Scared and need advice
 

Hello everyone. Pinkie here. I need some one to talk too.

When I was 14 I got into a bad car crash. I needed to change a lot of things in my life because of the accident. Years after I found out that this crash has herniated discs in my lower and upper spine. Well they never really caused me an issue until a little while ago when I pulled my back and almost went paralyzed. Well I have been going to every doctor needed and have had every test done. Now surgery is on the table and my beat option to get some of my life back.

The last time I was scheduled for surgery my hemoglobin was to low so it got pushed back. Now I go for surgery tomorrow. I am so scared and apprehensive about this surgery.

Is there anything anyone recommends to push some of these nerves down? I am willing to try anything just to sleep tonight because tomorrow at 10am I am on my way to my first surgery ever and I could use some sleep...

Any advice is welcome for anything...even just to talk would be good. I am freaking out

The closest thing to a surgery I had was having the baby. . . which was life threatening for me and so it was pretty scary! They were supposed to have me on the epidural early because of the strain contractions can have on your blood pressure right - but i have scoliosis so they couldn't get it in right and that really sucked. BUT the doctors were very calm and patient with me and they were very nice about eventually finding a way to make everything better. The after care is also very nice, I think I got a little depression just because I had to go home! I know this is like, in no way similar, but it is my only frame of reference. The doctors want everything to go well and they will do everything they can to make sure it does. Think of the positives and how exciting life will be once it is over! We can all do anything for a short amount of time and anything is worth it for a better future.

Yeah thank you for that glitch. It helps just to talk. This is my first surgery ever so I'm scared. First time being put under too. So I'm worried

I was going to recommend herbal tea (like chamomile) because I recommend tea for anything anxiety-related, buuuuut IIRC sometimes they don't want you drinking a ton right before you go under.

I'm not very helpful in terms of any other advice -- wisdom teeth surgery doesn't count, and the last major surgery I had was before I was a year old, so.

I've been through a few surgeries. There's always a bit of anxiety to start with, I find. I tell myself that I'll fall asleep, not know a thing about what's going on, and wake up once it's all over. Recovery will probably be more annoying than the actual surgery, as you might well wake up with tubes and such here and there that you didn't expect, and probably feel quite miserable. If you're the type that likes to know as much about something like this as you can, then be liberal with the questions!

Here are some tips for a "hospital kit" that I find help me out.

1. find a back scratchier or claw sort of thing that you can use to reach things, like across the bed. If you are having surgery on your back, your mobility will probably be limited afterword so having a tool to grab a loose sock or the corner of your sheet is handy.

2. Big socks or slippers. Something you can slip on without too much effort or bending, especially for when you are able to get up and walk about.

3. Baby wipes. Hanging out in a hospital bed can leave you feeling a little grimy. Having something around to wipe your face and such helps with making you feel better. You can always ask nurses for a wash cloth or something I imagine, but they can be busy.

That's the stuff right off the top of my head. Again, I just tell myself that I won't remember a darn thing and deal with the rest as it comes.

Thank you all for your words.

I am nearly done with the medical here. I get to the OR today go through admitting and everything. Get to the OR and then get told that there was an emergency and my surgery was canceled yesterday. Hey no one notified me and I was called over three times yesterday and do you think anyone told me? No. Not even the addition desk! Like what the hell kind of system is that?! So now I have to wait until next week to get a call for a new appointment. I am so upset with this all I am ready to say screw it and be done with it and just go back to work.

Oh by the way this is #3 for the amount of times this has happened. 3...3!!! I'm so upset.

oh pinkie that is horrible!

Right!! And people don't understand why I'm so upset. My depression is bad as it now and this made it worse... Oh my life

You can come over here. i'll watch you eat ice cream and dream about eating ice cream while we watch silly shows in an effort to cheer you up <3

I could use a night like that. I am trying to keep myself positive but it's so hard. I won't know anything until sometime next week and then the wait begins again for it.

we will be here for you though! I expect play by plays so I can cheer you on.

Pink: I'm so sorry for what is going on. When I have a major issue like that, I try first not to dwell on it and also to see it as resolved. I think in 6 months, this will just be a memory. Hang in there, sweetie. I will say a prayer for you, just take deep breaths when I am upset that is what I do.

Sending lot and lot of loves. <3

*hugs*
I have no idea how it must be like to be waiting for a surgery but it does sound incredibly nerve wracking.

I dunno if it helps or not, but when my sister had to get a surgery, my family just stuck the date on a calendar so they could forget about it until nearly the day-of.

See my issue is that I get so close to it. Even the day of and it gets canceled. 3 times this has happened and I have waited over 6 years for this surgery and it keeps getting pushed back. I think I am getting more frustrated and upset by the day the longer this goes on.

I am almost at the point of saying screw it and just going back to work and stuff even though I'm not supposed to. I am just so fed up with this all and yet canada is supposed to have a great medical field...haha yeah okay then.

