Surgery in 2 weeks and extreme anxiety

[androidnick]

After years and years of waiting, I'm finally getting my top surgery. I used to be able to go out and do certain things and at this point, I've become a hermit. I only leave my house for work. I can't comfortably do normal things like walk my dog. In the Florida heat I wear a jacket to walk my dogs so that I don't have to bind and I'm just so over everything.

Now I'm two weeks away. I had my surgical clearance given to me by a doctor. They even did an EKG and everything is good to go. My biggest cause for anxiety is that I will get to Dr. Garramone's office and I will be told I can't have surgery because of my blood pressure. I am overweight. But when I take my BP at home, it is fine. It is when I go into a doctor's office that my anxiety goes crazy and my blood pressure goes up. Which in turn is giving me more anxiety.

I just don't know what to do. For the next two weeks I'm just going to do non-stop exercise and see if that can get me in a better space. Plus, it will help me overall with the weight and recovery. I'm just so scared that after all this waiting, something bad will happen. I know it is silly but it's legitimately causing me so much stress and anxiety.

[Bimmer Guy]

I would be surprised if Garramone wouldn't do your surgery as long as you got clearance from your doctor.  Garramone's a** is covered then.

I can't imagine there aren't a number of guys with high blood pressure getting surgery.  I would call his office and ask tomorrow so you can let go of that anxiety.

[HeyTrace19]

Have you ever tried meditation?  It can help with lowering your blood pressure during stressful times, such as doctor visits .  I have high blood pressure, and at the time of my abdominal surgery I had been off my blood pressure meds for a while.  There was concern from the anesthesiologist on the morning of the procedure, but they did it anyway.  I had also received surgical clearance from my primary care doctor the week before.  If it is something crazy like 200/100, your surgery will likely not happen...and for your safety, it probably shouldn't!

Look into learning how to meditate and see if that kind of skill practice will help you manage your anxiety!

[charlotte15]

I'm abroad in South America for surgery myself (FFS, a girl thing) and your thread caught me eyes.

I've been going crazy for the weeks priors to the sugery. Everything made me worry, and I had crazier ideas such as getting abduced, the surgeon being it by a bus, all that being a scam, etc. I will spare you the details. If all you worry about is your BP, and it's normal otherwise, you're on much better bases.

3 things worked for me:
- doing non computer things (found that out too late), like cleaning etc
- sleeping pills (I just couldn't sleep and was having too much wine)
- my new fried called alprazolam which I was prescribed in Argentina

Meditation and stuff, like in theory it should work. Not for me. Not reading or anything else. Your mileage my vary, but for me the wait was the absolute worst thing ever.

Oh and I forgot something: putting all my fears in words. Expressing them here, and realizing I was not the only one with these fears and that other people had the exact same fears.

[jumpthenexttrain]

I also had increasing anxiety as my surgery date was approaching. I was so afraid that after years of waiting, I'd get to the hospital and be told that for some reason, I couldn't do it. For me, I was afraid that I'd get low blood sugar from not being allowed to eat after midnight (I've had this checked, it's normal for me no diabetes or anything, I just get low blood sugar if I don't eat for hours) and I also have tachycardia and high blood pressure which I take meds for and is taken care of. When I got to the hospital they said they give everyone a saline solution with glucose in it to compensate for not eating all night, so that solved my worries about that. My pulse and bp were fine too in spite of me being nervous. It'd highly likely that everything will go ok, often when I feel anxious and have my bp taken it will be normal or maybe a little high but once they put you under it will go down anyway.

[invisiblemonsters]

when i had my breast reduction, my blood pressure was high (they checked before i had my surgery) when normally it wasn't, and i was also overweight. that didn't stop them from doing the surgery and said it was because i was probably nervous (even though i didn't feel that way.) when i had my top surgery, they didn't take my blood pressure but plenty of over weight people get top surgery anyway. the only concern they had was after recovery when my heart rate was a bit fast and they kept an eye on it. being worried and anxious is normal but honestly, it's gonna go great and you're gonna feel so much better after (despite the probable pain)

[c1991u]

After years and years of waiting, I'm finally getting my top surgery. I used to be able to go out and do certain things and at this point, I've become a hermit. I only leave my house for work. I can't comfortably do normal things like walk my dog. In the Florida heat I wear a jacket to walk my dogs so that I don't have to bind and I'm just so over everything.

Now I'm two weeks away. I had my surgical clearance given to me by a doctor. They even did an EKG and everything is good to go. My biggest cause for anxiety is that I will get to Dr. Garramone's office and I will be told I can't have surgery because of my blood pressure. I am overweight. But when I take my BP at home, it is fine. It is when I go into a doctor's office that my anxiety goes crazy and my blood pressure goes up. Which in turn is giving me more anxiety.

I just don't know what to do. For the next two weeks I'm just going to do non-stop exercise and see if that can get me in a better space. Plus, it will help me overall with the weight and recovery. I'm just so scared that after all this waiting, something bad will happen. I know it is silly but it's legitimately causing me so much stress and anxiety.

Hey so congrats on getting your surgery soon (if you have not already had it!!). I can definitely relate. I learned I was having mine only a tad under two weeks due to a cancellation with Dr Robert Tuchler. I don't regularly have too bad of BP but anytime I have it in the dr's office, I am dreadfully anxious and of course it's significantly higher. I also resorted to exercise which helped. Music was also helpful as well as mental imagery exercises.

Ultimately though in trusting in my surgeon resulted in getting through my surgery yesterday. He gripped my hand and said he was going to take care of me and I guess I was put out at that point. I woke up wondering about my surgery only to learn it already happened! It will be over before you know it Look forward to hearing about the results