best things that can happen, as it allows for the discharge of the activation from the surgery. If this should happen, it’s a naturally healing response of the body which you should allow to occur in peace, without medication being given that serves to interrupt this process.
● Spend some time visualizing yourself as calm and confident as possible as you go into the anesthetized state, and as you come out.
● Pre-schedule an appointment for SE after the surgery. That way you will know there is immediate help available for any lingering after-effects.