Pre Surgery worries and Sleep Apnea fears

[dav_ash]

I've been suffering from consistent HA since this November and it's been a continuous flux of different fears and symptoms etc.

I'm scheduled for top surgery next Tuesday (I've been on the wait list for 3 years) and I'm scared to death over complications with general anesthesia as I've never been under. I'm afraid I do have something wrong with me and it'll come out then.

The last few weeks I've noticed a consistent trouble with being able to breath deep enough. Every breath I take doesn't feel like I'm getting enough air and I have to breath deeper to try. There will be periods even awake where it feels like my breath will skip and I have to force a breath. it doesn't feel like a temporary shortness of breath but a consistent one.

Last night I woke up needing to gasp and it's just put me in a tailspin of anxious thoughts over whether I could have sleep apnea as that can bring complications with surgery.

I don't snore, I usually sleep very good and solidly. Could this be an anxiety symptom from my upcoming surgery? I got the surgery take about a month ago and this particular symptom started recently.

 

[Sweet T]

I have this about 50% of the time. Try diaphragm breathing exercises. Not sure if I start breathing shallow or hold my breath first , but something triggers this and I can feel the muscles in the ribs get tight. It’s helps if I do pectoral stretching exercises and take a hot shower. I even put a heating pad on before sleep and give myself a massage. Perhaps that’s what is happening with you. This is very common with anxiety.
Anyone is your situation would be scared and worried. Best of luck to you. Take care.

 

[Chrissyjo]

Yes this is me constantly. My breathing is all over the place. I hold it in then I don’t breath out enough. My lungs feel like a tiny ball and it’s super tight. I struggle with this daily. I also was worried I have sleep apnea but it might have been reflux. I have woken up before being unable to breath it’s awful. I’ve had to have two surgeries in the past year and was worried the same as you. The first one was just a routine gastrophy and the other one was a 2 hour sleep dentistry. Both times I was worried I wouldn’t wake up or they would tell me they had found something but nope nothing like that happened. If you’ve never under I can understand your fears. Try not to worry. You can talk to them before they put you under, plus you do check your health first to be safe,

 

[Ms.Honey]

I have this almost constantly too. I have to really force myself to realize that yes I can actually breathe. My daughter just had surgery, and I was so nervous about it, but honestly they really check you over well before getting started. I would even say to them that you’re anxious about it and also feeling like you’re not breathing properly. They will check everything and I’m sure reassure you that you are fine before going in to the operating room

 

[Jonathan123]

Yes this is me constantly. My breathing is all over the place. I hold it in then I don’t breath out enough. My lungs feel like a tiny ball and it’s super tight. I struggle with this daily. I also was worried I have sleep apnea but it might have been reflux. I have woken up before being unable to breath it’s awful. I’ve had to have two surgeries in the past year and was worried the same as you. The first one was just a routine gastrophy and the other one was a 2 hour sleep dentistry. Both times I was worried I wouldn’t wake up or they would tell me they had found something but nope nothing like that happened. If you’ve never under I can understand your fears. Try not to worry. You can talk to them before they put you under, plus you do check your health first to be safe,

You 'struggle' with it daily! Is it any wonder you are so upset about it all. Struggling, like fighting 'IT' is futile and a battle you can never win. When you struggle or fight all you do is add more adrenaline, the fear hormone, into the body which perpetuates the anxiety. Sadly it is a natural instinct to want to fight your way out of the problem, but you need to learn that the opposite is needed. Calm relaxation and acceptance. I know, oh yes I do, been there, but fighting got me nowhere. It took a while to realise that any form of restance to anxiety is futile. Anxiety feeds on fear, it's favourite diet, so why feed it when by accepting it you can begin recovery. Read as many of the posts on here as you can. Everyone here has been there, believe me, and they all know how you feel.

 

[Chrissyjo]

they all know how you feel

I don’t think so. I’mnot going to go into detail as I’m sure no normal person would live like I do.

but on your comments on struggling, yes that’s how it is, I have moved a little to the acceptance but it’s not really working. My breathing has been an issue for a couple of years and it’s become chronic. I have random hours during the day I’m destracted and I breath normal, the rest of the day is a struggle with my brain to stop holding my breath. Ive accepted it but my body is still not responding.

but honestly they really check you over well before getting started. I would even say to them that you’re anxious about it and also feeling like you’re not breathing properly

When I had my gastrophy last year I was ok until they stuck an oxygen tube under my nose going up both nostrils. Because I was holding my breath a bit the flow of air up my nose started giving me bad anxiety. I felt even less in control of my breathing and started to panic, I was breathing through my mouth trying to avoid the oxygen blast up my nose, I would have looked like a fish out of water. Their response was to quickly put my under, they didn’t seem concerned about my panic! I never had a tube like that put on when I was awake before. Anyway I didn’t like it

 

[Jonathan123]

"I don’t think so. I’mnot going to go into detail as I’m sure no normal person would live like I do"

Now that is a natural feeling in anxiety, and whether you agree or not it is a fact. You are not alone, not by any means. In my considerable experience with anxiety almost everyone thinks they are the only person who feels that way.
You can't move a 'little' in acceptance. It's like saying I am a little bit pregnant! You either accept fully or not at all. It takes time and practise.
They didn't seem concerned about your panic becuse they don't understand what it's like.
Once, when in hospital, I had a panic attack that was misdiagnosed as a heart attack and I was given the full treatment. I was told that I needed a weeks bedrest. After two days being on a machine I was told to get up and wash. Now who was right, me or the consultant? I was told that the consultant did not believe in panic attacks!! Yes. a consultant! They have no or very little training in health anxiety and just think it's 'all in the mind'. Of course it is, but that does not stop the mental pain.
Why do you insist on struggling when you know it is counter productive? You say that yourself. You can't just sit down, accept, and the expect a result. Acceptance takes time to calm you down. You say there are times when you feel that breathing is normal. Surely that must tell you that it is posssible to breath normally?

