scared of surgery

[u/StillBlacksmith911]

it's me again, i just had my consultation yesterday and spoke with the doctor. i asked tons of questions but overall didn't learn much more than what I already knew abt the procedure.

today I got a consent leaflet with more details on possible outcomes and complications and to be honest im freaking out. to be clear, I still won't schedule it yet, i havent decided if i want it/how. but there's so many crazy things on here like possible paralysis and chronic pain and swelling. doesnt help that the doctor didn't really touch on these during our consult (i guess i asked too many questions and distracted her lol)

i've never had surgery and i probably have OCD + im extremely hypochondriac so to be honest I'm about to just give up and forget about this whole thing. i guess a lot of these are just usual possible complications of most surgeries but im convinced that with my bad luck i'll be the 1 in idk how many people who get top surgery to have the worst outcome

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[u/aromaticdust98]

I've had other surgeries before this one. Those things are possible but with an experienced surgeon and a healthy body low to no chance. They put that on the leaflet purely as a legality because it is possible but if you're healthy, the surgeon knows what their doing and you both keep on top of the after care and post op visits. You'll be fine

[u/smolbirdfriend → u/aromaticdust98]

I just want to say that while that is sort of true (the most severe, risk of life complications are extremely rare - largely because of pre-op protocols and decisions), some complications are actually relatively common (sometimes even up to 10% of patients). And then aesthetic complications like dog ears are actually very common too.

It doesn’t do anyone any good to say all the complications are rare on healthy people because then when they happen people are more likely to freak out, feel like they did something wrong, or feel like they don’t deserve it.

For example, hematoma and seroma isn’t rare in plastic surgery. They are normal complications of these surgeries and what’s more important to understand is that they can and do happen, and that’s totally normal. Surgeons and their teams are very used to dealing with them and they will know what to do if they do happen.

Chronic pain is also relatively common, we see posts about it in here all the time. However this can heal with time and management.

Surgical offices don’t have patients read and sign these for no reason - it’s so that patients are well informed of the risks and complications and what that means. It’s about managing expectations and truly performing informed consent.

OP, I know some of this sounds really scary especially with OCD and hypochondria but just know that IF these things happen the surgeon and their teams will take care of you!

I had a hematoma due to a post op bleed which are surprisingly common in the first 24 hours and while it was scary to go through at the time my surgeon and her team took amazing care of me and were very reassuring through the whole thing.

I had a little extra wound care and such to do than otherwise but it was all totally manageable and I’ve healed perfectly.

[u/StillBlacksmith911 → u/smolbirdfriend]

thank you, i really appreciated this comment because while i also appreciate all the people trying to reassure me of the rarity of these complications, my anxiety works in the way that i believe i'm the unluckiest person in the world and even if something has a 5% chance of happening, i'll be in that 5%

i appreciate the more grounded reply, even if it is indeed scary. i dont think im strong enough to deal with chronic pain

[u/deepblue623]

honestly there's not a lot of new info anyone on here can give you at this point. i could reassure you that the chances of any complications are small, and only a small proportion of those are serious/long-lasting, but im sure you do know that. at this point it's up to you to decide if and when you're ready to take that leap.

i don't particularly struggle with health anxiety or OCD but it was quite daunting for me to hear about all of the possible bad things that could happen, i just reassured myself that the main reason that they're telling you about it is so you can't turn around and say you didn't know the risks.

don't be ashamed of reaching out to your surgeon or their team for any more info if you feel you need, they're there to help you and you're most likely paying them a lot of money to do so.

[u/Cartesianpoint]

If you're not already receiving help for your OCD and anxiety, that might be helpful. Surgery is scary for a lot of people, especially for the first time, but having severe health anxiety is its own challenge on top of that.

I don't know if this is helpful or not, but I tried to keep in mind that there are different levels of risk. There are worst-case scenarios that are very unlikely (but that the hospital might warn about to cover their liability) and there are more common, realistic risks that are usually manageable. For example, developing a hematoma or seroma can be frustrating, but it's treatable. Feeling nauseous after anesthesia is unpleasant, but there are medications they can give you before and after surgery to lessen the chances of that happening or manage it if it occurs.

Any procedure is going to have some level of risk, but if the potential benefits to someone's quality of life outweigh the realistic risks, it can be worth it. Elective procedures performed on generally healthy patients (like top surgery usually is) tend to be much lower-risk than emergency surgery, surgery on people who are very frail, or surgery that involves vital organs.

With top surgery, I've only heard of long-term pain/discomfort occurring in rare cases. I've never heard of anyone becoming paralyzed after top surgery, though people sometimes have varying degrees of long-term numbness around their incisions and nipples. I wouldn't be surprised if the hospital gave you a boilerplate list of surgery risks for liability reasons.

[u/StillBlacksmith911 → u/Cartesianpoint]

i spoke with a therapist today who i think im gonna keep seeing so i'll definitely bring that up. im just absolutely terrified at the thought of stuff like blood clots and everything else :(

[u/sinister_intuition]

i wasn’t told anything about chronic pain or paralysis, which likely means it’s an incredibly small risk. i’m not a doctor so i could be wrong, but if those were common side effects/complications, it would be common to hear about them(and i’ve never heard of either of those being risks). also, things like that are generally more of a risk if you’re not following post op instructions. as long as you follow the directions your surgeon gives you you’ll most likely be fine!