Even though minor surgeries are brushed off as ‘minor,’ all surgeries have risks to life and limb. Pre-op stress is usually ignored, leaving patients at risk for more pain, higher potency medication, and extended hospital stays.
Clients tell me that they feel that they have to be strong not to worry others.
Medical staff, family, and friends unwittingly assure the patient that “there’s nothing to worry about” and “you’ll be fine!” While this may be true, not verbalizing and internalizing legitimate tensions can lead to the very complications one wants to avoid.
While there are over 50 million surgeries a year, complications, unexpected or not, occur in 40 – 60% of cases, which delay recovery, increase pain and medicinal needs, sometimes necessitating additional procedures.
Situational anxiety about anticipated pain, possible death, and loss of quality of life can lead to panic, despair, and mental confusion. Mental emotional distress is also physical distress, which lowers immunity.
Sadly, the patient is left without a voice or strategies and will forge ahead with an undercurrent of tension and low vitality in tow.
From my perspective, stress reduction includes any troubling experience a surgery triggers. When I trained in mind-body medical process, I was taught to assess surgery-related fears. However, anxiety and fears can be hidden or not verbalized for many reasons.
Examples of pre-surgery stress I helped resolve:
- A client whose family member died from a similar surgery. He worried that he could die too.
- A client whose surgeon told him he wouldn’t survive the surgery. He did!
- A client who felt terrified discovered a child trauma of her cat dying during surgery when she was seven. We connected spiritually with her cat.
All the above clients transformed the circumstances and did better than average compared to the expected outcomes, surprising the surgeons.
Surgery empowerment can be applied to any injury, problem, or condition. Here are a few I helped clients prepare for:
- Wisdom Teeth Extraction
- Brain Aneurysm
- Athletic injuries
- Sugar Baker Technique
- Total Shoulder Replacement
- Knee Surgeries
- Broken Bones
- Hip replacements
- Small Bowel Resection
- Plastic Surgeries
- Back Fusions
- Spinal Scoliosis.
- Cancers of all kinds.
Whether the surgery is an emergency or voluntary, mind-body preparation has benefits. Surrendering to the surgery process by healing associated hurts and traumas, connecting to the body’s inborn intelligence, and strategizing how to self-regulate builds confidence and determination.
When you go to surgery empowered, you can expect better than average outcomes if the surgery itself goes well. One cannot predict diagnostic outcomes.
University research shows better outcomes in these areas:
- Reduced hospital stay
- Reduced need for pain medications
- Increased immune system
- Increased tolerance for unexpected occurrences
- Faster return to routines
- Faster healing of incisions and wounds
- Return to reasonable normal body functioning
Here’s how I help if you or a loved one have an upcoming surgery:
- Go To Surgery Empowered eBook.18 pages full of tips and suggestions to be proactive in your experience. Email me at [email protected]
- Professionally mastered guided audio program with seven tracks called, Empowered for Surgery.
- One-to-one healing and strategizing consults.
Whether you have worries or not, realizing that you can unleash greater strength and healing intelligence is empowering.
Who doesn’t like to beat the odds?
-Sanna