Oh gosh, I completely missed the part about this being the third time
Hopefully it'll work soon D:

Pink, I wish I could help you get your surgery done. Why didn't they call to let you know that the appointment was cancelled?

Which is what happened to me, because due to anxiety, my system slowed down, and I vomited. ended up having to have a breathing tube put in during surgery, and then I ended up vomiting a second time. Ended up going home with a super scratchy throat, and an inhaler. but now I know to go NPO (Nada por oro, aka nothing by mouth) even earlier than I did for this surgery. I was super sore after the surgery for about four days after the surgery, too, so I relied on ibuprofen and Tylenol for pain management.

I have no idea why I was not notified. All I can hope is to get a call tomorrow with a new date then the wait starts again.

It's a huge pain in my rear end.

I don't doubt it. Here's hoping everything works out soon!

Sad fact of life unfortunately. Where I live now, the doctor crunch is so bad that it can take months to find a gp, if you get one at all, and ER waits are horrendous because there is simply too many people for the system.

Unfortunately, with long wait lists comes lots of room for jostling. I had an emergency surgery delayed for 9 hours because people came in who were in worse shape than I was. That surgery took twice as long as it was supposed to, so now I've just delayed the next person's procedure. Even my transplant surgery was delayed by 2 hours. I forget why. It's not something that can get fixed without simply getting more than we've currently got. If you are able to wait, you do.

It sucks though. Odd that they didn't tell you about your surgery being cancelled. Human oversight would be my guess. If I recall correctly, back surgeries are notorious for being put off.

Yeah mine is a major one and the first of three. The only reason why I'm so upset is because of how long I have waited for it and the fact that I was not told anything. Not even from admition. You think they would know as well. That's the piss off.

I imagine privacy laws and such make things tangled up. Someone's health care is not public information, so it can't just be fired around the place to everyone who might benefit from having it. There are computer systems that keep track of things but only to a point. I simple take the initiative and deal with information management myself. For example, I have so many specialists that if I get a test on the order of one, I'll get that sent to my gp or other specialists if I think it's important for them to know. Each of my doctors will have a file, bit it will not always have the same stuff. I've made myself a health binder where I keep all the test results and paperwork I can get my hands on, so that I have records of what my health has been like for when I end up at a new doctors' office or in the ER.

On a more personal note, I can understand the frustrations of waiting and hoping that things might get fixed, only to be told when the times does come around that you have to wait more. All I can say is try to keep up with the intention of going through with it when it does happen. Something like that can really make your life for the better, and are you any worse off if it doesn't happen? I was scared to get my transplant to the point where I might have backed out, and part of the difficultly I had was trying to get "better" wrapped around my head as a concept, since I've been sub-par for so long and all I really cared about was that things stay reasonably normal, even if that normalcy sucked. It's the little things that hit the most, I found. Even during recovery, not having to have dialysis treatment three times a week was so new, I almost didn't believe all the extra time I suddenly had. It made me feel much better, even though I was still sore and in hospital for other reasons.

Having worked on the IT side of those health privacy laws before, I can tell you: They're there for very good reasons and the inconveniences are a price worth paying to make sure that someone can't walk up to the nurse's station when nobody's looking and get a list of all of the mental disorders you've been evaluated for.

That said, the laws are supposed to always let the patient be able to access their own information, so if they're having administrative problems with getting information to the people that need it, you can't blame the law for that -- that's just an underperforming clerical staff. (Which might be due to overloading.)

In the lower mainland of BC here our health care system is overburdened to crisis point. If I have an issue, I generally try to go one district over and get admitted there. Regions have different health authorities and the one I'm currently in is the worst off. Different health authorities can also have an awkward time sharing records. That's part of why I have my "blue binder" of my own health records to tote back and forth.

I'm not sure how it works, but I know some people go out of province or out of region for health care if their region is having problems. Sometimes it's welcome because it can lighten up the local load. I know a couple relatives of mine would go to Alberta for certain health matters because the wait lists for a specific specialist were shorter. So long as you are willing to make the trip, it can help out with long lists or bumped surgeries. I know an eye surgeon here gets a lot of patients from the northern end of the province because they can fly down and get surgery in a matter of weeks instead of months. It depends on the local allocation of resources.

Thank you everyone. You have given me a lot to think about. It took some time and some waiting but I finally got my new date. I go on the 23rd of June so next Friday. Hopefully this time goes through nd it won't be a cancel again.

Shitty time for an event to come out lol

Pink: I'm glad you finally have a date.
Hope all goes well.

Well I went through surgery. They were going to do one and instead did two in one. So because of that I have a stay in the hospital. I hopefully get to go home tomorrow. Just got the tube taken out of my back and it sucked but now I am on the road to recovery so yay!

Thank you all so much for your support.

Well if you're only in for a few days than it's probably not too bad. Hope things go well for you and you get to be home soon.

I was supposed to leave Friday but nope weekend stay. Oh well

That happens. Better to stay a couple extra days than leave too early.