Scared of surgery - how to ease my fears?

bmatthews

Hello. I was diagnosed with stage 0 breast cancer in situ and my surgery is next week. The breast cancer itself is not my worry. I have this fear of being put out for the surgery. I have a fear that I won’t wake up. Anyone else feel this? How did you ease your mind. I think everything has just hit me the last two days in going through the process of getting cleared for surgery. The physical was fine with the bloodwork but I was referred to a cardiologist in order to be cleared. That scared me. Im feeling a bit paralyzed by it all. So much that I couldn’t concentrate on my job today so I had to come home. Im a special education teacher. Im just scared of the process and don’t know what to do to get it out of my head. Thanks for reading and I’ll take any feedback I can get.

moderators

Hi @bmatthews and thanks for sharing your vulnerable feelings about surgery fears! Others will likely be by soon to share some info on what to expect, which may help ease your fears, but we also hope some of this link will be helpful:

https://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/surgery/what-to-expect

What type of surgery will you be having - lumpectomy or mastectomy?

Also, we hope you'll join our September Surgery thread or brows our August Surgery thread to get first-hand experiences from others who've been there or are preparing for surgery also.

Our Shopping/Packing/To-Do List for Surgery and Recovery is also a good resource.

We hope this helps! Sending hugs and good wishes for a seamless surgery. Let us know how you do. We're here for you!

—The Mods