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Pre & Post Surgery HypnosisRecently I had the misfortune to experience a ruptured appendix. Frayda was with me in the emergency room that night and taught me to calm myself with a technique of counting backward that allowed me to relax, get my mind off the pain, and also to feel, like I had some control over my anxiety, which was becoming more intense as the bad news rolled in. I used the hypnosis entering the CAT scan machine, a lonely and somewhat intimidating procedure. The result of the cat scans indicated so much inflammation the surgeon couldn't determine the cause of my pain and had to discuss with me all the possible outcomes so that I wouldn't be too shocked coming out of surgery. The worst among them was the possibility of colon cancer and an intestine so deteriorated he couldn't do a proper hook-up, which would mean a colostomy. I was horrified and frightened. In the recovery room, afterwards, I was in a highly agitated state. Though by then I'd been told I'd had a ruptured appendix, I was convinced I was going to die. Frayda stayed in the recovery room with me the entire time, helping me with my breathing and counting. The nurses were grateful. They didn't know what to do with me. For the next 48 hours I suffered intermittent spasms of intense pain which seemed to be provoked whenever anyone came near me too suddenly, or when I was worried about a dressing change. Frayda taught me to get started with my counting before the dressing change began. This helped me enormously because in fact I didn't Want anyone touching me. I had been extremely septic and knew I wasn't out of the woods yet. The wound, seven inches long, had been left open to drain and I felt extremely vulnerable. Again, the counting technique, which put me in a light trance, relaxed me enough to permit the dressing change (I always explained what I was doing to any new nurse doing the change) and gave me the feeling of a modicum of control in a situation in which I felt entirely out of control. The nurses were grateful to Frayda, who often was visiting me at a time when the dressing change took place and stayed by my side helping me with the counting. Five days post-surgery, My doctor came in and announced he was going to stitch up the wound. I was panicked because I temporarily had no morphine access. He didn't have time to wait until an IV specialist arrived to find a vein. However, he assured me he thought I could manage without the painkiller, and this time he helped me with the counting! He'd seen Frayda do it enough to understand its importance and also grasp how it worked. When I faltered on the count of one, he said, calmly, "Now don't get stuck, go right back to ten, keep the loop going." Essentially, he talked me through it in this way while he was doing the stitching. And I did get through it, and felt quite triumphant when it was over. So, I think, did he. Looking back at this experience, I can't put a value on what it meant to have this technique available to me both before and after surgery. Not only did it help my mental state, I'm quite sure it aided my recovery in general. It's hard to imagine what the whole thing would have been like without it.
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