Surgery's Aftermath
By Mary Elizabeth Williams
The post-surgery secret your doctors won’t share
The very operations that save your life leave psychological scars that can be very slow to heal
We stood together in the bedroom, he and I. It was a week after the operation, and it was time for the bandages to come off. He gently peeled off the first one, under my left breast, where the surgeon had gone in and excised a small tumor from my lung. He peeled off the second one, where the camera that had found the tumor had gone in. He peeled off the final one, where the drain had been. When he was finished, I turned to look at myself in the mirror, at the triangle of wounds around my chest, and started to cry. “I’m angry,” he said. “I’m angry they did this to you.” And so was I.
When you go in for surgery, your doctors will tell you not to eat after midnight. They’ll tell you what kind of narcotics and ointments and stool softeners you will need afterward, and when you can eat solid food or lift heavy packages. What they probably won’t mention is that you might feel surprisingly traumatized.
Read entire story at Salon.com
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