Is there such a thing as post-operative depression or is this just

SSDD? I'm having trouble fighting the good fight again. (Insert Dean Scream here.) Post-op folks: what has been your experience?

refused to cough, got pnuemonia.
depressed, horrible time in the hospital, horrible nurses and roommates,
went home...felt worse.

got an infection, DEPRESSED. I cried at night while I was by myself in the hospital room. I felt like shit, physically and mentally. A month later, I was doing better.

It took time, but as your body heals, you should start to feel better too. Talk to someone who you trust. Cry, cry a lot, then clean up and read something funny.

I think my dog is funny...

<whisper>dog got antlers, dude


:-)

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

for it seems that it takes me a month or two to get over the exhaustion and depression I experience afterwards.

Hang in there, LH!

:hug:

DemEx

I'm trying. I need to make myself get out of this bloody apartment!!!!

the funniest movie thread to you...but then i saw you already noticed it!

hope all goes well with your recovery...best wishes

Now I have some ammunition. :D

Fight, we need you. It is time to fight, and we need everyone to fight the bullshit.

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/culture-war/index.php#obscure-phone-carrier-forms-very-strategic-alliance-102949

I broke my knee two years ago and had to have surgery. It was a bad break--broke both my tib and fib at the knee, and took quite a few screws and a pretty long recupperation time to put me back together.

I think what was worse than the surgery was being confined to my couch for the four months it took me to heal. After one month, I became weepy and despondent...I couldn't picture ever having my normal life back.

Not long after I was up walking again, I found out that my father had cancer. That sent me into a long downward spiral. Thank god that I had a great doctor with whom I could discuss my feelings.

Talk to your doctor. He may want to prescribe something to help you get out of the dumps.

:hug:

(which surgery is) it can trigger depression. General anesthesia itself can also trigger a significant episode of depression. This is especially likely if you already have a predisposition to depression.

I was laid low for quite awhile following a fairly minor surgery. It always takes alot out of you to go through something like that.

Sometimes it can help quite alot, just to know that what you're going through is normal, and that it should resolve itself in time.

Please hang in there, and don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. If it gets bad enough, I would talk to your doctor about possibly going on a course of antidepressants just to help you out of the funk.

Take care of yourself, and I hope you're feeling better soon.:pals:

I was badly injured in 1994, spent five weeks in the hospital and was esctatic that I was finally going home. I had been really depressed in the hospital.
The staff psychologist told me not to expect the depression to disappear just because I was going home. I told her not to worry, because it was unimaginable to me that I would be depressed being in my own home surrounded by family.
She was right. It really caught me off guard.
Don't panic.....accept it for what it is and KNOW that it may come and go for a while, but it will eventually pass for good. Hang in there.

... been assaulted, so to speak. Knocked out with drugs. Cut with knives. Sewn back up.

Something I've had a very hard time conveying to my mother, as she is such a strong believer in mind over matter. She's had a whole slew of serious surgeries in her life, and every time she seems to expect that she should be able to mentally snap right back out of it, no matter what. She is very prone to post-surgical infections, and this also affects her mental state -- I wish I had a buck for every time she's assured me she has finally lost her marbles (her term) and the next stop is the loony bin (her term).

She's an extreme case, but you get the point.

Ten or so years ago I had shoulder surgery (both, a year apart) for severe calcifying tendinitis, and the relief from pain was so dramatic that I could hardly believe it. Sure, I had to go through weeks of PT, but nothing to compare to what I finally recognized had been years of chronic agony. I don't remember any negative emotions, just relief.

Last week Friday I had LASIK on my eyes and I am feeling very, very anxious today. I gave up a sure thing, a known quantity -- a 50-year relationship with heavy eyeglasses, a 35-year relationship with hard contact lenses. Right now I wake up in the morning and can actually see the clock on my nightstand -- but I can't really read a newspaper without a supplemental pair of reading glasses, and then for less than an hour before the tiny print blurs too much to make out. Okay, so I was using supplemental reading glasses before this, but they worked well, not like this. The first few days I felt like my eyes were fighting with each other. It was a patient in the waiting room who told me it would take about a month for my vision to settle down (he had his done in January -- also had a heavy correction like mine). And my doctor told me *after* the surgery that my brain is having to re-learn how to interpret visual data. TV is fine, walking around is fine, I'll try driving tomorrow with my husband. My adult kids were each driving the very next day after they had this procedure.

Ask me in a month how I feel about LASIK. Just at the moment I have to keep reminding myself that this was real surgery, it was scary to live through (there's only mild sedation, though plenty of anesthesia), and right now my eyes are physically fragile but they will heal completely. Millions have had this done, my doctor is one of the two best in town, and recovery is recovery. Positive mantras, but real anxiety, because the change in my vision is absolutely huge. For the better, but huge. My next post-op visit is this Thursday.

I hope your own surgery was a terrific success and enhances your life immeasurably. You don't say what it was for -- can we know? Please just recognize that there's nothing abnormal about an emotional reaction to this physical event. The bodily change is a big deal right down to the cellular level, and it will take awhile for all the rest of you to catch up to it.

