Surgery’s A Coming

If you’ve been reading my Blurbs, you know that I don’t usually talk about personal stuff. My focus is on what’s new and exciting in the health, wellness and nutrition fields.

Well, this Blurb will be a little different. I’m going to combine the personal with the kinds of things I usually write about. So…let’s get started.

The title of this Blurb is “Surgery’s A Coming” because on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (next week). I’m going to be having inguinal hernia surgery. An inguinal hernia is in the area near the groin. 

While most people today needing this surgery have mesh installed. I’m going to be doing something very different which is a technique called the Shouldice hernia repair method.

I actually had the Shouldice method done on a hernia I had twenty-nine years age, and it has lasted all this time.

Now, many years ago before mesh was invented surgeons would stitch the 2 sides of the tear together. It worked fine except the failure rate was very high.

Dr. Edward Earle Shouldice (1890–1965) was the Canadian surgeon who invented the technique in the 1940s. This approach does overlap stitching together of 3 layers of tissue. This makes for a very strong bond (notice mine lasted 29 years – automobiles don’t last that long!).

Recovery is also actually very fast.

So, the Shouldice technique is part of the story. Now, here’s the rest of the story. First, you need to know for years prior to this when I needed dental work done, I would meditate instead of taking a Novocain injection. I’ve had several dentists and staff over the years that have been amazed that I can do that. 

My surgeon for the hernia repair was Dr. Wayne Ferguson and when he was a med student at the University of Virginia Medical School had done a research paper on meditation and back pain. He found that meditating significantly reduced back pain.

So, when I asked him if I could meditate during the surgery, he said okay. This was before doing this during surgery as even considered. So, with his permission, that’s what I did. 

Now, when you are meditating you can actually hear everything that’s being said since you’re conscious and not asleep or drugged and I heard Dr. Ferguson say…” it’s the wrong size needle and thread.” I just decided to just keep meditating and knew that he would figure it out.

When he said he was done, I sat up and startled him because he had forgotten that I was meditating. 

Normally after surgery, they take you to the recovery room to recover from the anesthetic. I had nothing to recover from, so they starched their heads as to what to do with me. 

They finally found an empty room for me to sit in and said for me to drink a bunch of water and when I peed, I could leave. A half-hour later, I walked out of the hospital.

I did the same thing several years later when I had to have a hernia repaired on the other side. The results were the same.

BTW, I asked my surgeon to write a letter about what happened during the surgery. 

Here’s some of what Dr. Ferguson wrote, “The surgery went well, and he showed no untoward effects. He was able to leave the Surgery Center rather quickly after the procedure. It was interesting to note that even before the injection of the local anesthesia, his pulse rate dropped to 60. He seemed to tolerate the procedure extremely well with complete comfort.”

So…I think that there are two lessons here: 1. Investigate using the Shouldice Method for hernia repair and 2. Learn how to meditate!

There are not a lot of surgeons that do the Shouldice Method in this country (Canada has a whole facility dedicated to doing the Shouldice method). I found one outside of New York City – Dr. Sbayi.

If you do want to learn how to meditate, you can check out my e-book on Managing Your Stress in These Difficult Times: Succeeding in Times of Change at https://teplitz.com/Managing-Stress-Teplitz.html. In 8 pages it tells you everything you need to know about how to meditate, including several techniques you can experience.

BTW, since I talk about and demonstrate the power of prayer at many of my speaking engagements. I’d appreciate your sending prayers or positive thoughts to me on the complete success of the surgery on Wednesday morning.

P.S. Have a Happy Thanksgiving and due to the holiday, I won’t be publishing a Blurb next week.