If you read my Blurb two weeks ago, then you knew that on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I was going to be having inguinal hernia surgery. Again, an inguinal hernia is in the area near the groin.
Instead of having mesh installed, I was going to do something very different which is a technique called the Shouldice hernia repair method. This technique has been around since the 1940s. In doing it, you are doing overlapping layers of the tissues which makes it much stronger.
I had one inguinal hernia done 29 years ago and another 25 years ago. It was the 25-year-old one that tore. I had the Surgeon, Dr. Syabi, examine the 29-year-old one and he said it was still fine.
Now, the fun part of this happened with my Surgeon having agreed that I could meditate during the surgery and not be put to sleep.
So, after having done meditation during the first 2 surgeries decades ago, he was okay with me doing meditation. The Anesthesiologist was more concerned, but he finally relented when I agreed to take a drug that was a muscle relaxant. I made him give me only ½ the regular dose.
When they rolled me into the surgery suite, I just scooted from the gurney onto the operating table.
Dr. Syabi was using Novocain to numb the area, and this also helped control bleeding.
When you meditate you can hear everything around you and you can respond to it as opposed to when you are fast asleep or unconscious. So, whenever I would start to feel some pain starting, I would say “More Novocain” and then I’d continue meditating.
Dr. Sybai was also okay with me bringing a special recording by Stephen Halpern (who I’ve known for years) into the surgery with me having ear buds in. The recording is one of his subliminal message albums. This one is called “Accelerated Self-Healing”, and whenever the recording would finish, I would say “Please restart the recording” and they would. (For a list of his music and subliminal music, you can go to my website, www.Teplitz.com, and go to the Products dropdown menu. You’ll see his music there).
The surgery lasted 2 hours and when they said they were finished, I opened my eyes. Now, they needed to move me back to the gurney; instead, I just scooted over onto the gurney.
They took me to the recovery room even though I had no anesthetic to recover from. They were jammed up in the next section, so it took 1.5 hours to get taken back to it so I could get dressed and go. They needed me to pee to leave and I did that immediately!
I was actually ready to use the bathroom 15 minutes after the surgery and if permitted, I would have left then!
The other interesting part is that I had no pain right after the surgery and for about a day and a half. When I did have pain, I used Tylenol and ibuprofen and the pain level never got over a “3” on a 10 scale. Five days later, I stopped taking even those drugs.
I was even able to drive for a couple of hours on the way home from New York to Virginia Beach with no pain or difficulty on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The day after the surgery, I started doing gentle stretching exercises and modified yoga. Yesterday, I even did some jogging and used an exercise device that you need to use some strength to use. No pain at all.
So…I think 3 for 3 is a pretty good batting record. In the Majors, I’d be batting 1,000%. You can’t get better than that! Surgery, anyone?
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