Pre-BA jitters

I see so many posts about pre-oppers here getting the jitters for one reason or another before their surgery, so I thought it might be nice for post-oppers to give reassurance 'cos I know a lot of us felt the same and for pre-oppers to relate too.

For me personally I was terrified having surgery, it wasn't the discomfort or fear of needles for me, it was the being put to sleep part. I balled my eyes out for days leading up to my surgery, even questioning myself whether I really wanted to go ahead with the surgery or now. Which I knew I was always going to do, but maybe I made myself feel a little better knowing a had the choice to cancel if I wanted. lol. On my surgery day I balled like a baby all the way to theatre, thinking the nurse must have thought I was crazy! But they were very understanding and caring. The nurse that led me to theatre talked me through the whole way and when I got to the theatre itself, she explained that I was nervous to the surgeons and they too took time to reassure me before sending me to sleep.

I woke up after what felt like a blink of an eye, really it seemed that fast even though I was under for hours! (Generally only about an hour for a straight forward BA) and the first thing I thought when I woke up was.... what the heck was I worried about? lol

I personally don't think it matters how many times you do this though, I think you always get a little bit of the jitters and it's a very normal part of the BA journey. Not a great one lol, but normal for us to feel this way all the same. xx

I was fine about all the operation worries as I managed to put it all to the back of my mind, my worries were about the children. The night before my operation I cried my eyes out hugging my son in a ball (not good i know, bear in mind i was cold turkey on the cigs too) shouting about how I'd made a mistake and had been wrong in thinking this op would improve their quality of life (think going to the beach, swimming etc) and that the 6 weeks it would take me to recover was more important. My youngest are 22 months and 9 months and I just couldn't bear the thought of not hugging them and playing and looking after them.
It was not a problem at all, you change the way you do things, you can still be there and give then what they need, just in a different way for a while. I'm by myself for the first time today with them as my partner is back at work, but I know we'll muddle through fine... Only 4 weeks left to go then we have a full life of fun ahead of us

The thing that worried me most was the recovery afterwards and not knowing how much it was going to hurt. Also I was worried about not being able to pick up my son for 4 weeks (he was 10 months old at the time).

The discomfort after then op wasn't half as bad as I'd expected, the first couple of days were uncomfortable, but I could move around, chat to people and dress myself. I didn't need that much help.

Also I had lots of kind help lifting my little boy and he coped with not having his mummy there 24/7 just fine! In fact he got a much closer relationship with his daddy as a result. Xx

This is a great thread i am one very nervous pre opper and look forward to ready peoples posts here thanks cookie xx

cookie wrote:the first thing I thought when I woke up was.... what the heck was I worried about? lol

Exactly the same for me!!

Running up to my BA I didn't have time to worry about the op - I was too busy calming my parents down! I have never seen them as nervous and especially on the morning of the operation they were both pacing round the room and asking me why I was doing it. I spent so much time reassuring them I almost forgot that I was the one getting the operation!

Then they left my room on the morning of the operation and this wave of panic just washed over me! Everything I'd held back when my parents were around just came flooding out. I was like "i don't reeeeally need a BA, I'll be fine" and "What if I wake up in the operation?!" (I've never had an operation or GA before so I had no idea what to expect)

As with you cookie, the nurses were really good. They got my anesthetist to come visit me to reassure me that everything would be OK and he would make super special sure I wouldn't wake up half way through! Then when he saw how worked up I was, he even got the nurse to give me a tablet to calm me down so my blood pressure wasn't up - and BOY did that calm me down! I felt very tipsy and giggly!

Because of the tablet I had to be wheeled to theatre and the porter pushing me kept making me laugh, teasing that if the lift got stuck they'd have to do the op in there! When I actually got to theatre the whole "putting to sleep" bit was so quick, I didn't even see my surgeon! One of the theatre staff put the canula in my hand, then the mask went straight on my face and the anesthetist stroked my head and told me everything would be ok (bless 'im!) then BOOM I was awake, chattering away to the nurse in recovery!


