Sherry wrote:

That's interesting. I found cardiologists to be clueless about anything except
cardiology. I went to the ER for jaw pain. I thought I had TMJ or something.
They decided because of an irregular EKG to run a heart cath. The arteries in
my heart were blocked so badly they didn't even bother waking me up to tell me
they were going to do a quadruple bypass. So I wake up and figure something
went terribly wrong. Long story short, I ended up with 11 incisions, a carotid
bypass, femoral bypass besides the heart bypasses. About the third day the
vascular surgeon walked in and said, "You seem depressed." Well, duh, Sherlock.

Sherry

Conversational gambit? Honestly, the best ones seem to be lacking in
people skills, and that may have been his way of trying to get you to
talk about it. The surgeon I had for my gall bladder removal
(gallbladderectomy?) didn't warn me about post surgery depression. He
had his PA do it.

"Post surgery depression is quite common, no matter how needed the
procedure, and how un-needed the body part is. The person has had their
life changed by that surgery and they will never be the same as they
were before. The patient may feel violated because the surgeon had
their hands in his/her body. They may feel as though maybe the surgery
wasn't necessary after all and might have gotten better without the
procedure. They might also feel as though they are "less" because of
the surgery, because now something is missing or different. They may
also feel as though they are looking on their own obituaries because it
was a life threatening problem. Whatever the cause for the depression,
it is not uncommon and the patient needs to talk about it." Paraphrased
from my surgeon's PA.

I had fun with him after this and told him I was depressed because I
didn't get a chance to help with the surgery and felt as though I were
redundant and just an observer. He actually thought I was serious and
tried to explain that I was a very necessary part of the surgery, but
the Warrant Officer (nurse) laughing behind him gave me away. The PA
then told me that I didn't need his help and left the room.

Pam S.