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Thread: Worried about surgery - weird intrusive thought

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
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    Worried about surgery - weird intrusive thought

    So, I'm having surgery this coming Tuesday. I've been worrying about this for over a month now, and I'm READY to get it over with. Well, last night, or maybe early this morning...I woke up twice, once at 11:30pm and once at 4am...I took one Advil (ibuprofen), 200mg, whilst half asleep, and it wasn't until I was fully awake this morning that I'd realized what I had done. In the US, you're advised by most surgeons to stop taking any NSAIDs (aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, etc.) for at least a week, some say 2 weeks, before surgery because they can affect your platelet function/blood clotting aka they can cause excessive bleeding. Anyway, obviously I'm freaking out because although I've been dreading surgery, I also just want to GET IT OVER WITH. I don't want to have to postpone it. I emailed my surgeon, and he said not to worry about it. That's not super consistent with other things I've read online, but if he's not worried about it, neither am I... or so you'd think. Well, so this is when my OCD rears its ugly head, and says, "okay... but are you sure you took ibuprofen and not naproxen?" The other day, I knocked a bottle of naproxen off of my counter and it's been sitting on the floor (talk about lazy haha) ever since. But the sight of it triggered me into thinking, well, maybe I took that. Even though, when I think about it, rationally, the only time I ever take naproxen is for my period (sorry if that's TMI haha), and I take Advil for basically everything else. My OCD has plopped this worry in my head, making me unsure of which medication I took, and now has me worried I need to postpone my surgery.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
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    Re: Worried about surgery - weird intrusive thought

    Is there a difference between them in respect of your surgery if they are both NSAIDs?

    What is online won't often be specific, there can be warnings which are meant to stop us doing X but allow a doctor to make a call based on risk vs reward. Your surgeon is not only highly trained but also legally accountable. Would he/she put their jobs at risk for a surgery they can just bump?
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  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2018
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    61

    Re: Worried about surgery - weird intrusive thought

    Quote Originally Posted by MyNameIsTerry View Post
    Is there a difference between them in respect of your surgery if they are both NSAIDs?

    What is online won't often be specific, there can be warnings which are meant to stop us doing X but allow a doctor to make a call based on risk vs reward. Your surgeon is not only highly trained but also legally accountable. Would he/she put their jobs at risk for a surgery they can just bump?
    I pretty positive that naproxen takes a couple of days longer to leave your system than ibuprofen. I don't think my doctor would risk it, so I trust him when he says it's okay to go ahead on Tuesday if it was ibuprofen. But I assume his decision would be different depending on the medication. I think that's why I've freaked myself out. As soon as I find out I'm okay, my brain goes, "but maybe you took the naproxen and that's not okay. Which one did you take?!" I woke up this morning to take some acetaminophen (totally fine before surgery) and I had to like talk myself through it, and be like, okay... you are taking this medication. You put the naproxen and the ibuprofen up at the top of your cabinet yesterday. They aren't even on the counter."

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