As for after the op, for me personally the pain really wasn't bad at all. The morning after the op I managed to dress myself, brush my hair and do my makeup...albeit a bit uncomfortable. The most painful thing was getting up out of a chair or bed, but once I was up I was fine

thanks for this post cookie, it is so helpful to read everyones experiences, my emotions are swinging from 'wooohooo i m so excited i want to shout down the street and tell everyone that tomorrow i will have boobs' to 'omg i m not going to wake up from the ga' i keep telling myself i m more likely to die or suffer a serious injury driving my car than i am from having a BA (this has put me right off driving ) xxx

Hahaha sammi! My surgeon said that to me - it’s safer to have an anesthetic than it is to drive to your operation.
So I was immediately like "definitely getting a lift to the hospital then"

Ha ha, Yes! I am having pre op jitters....

Its just over 3 weeks away and its my sizing...

I phoned to get another appointment, but my surgeons busy (I have already seen him twice lol)...think I need to just stop thinking about it now, and leave it up to him on the day

xxx

Im freaking our just generally, im realy hoping seeing my surgeon tomoz will help calm me down and run through sizes again.

Spoke to my gp today and she pretty much said good luck to me and so that made me feel more confident!! :)

Just think bouncy in a month time it will all be over for us and we can give comfort to the next round of girls!!! :) xx

For me it was very much a case of mind over matter. I don't cope well with situations like this (blood tests, ear piercings etc haha).

Because this is something I really wanted I kept reminding myself of this, the times I'd been bullied at school or the times I'd felt depressed over what my boobs were like etc. It helped me stay focused, I knew it was worth a bit of discomfort to not have to feel that way about myself.

The surgery stories here were a MASSIVE help to me and ultimately were probably the main thing that stopped me from breaking down on the day. I knew what to expect and when to expect it, it was incredibly comforting and so my day felt like something I'd done once before (even though I hadn't).x

The way I looked at it was that yes, I had read some stories about people having some problems that needed correcting, but that in everything I read and in everyone's responses I had read nothing that indicated any long term health problems. Now I'm not saying that there are not freak occurrences, but then take-a-break is full of freak occurrences that can happen from paper cuts or tripping over the kerb (cant read that mag anymore, messes with my mind), but i choose to focus on the real life experience I had read about on this forum and keep focused on my reasons for wanting it done.
I hope all of you that are pre BA can get to your date with as little worrying as possible x x x

I was fine til my boyfriend started to freak out a few days before, and the fact that he needed constant reassurance that I was going to be ok made me doubt it myself, and on the morning of the op I was more bothered about putting a brave face on for him than anything!

Then the anaesthetist came in just before my op and frightened my poor man to death "now surgeons don't tell you this, but it DOES hurt, you WILL be in pain, and it may look like a small cut but there's a lot that happens inside"... All of which I was perfectly happy with but the boyf's face was a picture!!!

Truth is, it didnt hurt unmanageably, i came round perfectly fine and Im absolutely positive its the best thing ive ever done. I'm nearly 6 weeks post op, and every morning boob and achey neck and weird stabbing pain is blummin worth it when I try on a bikini!!! So long as you know what to expect (swot up on here!!!!) then you can relax knowing that you're prepared, and just enjoy waking up with great boobies!

feeling the jitters quite badly now its going to be a long night xxx

Awww everything is going to be fine Sammi. I promise

Maybe you could try a warm relaxing bath, followed by making yourself a warm milky drink to help get you off to sleep?

What time do you have to be at the hospital Sammi? xx

i don't need to be there until 12, i kinda wish it was earlier so i could get it over and done with b4 i wake up properly and have time to think about it, xxx

You really are going to be OK sweetheart. The fear of the unknown is awful though I know.

