really scared of surgery - tubes and breathing machines - sleepless nights. help!


Question: Really scared of surgery - tubes and breathing machines - sleepless nights. help!?
Recently, i had developed a fear of appendicitis which got me worrying and worrying and got me nowhere. From that fear, sprug another fear of surgery after my mum told me they stuck tubes down your throat, at which point i started to freak out. Then she told me they hooked you up to an automatic breathing machine which is just horrible ( this is my worst fear as i find it creepy, icky and unnatural) and that they cut you open. For a squeamish person that i am, i had developed an anxiety. i worry about getting disease, dying and surgery. But then my mum told me this -
- only worry about it when the time comes (if it comes)
- you are fit and healthy
- most people dont undergo operations
- you dont feel anything as you are knocked out
- it is over and done with quickly and unlikely to go wrong.
- if i am unsure of anyrhing i have my mum who is a nurse to look to and she will give me support
- only worry ab

is it likely i will need surgery for anything at 15?

But what if it does go wrong? What if i vomit and cant breathe? I have never been knocked out before and i would find it scary. There are times when i feel happy and calm and saying to myself "this is stupid, stop" and oher times when i am in complete pannick.
I have been down this route of anxiety before, have seen councillors about my anxiety but yet another anxiety creeps up Me and i just wanna enjoy my life. Can anybody help me? I dont want any "check out this website" crap. I just want someone to calm my nerves and help me get over my ridiculous anxiety

Answers:

They've been operating on people for over 100 years, so they've already seen it all. You aren't allowed to eat before surgery, so you won't have anything in your stomach to vomit. They ask you to count down from 100 when they inject the knockout drugs -- you'll be asleep before you hit 90. You won't even know that you had tubes down your throat to help you breathe (they do that so they know exactly how well you're breathing, instead of guessing how much air you are getting).

It's unlikely that anything will go wrong, but you will already be in the best place if it does. They'll have all of the equipment they need to get things right, any additional people they need to understand and correct what's happening, and personal and computer networking to much of the world's medical knowledge, if necessary.

Perhaps you should think about going to a local hospital to see if you could sit in a pre-operation meeting, where the patients learn about and ask questions regarding their upcoming surgery. I'm sure many would ask similar questions and you could ask any of your other questions to the staff after the meeting was over. Once you understand what is going on and how well the doctors and nurses know their jobs, you should be much less fearful of the possibility of surgery.

5 surgeries so far and I'm still kickin'




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