 

[Seryn]

I think 30 years ago, even as little as 10 the stigma around anxiety was huge. I feel like it has changed a lot over the last decade and drs are very aware of anxiety. Unless you get a very old school one who's still stuck in the past, some can be so dismissive and get annoyed you're wasting their time!!

My last nurse I had who took my bloods was the best I've had with panic. She was brilliant. Also my son's asthma nurse was very good. If he even fears an asthma attack he automatically panics now. Finds it almost impossible to breath out which causes hyperventilating and he gets cramp in his chest which scares him even more. He always says mum I can cope with a real asthma attack as I'm too weak to panic and hyperventilate but panic attacks are something else! That's coming from a 17year old who's been blue lighted to hospital more times than I care to recall from actual asthma! At that moment in time when you can't focus on breathing out thinking about acceptance is useless, you're just not in the right mindframe. His nurse said blow out a candle. She held her finger infront of him and said "blow it out" it doesn't matter how hard, soft, between gasps and through the pain from hyperventilation, just blow it out. She said attaching something you have to do physically, that's not practice in the mind is the most helpful during breathing difficulties from panic. No timed in and out chants, trying meditation or acceptance works during actual panic. She said blow it out like a 5 year old spitting everywhere or as faintly as a 90 year old or as rapid as someone in labour. Whatever comes to you.

When I had my bloods done and I panic my nurse literally gave me a rubber glove to hold in the opposite hand and said hold it in a tight ball and keep squeezing as fast or slow as you want, focus on doing that for me. Now it didn't stop my panic totally but it definitely helped. I find myself now when I wake in the middle of the night in a panic attack, I will hold my hand up and blow out my fingers like they're candles and I will also grab anything next to me and focus on squeezing it. I can stop panic in minutes now. I struggled for over 5 years where they would last for hours. Not any more.

I still am constantly trapped in anxious thoughts though and this IS where I need to grasp acceptance. I can tell you i accept I have anxiety and that fearing fear is the cause but telling myself this just isn't enough, whether it be a belief or whatever I can't fully accept it. Being comfortable with uncertainty would help but I really am not!

 

[Sweet T]

We do live with uncertainty everyday. Just getting in the car or living near a volcano like Hawaii for example. But we tend to focus on one thing and obsess about that. Why can we live with uncertainty about some things but not others? It’s our disordered view I think.

I will go for months not thinking about a certain fear that I have but then I will see someone with that on the news for example and I will kind of think it is the universe telling me I have Afib for example. I will think - Oh I do have a tight chest sometimes and I am over 50. I must monitor this until I feel better. - but I will never feel better by monitoring it. I might for a brief moment and that is where the obsessive checking comes in.
When I wake in the morning, I try to make my first thought that I can’t find comfort in checking my body. I really really want to. To get that little fix but I know it’s awful for me. I’m trying anyway.

 

[Jonathan123]

Yes, but don't try too hard. To me trying as like fighting. It takes a lot of energy and has litle results.
Many find acceptance difficult to understand. It's about giving up any and every attempt to lose the feelings. It is NOT about giving in, that is another matter. Everything has to go. All the negative thoughts and apprehensions. All the OMG's and the what ifs. You will not lose them by trying not to be thinking about them, so let them all come with NO REACTION. It is the reaction that makes it continue. Adding fear to fear. It is also very important to be occupied during recovery. Sitting around bemoaning the fact is out.
No more PLOMS disease. 'Poor Little Old Me.' Sef pity is definitely out!

 

[Sweet T]

Yes, but don't try too hard. To me trying as like fighting. It takes a lot of energy and has litle results.
Many find acceptance difficult to understand. It's about giving up any and every attempt to lose the feelings. It is NOT about giving in, that is another matter. Everything has to go. All the negative thoughts and apprehensions. All the OMG's and the what ifs. You will not lose them by trying not to be thinking about them, so let them all come with NO REACTION. It is the reaction that makes it continue. Adding fear to fear. It is also very important to be occupied during recovery. Sitting around bemoaning the fact is out.
No more PLOMS disease. 'Poor Little Old Me.' Sef pity is definitely out!

When I say I’m trying, I was referring to giving up my compulsive checking. I agree with you that total acceptance is the goal.

 

[Sacto]

I have sleep apnea and I was nervous about having surgery in January because of the anesthesia, but after I talked to my doctor in advance I felt much better. He assured me that they monitor everything very very carefully and that a huge portion of the population has sleep apnea so they’re operating on us every day. My surgery went totally fine. Anyway, your breathing sounds a lot like anxious breathing, not a physical breathing problem.