Does anyone regret? Yes, I'm sure there are a few folk who do so. However, I suspect, and having kept abreast of the literature in the last ten years, that it's perhaps only a 5, or even less, or so, percent minority.
Further, and this is just a tentative proposition on my part, that people who go through the usual major safeguarding hurdles, rather than those who don't, are rather less likely to report dis-satisfaction after having SRS.
An alternative, or auxilially, explanation, well at least I think on my part, being that folk heavily committed to having surgery (and subsequently, later, they then having had such surgery), may have a personal vested interest, to others around them, in highlighting the benefits/ and/or in rationalising to themselves the negatives associated the op. ("Yes, it was a major operation, and yes I spent a very huge amount of money, the money which I could perhaps have used to help promote my son's education, but the alternative was that I spent the rest of my life in a state and a turmoil of major inner conflict, and, in doing so, wasn't able to help my son, because I was so confused, in myself, and, therefore, not able to give him the energy, and time, that I dearly wanted"
I have a date for SRS surgery in October this year, In Thailand. Yes, of course, being a registered nurse, and having worked, in the past, in surgical and operating units, and thereby knowing full well all the risks associated with long major surgery, and anaethesia, I have a major degree of apprehension.
The ultimate and gravest risk, to me, in the surgery which I will have, taking about five hours or so all told, is that I will die. A secondary risk, being that I will be left, in some way or another, not dead; but, much worse, disabled, and, a dependency on others around me.
well wishes,
Kaete
