The idea of having part of your body cut open and played with by a complete stranger is a terrifying thought for most people. Any surgery can be a stressful and dread filled time, even for the bravest of us.
Obviously, the thought of your insides being played with is scary enough. But, when you add on anesthetic and pain, it gets much worse. To help you with this terrible circumstance, this post is going to ease some of your pre op concerns.
To get to their current position, your doctors and surgeons have dedicated a huge portion of their lives to studying medicine. The commitment to do such a thing usually comes from the desire to help people or make a difference. This means that the odds are that your doctor would never want to hurt you. They also operate and work with thousands of patients every year, who come away unscathed. In most cases, you can trust your doctor completely. They shouldn’t lie to you or give you false hope, but they won’t withhold anything from you either.
Surgeons have their mortality rates heavily scrutinized with regular checks. This is to determine how much of their patient’s deaths are avoidable, and how many weren’t. Only surgeons who make very few mistakes will continue in the role. When you consider that you’ll have at least a handful of surgeons working on you, it becomes even less likely that a mistake will be made.
If that isn’t enough to sooth you, try this. Look up the surgery that you’ll be having; they usually have a generic name that is used as a blanket term for the procedure and other similar ones. It’s a little bit morbid, but have a look at the mortality rates for your surgery. For most common surgeries, you’ll find the death toll to be quite low.
A tonsillectomy, for example. This is a common procedure involving removal of the tonsils, usually due to excessive infections or other issues. Worldwide, the mortality rates for this surgery are staggeringly low at 1 in 15,000. This is a good example because it’s mortality rate sits at the higher end when compared to other routine procedures.
You may have heard that in a select few, anesthesia can cause to death as the result of an allergic reaction. This is true. But, the reality is, you have a 1 in 100,000 chance to have a reaction to anesthesia. This is without considering that anaesthesiologists go through years of training, and will usually give you a test dose first.
Minimally invasive surgery is common in hospitals worldwide. This sort of surgery can be done with a local anesthetic, with a tiny incision. The surgery itself is done by a small device controlled by a surgeon. This allows for greater precision and lower mortality rates. This is also known as keyhole surgery.
Hopefully, this will stop those shaky hands and get you feeling confident about the big day. Don’t worry; you’re in safe hands when it comes to most qualified surgeons.
