How To Know If I Am Psychologically Prepared To Enter The Operating Room

Most people who face surgery in an operating room usually experience anxiety beforehand. These types of feelings, although completely normal, can end up affecting not only the patient but also play a fundamental role in recovery from surgery. So what can we do to address the Preoperative anxiety and intervention changes?

How do I prepare psychologically for a major physical change?

When a aesthetic intervention, involves the search for a specific change. Therefore, having an openness to change is important when accepting it. Previously before going to the operating room:

• The patient must have resolved all their doubts.
• The patient-surgeon relationship must be as clear as possible, and based on trust.
• Work with a psychologist on your aesthetic surgery.
• Try to go as relaxed as possible to the operation.
• Be clear that this is a permanent change.
• See the image of the simulation that your surgeon gives you.
• Take advice from medical personnel.
• Prepare to look swollen, bruised, or deformed until the body recovers. Be very clear that this is an operation and as such, there are possible risks.
• Consider the possibility that the operation will not yield the desired result.
• Enter the operating room completely sure of what you are doing.
• Do not get carried away by impulses or passing fads.
• Reflect on the step you are taking.

As we can see, there are multiple factors to take into account before enter the operating room But, above all, going there confident and calm that it really is the change we long for and that it will bring us personal improvement will help us prepare ourselves psychologically.

How to accept myself after the intervention?

You must take into account different variables such as:

• Do not compare yourself with other people who have undergone the same operation. Since each person will have their own course of evolution and recovery.
• Anesthesia or healing takes time.
• Staying in contact with your psychologist will be important to better assimilate the entire process of the operation and the change.
• Take into account the support offered by the clinic. Be rigorous in following the guidelines indicated by the medical team.
• Ask your surgeon for all the information you need about your operation.
• The more it conforms to everything the medical team tells you, the less likely the patient will be to feel sadness during the process.
• Respect the times they set for you.
• Don’t try to look for perfection.
• This is an operation, so you will have pain after it, accept that it is part of the process.

How to manage preoperative anxiety?

It is normal to feel an increase in preoperative anxiety before an operation Therefore, keeping these guidelines in mind can be of great help in reducing anxiety before entering the operating room:

• Have healthy habits
• Go about your daily life
• Restrict the consumption of alcohol, drugs or tobacco.
• Take care of your diet
• Do exercise
• Have a good rest
• Create moments of mental disconnection
• Leave everything organized before undergoing the operation.
• Get on with the housework
• Try to be proactive in eating on the day of the operation and subsequent ones.
• If you have children, plan to leave them at a relative’s house.
• If you have pets, predict who you are going to leave them with.
• At the work level, leave everything resolved before the operation
• Performing the operation during your vacation period can help you avoid having to give explanations.
• Talk to others about your operation
• Manage your operation and the entire process with your psychologist
• Resolve all your doubts with your surgeon before going to the operating room.

Good management of the preoperative anxiety, is an important factor to take into account to face the operation away from fears and unknowns about everything that surrounds it. Going to the operation surrounded by unknowns and a lot of anxiety is not the same as going to it relaxed and without fear.

How to manage the fear of pain in recovery?

When a person undergoes a intervention, is aware that it will involve pain. The fear of pain is more than reasonable, since fear is a basic and universal emotion, which protects us from dangers to guarantee our survival. Therefore, in a surgical operation, it is sensible to be afraid of pain. These guidelines are recommended to manage the fear of pain in your recovery:

• Normalize that the vast majority of people who are exposed to a surgical intervention feel respect and fear before it.
• The more information you have about the steps and processes of your operation, the better you will handle the pain, since you will understand that it is something that is within the process.
• Maintain a good flow of communication with your surgeon.
• Be confident about the operation and recovery from it.
• You must have confidence in the medical equipment that you are going to bring. They are qualified people who have great experience in their operation.
• Remember that before undergoing the operation I look for all the necessary information about the clinic and medical equipment.

You should keep in mind that when you are in the postoperative period, fears about pain will increase, for this reason following these guidelines are appropriate for good management of fear of pain in your situation. surgical recovery