Maybe try to focus on how you're going to feel at 3.00pm tomorrow. That's going to be you... with boobs then! Nothing is anywhere near as bad as you think it might be Sammi and tomorrow, you get to live your dream. xx

mariaelaina wrote:Hahaha sammi! My surgeon said that to me - it’s safer to have an anesthetic than it is to drive to your operation.
So I was immediately like "definitely getting a lift to the hospital then"

I was thinking the same too girls! Funny! This is what I told my boyfriend so he would stop being so nervous about it! It worked! Haha

Seriously I was awake from the anesthesia so fast that when I woke up i thought the surgery hadn't even started yet! I didn't realize it was over until I looked down and saw that I had boobies! LOL

thanks cookie ans mssaprl9 you girls are all amazing on this forum xxx

Good luck today sweetie, we'll be thinking about you xxxxx

Good luck sammi710 hope u managed to get some sleep. Will be thinking of u xx

I'm a worrier, I will worry about not having anything to worry about. So the build up to my BA was stressfull. I took calms tablets up until 2 weeks before my BA to help me sleep and stop my nerves kicking in so much. I must have been logged into this site every spare second of every day, I was very scared of feeling pain. I was scared of the GA. I'd never had an operation before and didn't know what would happen. I think the fear of the unknown was the worst for me. i read every diary and every surgery story on this website over and over again, just to try and get some idea of what was going to happen to me. My mum was worried about me and didn't want me to have an operation I didn't need, so her fear passed onto me. I'd seen my brother after 2 operations and he was really poorly so that scared me (his ops were emergency ones). After it was all done, I couldn't believe why I had worried so much, was nothing to be scared of.

My biggest fear was also being put to sleep, i hadn't been in a hospital since the day after i was born. Also i'd seen lots of people talking about being sick afterwards which scared the heck out of me.
I thought the anxiety pills hadn't worked when a guy arrived to take me downstairs. There were only two female assistants in the room and they helped me onto the table, then the anesthetist walked in said "hi! how are you? Ready? Right you head will start to turn..." That was it, i was out before i could even say hello. I'd had the cannula put in while i was in my room and so between the man arriving in my room and waking up in the recovery room i have under 5 minutes of memory. The thing is, after i woke up and realised what had happened i was just sat there thinking, that's so awesome! I actually wanted to do the operation bit again cause i couldn't get my head around that feeling of waking up and thinking a couple of seconds had passed. Maybe i'm wierd but i thought it was cool haha

I spent every spare hour from booking my op to the day on here reading EVERYTHING! Like some shady little post stalker

I found that I wasn't worried at any point about the GA, sounds really weird but I had a laparoscopy last March and so I knew what to expect-ish and the thought didn't phase me this time round.

I had a really ridiculous evening about a week before when I started getting teary because I wouldn't be able to wash my hair alone or shower properly for a while?!

I also did question a few times whether it was going to be worth it incase I got x or y problem/ complication...but then excitement took back over and I thought about my potential happiness levels vs chances of problems and they far outweighed!

The night before my op after going for some pre-op tests and photos with my surgeon for the case study i'm in I went to a Harvester pub on the way home...sat with my brother's girlfriend chatting and eating then I started getting good luck texts for the next day and all of a sudden burst into tears! I couldn't quite work out why but I suppose the last month of not having many bad thoughts and being so excited and knowing that in less that 24 hours everything would be really real had just overwhelmed me!

On the morning my mom came with me to Dolan Park and I was pefectly fine, watching rubbish tv and chatting so happily and it wasn't until the nurse came to take me to theatre and I hugged my mom goodbye that I got scared and cried like a baby again!

Fast forward a couple of hours which felt like 5 seconds and I woke up burst into tears of relief, phoned my mom to come visit and spent since then amazed at how easy it has been! Aside from the week of uncomfy morning boob!

Every pre-ba jitter or worry you have will be a million times worth it after ladies! xxx

And yes I am aware this post has made me sound like such a cry baby!

Loved that post Abbie :thumbs: xx