A friend of mine recommended guided imagery for surgery --- her surgeon had recommended it to her. I was lucky to find out that Kaiser carries this in their Health Education stores and I was able to get it there. I listened to the "pre-surgery" (tracks 2 and 3) portion each evening for a couple of weeks before my (hip replacement) surgery (skipping past the intro each evening).

I took my portable CD player into pre-op with me and was listening to it as they prepared me for the operating room, and was still listening to it as they wheeled me down the hall.

Patricia Neal died last week. She summered on the Vineyard for as long as I can remember, a beloved, friendly, down-to-earth woman who contributed to the life and welfare of this island on a regular basis. Just this past Monday, she allowed her excellent company at dinner to be auctioned off to the highest bidder at the island’s Impossible Dreams fundraiser. I have a set of her candlesticks from the house-and-chachke sale she hosted at her home for Vineyard House, a halfway residence for people in recovery. She knew that people would spring for a traipse through her house, and she gladly offered it.

I love what her kids said her last words to them were.

This anecdote appeared amid our lively debate last week on using guided imagery downrange, and it’s a great reminder of how imagery gets used on a regular basis by prisoners of war.  People who are trapped in conditions of sensory deprivation invariably turn to imagery - they just intuitively go there. Here is the posting:
 

“I recall reading an article where a soldier, while a prisoner of war, played golf in his mind.  Each day he played on a different course he remembered. Not only did he survive the trauma of being imprisoned, his golf game was improved when he returned home to the States. I want our soldiers to be the best they can be - but most of all I want them to come back home and be able to lead productive lives.”

Janet and Tim, who run a Dialysis Center in eastern Texas, write to tell us that our guided imagery for Dialysis, Relaxation & Wellness and General Wellness have been extremely useful to their patient population. We thank them for this feedback.

We just found this feedback to the IBS/IBD imagery on our website and it’s very encouraging.  We decided to post it to inspire others to try imagery for their irascible guts. 

Lisa writes:

I was told about the successful surgery CD by an acquaintance and decided to try it before my surgery. When I was in my 20's I learned self-hypnosis to alleviate my fear and it was invaluable during the labor of my first child. I wish I would have continued practicing it but once used, I put it aside.

Now 30 years later I was facing a hysterectomy with 3 large fibroids, the largest one over 20 centimeters. My imagination was flooded with worse-case scenarios! This CD not only helped to dissipate my fear but also contributed and continues to contribute greatly to my recovery.

This is a shoutout for your materials, especially the Relieve Stress, Confidence and Affirmations - I use one of them every day and have been for the past month.  

Good people, you simply must watch this Breast Cancer Awareness video out of Portland, Oregon.  Cindy forwarded it to me, knowing I’d go nuts for it, which I did.  Kudos to the Providence St Vincent Medical Center community, for its wonderful, spirited, joyful support of a great cause.  This hospital comes across as so warm and welcoming, it’s enough to turn me into a hypochondriac, just to have an excuse to visit.

Here’s the note that came with the video: 

Emily McInnes Somers created, directed and choreographed this in Portland last week for her Medline Glove Division as a fundraiser for breast cancer awareness.

A little more than a year ago, I was wheeled into surgery for what we all thought was a routine removal of a benign lump on my thyroid. But when I came out of that surgery, it was without a thyroid and with the designation "cancer survivor".
 
That "benign" lump was actually a malignant tumor, stage two. The shock of that, not to mention the severe hypothyroidism I had to endure during treatment in the weeks following the surgery, were miserable. I'd never been so tired or in so much pain in my life.