What scares you the most about surgery?

yeah my fear is not the pain for i have so much pain as of now i have all i can do to do normal routines (taking shower, fixing meals, housework) as I know i will be more sore after the surgery I know that pain goes away eventually.. I am afraid tho that some of this pain i'm having may not go away like (the back pain) I know nothing is wrond with my back and have been told alot of other women with this same problem also have had back pain so i'm hoping it will but I suppose my biggest fear would be not to have the surgery at all and have to live like this forever! altho I know thats not going to happen that far exseads any surgical fear i have! good luck to you ladies xoxoxox

lol @ my spelling please forgive me i'm on medication i'm not all that stupid as it seems in that spelling oml lolololol

Worse fear...pain!
I am such a wimp. I am also scared that I won't be able to take care of my kids. I am VERY independant. I don't like to be twotwoed over. So I a scared how I am going to react to that. I am affraid that I won't heal or even worse..... it won't be any better than before the hyster.
To be honest..... I am affraid of everything at this point.

If it makes any of you pre-op ladies feel better, I am 11 days post-op and I can tell you that very few of my worries actually happened.

I feared general anesthesia, especially having a hard time waking up and feeling like I'm suffocating as I struggle to wake (this did happen with my tubal 15 years ago). Also dreaded having a lot of vomiting afterwards. Well, I think they've improved general anesthesia because waking up was not hard and I had no trouble breathing. Also my mouth & lips were not particularly dry (I did apply chapstick right before surgery). They gave me something for nausea and I didn't throw up at all after waking. (I did vomit twice late that night but I believe that was from the morphine and it disappeared as soon as they gave me Phenergan.)

I feared being in unbearable pain, but the pain wasn't bad (thanks to the pain medications).

I feared not being able to urinate after they removed the catheter the next morning (and having to go home with a catheter), but I was able to empty my bladder with no problems.

I feared losing a lot of blood and having to get a blood transfusion (I was already anemic before surgery). But my blood loss was minimal and I didn't need a transfusion.

I also feared that the doc might accidentally cut into another organ, such as my bladder. That didn't happen either.

I thought for sure I'd at least get a painful bladder infection. Nope, hasn't happened.

There's only one bad thing that did happen (and I never even worried about this): I had a bad time with constipation when I first got home and it was very painful! But this could have been prevented if they had started me on a laxative or stool softener while in the hospital. I wasn't expecting this problem and so was late getting it under control. But my bowels are OK now (I take Metamucil fiber capsules twice a day plus eat high fiber cereal for breakfast).

All in all, my surgery experience was greatly better than I expected. And it most likely will be for all of you, too. I sure hope so!
Best wishes!

Being put to sleep and not waking up;
Being put to sleep and waking up in the middle of the operation, not able to communicate that I'm awake and in excrutiating pain;
Performing the wrong surgery (i.e. amputate a leg or something instead of taking out the uterus);
Damaging other organs;
Cancer;
Developing other symptoms (as a result of the surgery) that are worse than those for which I'm having the surgery;
Being out of work for 6 weeks (hopefully I can go back sooner);
The avalanche of work that will be on my desk when I do return to work (I work for a one man law firm--it's just him and me!);
Loss of libido/painful sex.

On a brighter note, I'm looking forward to being pampered by my incredibly wonderful boyfriend!!

Hope this will encourage you - nothing went as planned and there were several surprises in my surgery, but now three weeks out, I'm doing extremely well.

Had planned on an epidural, only to have the gas passer tell me that because of my large size, and having the OR table tilted head down he would not do one. So I ended up having a general. I did fine, except for the memory loss issues I'm still dealing with.

Surgery lasted twice as long as anticipated due to fibroids being much larger than anticipated. There was a huge fibroid on the back of my uterus. My bikini cut turned into a vertical one, around and over my belly button. Got staples instead of sutures. If the large fibroid on the back of uterus was the cause of my back pain or not - back pain is all gone.

Endo was much more extensive than anticipated - uterus was glued to bladder, rectum and bowels and had to be surgically separated. Ovaries were encased in endo and glued to uterus. Endo and adhesions were scraped away. Zero bowel and bladder issues post op.

I had a morphine pca for 20 hours after surgery. Then they removed it and the iv, and the catheter. I got up and peed, and started walking, and did several walks a day up and down the halls. Bowel movement came three days after surgery. No problems. Hospital food was pretty bad. I'm surprised I ate enough to produce a bowel movement.

I had a nurse that gave me pain pills I was allergic to, so they switched to 600 mg Motrin. It was amazing to me that I could have such an extensive surgery, and such a huge incision, and only take Motrin. I was up to 800 mg of Motion before the surgery. Once I was past the first couple of days at home, I rarely even take Motrin.

The nurse that gave me the wrong medicine, also did a lousy job of taping off my iv ports, and also dropped the tray table on my abdomen the morning after surgery, but I somehow survived. The rest of the nurses and CNAs were terrific.

You can plan and plan, but things can still go differently than you expect. Keep an open mind and a positive attitude.

	Quote:
Originally Posted by brennybunny3 sunflower, I was the same as you...just got home from the hospital today 3 days post op..I chose to go with a spinal and versed for sedation..I would not have done it any othe way i was petrified to be put to sleep...am very tired will post more later..hugs

I will be talking with the DR about this form of sedation. I do not want to be put to sleep. I am glad you are home and doing well. I am sending you speedy recovery vibes....And a gentle hug...Thanks for the reply..

Jenn AKA Sunflowers

The first surgery I had was april 29th 2005, rollerball ablation, D and C,and some other things, their were only about 3 people in the surgery room I had a fear of being put to sleep!!
Everything turned out fine. Then on sept 8th 2005 I had the hysterectomy to remove everything but one overy and one fallopean tube. When I got into surgery their were about 6 people in their and it scared me so bad that I asked to see the doctor first, and I was allready being put under, I just wanted the doctor to tell me I would wake up when it was over, and he did tell me that! Everything turned out fine. He told me the next day I could go home but I stayed another night so I could get rest. Now I'm not afraid of being put to sleep!!!!!!

Wow Did u have an abdominal hyst and he was going to let you go the next day..i had abdominal tuesday morning and was not released until this morning..there is no way on earth they could of sent me home the next day..Did you have it done vaginally?cause i know they don't keep you as long for that...And concrats on getting over that fear..i'm not that brave...lol....take care

yes I had it done vaginally. I forgot to put that sorry! I am so glad that I didn't have abdominal!!! that sounds painfull! I hope you have a speedy recovery brennybunny!!!!!!!