Sexual Assault CPTSD and upcoming surgery

[Maisie]

Hi
My insides are doing backflips and the tension/anxiety/stress i feel right now is sky high.

At the end of this week I need to have some gynaecological surgery. For 5 years as a child i was sexually abused, so this type of surgery feels ever increasingly difficult as it gets closer to the actual date.

Has anyone else experienced this type of challenge and how did you best cope?

At the end of the day i just need to follow through with it, but if only it was that easy!

 

[Movingforward10]

Medical procedures are anxiety provoking for people without sexual trauma and then adding in the sexual trauma.... it's tough.

Things that have helped me:
Writing myself a 'care plan' of what I want done and how and show or tell the medical professionals about it. Things on there can be: where they stand, or what they need to do before they touch me, or what we talk about and how....whatever it is you need.
Sometimes I have told them I endured SA. Sometimes I don't. But I still set out my care plan.

And then I might take a little stone with me or something to hold.
And I remind myself this is a medical procedure and it is for my health. (As I can link things to it being SA again and get traumatised).

Edit to add: One reframe that my T said once was "it might be difficult but it doesn't mean it will be traumatic". And that helped me to realise I was bringing the past trauma into it and to think about how to separate the two out.

What would work for you?