Preparing for Surgery

Many diagnosed with an illness will need to undergo surgery.  It’s a scary ordeal and there is plenty to be anxious about.  The goal is to prepare yourself to minimize both the trauma and maximize the healing.  It’s important to understand why the body is traumatized in order to overcome the resistance.

When we undergo surgery the body believes that an intruder is trying to get in to our bodies.  The body doesn’t understand that surgery is there to help not hurt.  From the moment we enter the hospital our bodies are tense and that makes surgery more difficult, doctors are used to this resistance, but let’s try and make their jobs a bit easier.

It helps if you can begin a regimen or visualization, hypnosis, or meditation as soon as you learn that surgery is in your future.  You want to walk through from beginning to end what’s going to happen, so ask your doctor.  You want to acquaint yourself with the process so the body isn’t surprised.  In addition, you need to begin an inner dialogue that informs the body that the surgery is necessary and will hopefully lead to increased health, wellness, and quality of life.

The biggest part of the preparation is letting the body know not to fight the surgery.  When the body is tense and tries to defend against the scalpel the surgeon needs to work harder.  Cutting through tough body tissue is more difficult than cutting through relaxed body tissue.  Let your body give in to the surgical process.  When this happens the benefits are enormous.  There is less bleeding during the surgery and the amount of pain medication required following surgery is decreased.

Give yourself every benefit possible when preparing for surgery so that you get the maximum benefit with minimal challenge.  Do you have things you’ve tried preparing for surgery.  Let the rest of us in on your preparation, you’ll be doing a huge service to all of us.