Just be aware of the usual caveats: plenty of rest, good nutrition, fluids, avoid reading about Dubya 'cause it'll agitate you ;-) -- the usual. Remember my mom's experience, too, and that thing about infections and other complications: let your doctor know about anything that doesn't seem quite right, and if your low mood/low energy persists, don't let anyone put off your questions or concerns. It's good if you recognize for yourself if something's out of kilter.

Swift and gentle healing, Ladyhawk.

Hekate

complications. The best to you, Hekate!

God, I'm so tired and want to respond to everyone and everything, but I'm too tired tonight. Ugh.

LH

On edit: LASIK eventually worked for me, but I had to have some extremely painful post-operative procedures and was functionally blind for over six weeks. It was not a good situation.

Daylight's definitely better so far -- and wowie, LOTS better than wearing my glasses (to get ready for the surgery) for the past 6 weeks! Before the surgery I had to try really hard not to scrape the curb on the passenger side because the thickness of the edge of the right lens caused such distortion in my peripheral vision. Today everything on the road was as clear as a bell. I felt excited and optimistic.

When I got to the post office and addressed a bunch of small packages I wanted to send I had trouble again with very blurred, almost double vision. Myopes take close vision for granted -- we know we can't see past our noses, but we also can read tiny print or find that pesky eyelash that's fallen into our eye. Well, the older I get the harder that's been, but still, I seem to have given up something I've always taken for granted as a compensation for not ever being able to see the bird among the leaves. It's a drastic change. Maybe I should go on walks and try to spot birds in trees, see how it feels, stop stressing about not being able to read the newspaper yet.

I'm so sorry you had 6 weeks of trouble after your LASIK -- I know that a good part of my anxiety has been because that's been my deepest fear.

I'll be out driving again tomorrow, for my second post-op checkup. I expect to get more information.

Hopefully by this time you've been asleep for hours, resting and healing. :hug:

Hekate

The first two were happy surgeries that I begged for (tubal ligation and endometrial ablation). I was back to near-normal within a day of each, even though one surgery involved deliberately inflicting a third-degree burn over the entire interior of my uterus and both surgeries had complications due to my "numerous co-morbid conditions" (in other words, I idle at seriously ill). I was so delighted to have both procedures done my main emotion was sheer joy.

The surgery I just had last Thursday was unhappy surgery: I didn't want it, but it was either have it or risk dying/losing a kidney/full end-stage renal failure (I'm in early chronic renal failure now). It's been over six days and I'm still unbelievably weak and can barely eat due to terrible pain the Percocet hardly touches. Right now I'm beyond exhausted, pathetically weak and not sure if having the surgery was such a good idea. I don't feel particularly depressed; then again, I may just be too weak and tired to tell. Maybe I'll be better once the stent is out (it goes from my kidney to my bladder) ... maybe then it'll really be over, I'll get better and will have a normal post-op.

I'm on Percocet now, but the OxyCodone was stronger. Can you get something stronger for now? Pain sucks.

I think most people feel very sluggish months afterwards

I don't know what operation you had because I keep dipping in and out of the country and missed the story but here's the thing -- a LOT of people who undergo general anesthesia have depression afterward. Not just women who give birth. Don't blame yourself, and give yourself time and space to recover. My mom, who is anything but depressive -- more like a hyper -- clued me into this.

P.S. Ladyhawk, I have been following your threads for some time now because of the parrot :-) and you may not realize it but you are making leaps and strides against depression. Your posts reflect a growing strength that impresses me. So don't lose faith in yourself. From a stranger's viewpoint, it is obvious that you are getting stronger and stronger. You go, girl.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

I really appreciate your encouraging words. :) Truly.

I had a double-level laminectomy and fusion of the vertebrae in my neck: levels C4-5 and C5-6. They slit my neck, see?



The incision looks tidy, but I have to remember they removed discs and did funky stuff to my bones. :) Also, the procedure took twice as long as usual: six hours.

I was down after having a torn rotor cuff repaired, but sure didn't mind being off work for several months!! Hee hee. But the pain after the surgery was pretty severe, and the pain meds made me feel sick.

After ileostomy surgery years ago, it was relief at first. After some time it was mental breakdown time, due to the disfiguration that no one had explained to me. (hmmm, maybe it wouldn't have been a good thing though, to be told as a teenager that I had a bag of shit to look forward to.) Then further surgery some years later, and trading in the bag for an internal procedure. Ahh. Much better. But the recovery was very long.

Eating foods that I especially loved was helpful...comfort food or treats, ya know. And funny movies. Spiritual practice, if it uplifts you and makes you feel hope and gratitude.

I have a slit in my neck too not that it's anything to celebrate. :)

I had a C-3, C-4, C-5 fusion in July, 1994 and was in a halo brace for three months. I couldn't drive, shower or do much of anything since I had very restricted arm movement. I thought the depression was from the helplessness I felt. I've changed my views since I learned that major surgery and general anesthesia can trigger depression.

It's just going to take some time, LH. :hug:

General anesthesia can do weird things to your brain chemistry, and your physical energy is being poured into healing so you feel run-down. Plus, when you're in the hospital people kind of fuss over you, bringing you warmed blankets and stuff, and it's really normal to miss that!

Tucker

that I've been seriously injured a couple of times, and both times I went into a fairly serious depression. Just felt really bad. There's something about your body changing like that...makes you feel old, like you lost something.