When you have a surgery scheduled, it can be hard to keep fears at bay. Mayo Clinic's surgical teams have learned there's one thing that consistently reassures patients: Information. But not just from your doctor.
Watch for expert recommendations on finding reassurance when you or a loved one faces surgery.
We asked Mayo Clinic experts: What can a patient do to calm pre-surgery nerves?
Mikel Prieto, M.D., Transplant Surgery: This is one of the most personal things you are ever going to do in your life — trust somebody else with your body.
Ian Parney, M.D., Ph.D., Neurosurgery: Getting as many of your questions answered as possible, and not being afraid to ask those questions and to keep asking those questions, and to ask them to different people to get different opinions about things.
Kay Kosberg, R.N., Transplant Center: So for people who are anxious going into surgery, maybe they'd never had surgery. What we recommend is just maybe talking to someone who's had surgery.
Mark Truty, M.D., General and Gastrointestinal Surgery: What I tend to do is have them talk to other patients, so we have a big network of all my patients. They actually started their own grassroots, organic Facebook site. They give the good, bad and ugly of the treatment, of the surgery, and afterwards. So most of them come into the operating room pretty well prepared.
Lisa King, R.N., Transplant Center: Whatever your happy space is, to find it. If it's to have a chaplain come and visit you, if it's to have music playing or headphones, if it's just to be able to sit and have some silence for a while.
Dr. Parney: It's important for me as a surgeon talking to somebody to really explain what's involved, you know, what the surgery will entail or what I expect to happen to them afterwards. But also a realistic understanding of what are the benefits and risks of what we're doing.
Edward Ahn, M.D., Pediatric Neurosurgery: Pre-surgery nerves. Think back to what you saw in the hospital, the doctors, the nurses and whatever made you trust in that group of people to begin with.
Dr. Prieto: So you need to feel that connection with the surgeon and the surgical team, that they know what they are doing and that you are in good hands.
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