It's a bit strange, but I'm a lot more afraid of injections than surgery, and I've had both. Surgery doesn't bother me at all, but the injection beforehand certainly does.

Like others have said, the risk is very low, especially with a good surgeon. I have a fear of hospitals and a fear of surgery, so I get where you're coming from, but you've gotta try and keep your mind off it and remind yourself that everything will be fine.

Yeah they're super low. Top surgery won't be my first surgery if I'm gonna be honest. I've already gone through a major surgery far more risky than this one.
When I was 14 I had spinal fusion surgery due to my scoliosis. Working with the spinal cord made me really nervous like. What if something goes wrong and I'm paralyzed? What if I get an infection? I was really scared! I figured if I trusted my surgeon nothing would go wrong and I was right in doing so!
Be strong!

Although the risk of dying in surgery is very low, the question to ask is the risk of dying by not having the surgery outweigh the risk of dying during surgery?  We lose too many people in the struggle to be their true selves. Sometimes you have to trust and believe that everything will be ok.

Lots of good advice here. During my 33 year anesthesia career I often informed our patients that the risky part of their day was driving to the hospital.  As many have noted, its true.  Statistical data in the USA is not easy to find as our national data base is dependent on self reporting.  There are multiple factors that influence your individual risk and we use an ASA category to give patients a numerical rating.  A thorough preoperative interview and assessment is critical and we are wise to be completely candid about our history including what medications we take.  Our home use of alcohol and other drugs is important to share as it impacts our ability to metabolize anesthesia medication.  In my career I never lost a patent during elective surgery.  If we talk about trauma and emergency surgery it is a whole different calculation.

It is reasonable to consider risks and be well informed.  Once we make the decision to proceed it is to our advantage to have a positive attitude going in with our focus on how good we're going to feel when it's over.

Quote from: Colleen M on July 02, 2015, 06:49:53 PM
Also, while I'm thinking about it, an unreasonable percentage of the surgery horror stories you hear come from procedures done outside a hospital, whether that's a walk-in clinic, or a doc-in-a-box, or whatever.

I only had one visit to a Doc in a box but she was incredible. I sliced open my finger and the only indication it happened is a white line where the cut was. The crease lines even line up perfectly. I cut it while I was out of state but I always want to show her how good it turned out.

There's risk every time you go under anesthesia.  Your health also has an effect on how your body will handle the anesthesia.  I've only heard of one guy who had severe complication from surgery.  He was heavily overweight and had congestive heart failure.  If I recall correctly he was in a coma for a short period of time.  He made it out of all of that and if better now, last I heard.