Peggy Huddleston - Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster: A Guide of Mind-Body Techniques

This is the best book I have ever seen showing how to prepare for surgery physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Joan Borysenko, PhD

Author, Minding the Body, Mending the Mind

Co-founder Mind/Body Clinic at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Harvard Medical School teaching hospital

This book is essential reading for those who desire to participate in their healing. I enthusiastically recommend it.

Susan L. Troyan, MD

Department of Breast Surgical Oncology

Brigham and Womens Hospital

Instructor in Surgery, Harvard Medical School

This book is a great guide for anyone having surgery. It includes easy to follow steps that contribute to healing, self-knowledge and self-care.

Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN

Distinguished Professor, Endowed Chair in Caring Science

University of Colorado Denver & Anschutz Medical Center

Founder, Watson Caring Science Institute

Every patient undergoing surgery should prepare for it. They will indeed heal faster with the techniques in this useful book. The attitude of the patient entering surgery is probably as important as the skill of the surgeon.

C. Norman Shealy, MD, PhD

Founder, Shealy Institute for Comprehensive Health Care

Founding President, American Holistic Medical Association

Research & Clinical Professor of Psychology

Forest Institute of Professional Psychology

www.HealFaster.com

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster is a wise guide for anyone having surgery. If you want to reduce the fear of surgery and be an active participant, read this book.

Larry Dossey, MD

Author, Healing Words

Recovering the Soul

If you have to have surgery, Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster shows you how to use five healing steps to make it easier.

Willis Harman, PhD

Former President, Institute of Noetic Sciences

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster fills a gap in our social fabric as an insightful and deeply compassionate guide. This book represents a breakthrough in our approach to surgery because it provides a means to end the feeling of overwhelm that surrounds a patient during the vulnerable time of surgery. In easy and comforting language, Huddleston describes the steps a patient and his or her family can take to minimize the fears that emerge during the surgical process and the recovery period that follows.

Caroline Myss, PhD

Author, Creating Health

Anatomy of the Spirit

This book is meant to be used in conjunction with your doctor. It is not intended as a substitute for medical advice. The reader should regularly consult a physician in matters relating to his or her health and particularly with respect to any symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical attention.

Copyright 1996 by Peggy Huddleston
4th edition published in 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Published by Angel River Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
www.HealFaster.com

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Huddleston. Peggy
Prepare for surgery, heal faster: a guide of mind-body
techniques / Peggy Huddleston. - 4th edition
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-9645757-6 -9 (alk. paper)
1. Surgery - Psychological aspects. 2. Holistic medicine
3. Mind and body. 4. Visualization - Therapeutic use. I. Title

Cover watercolor of Exuma, Bahamas
Clouds from Goat Cay
by Jane Chermayeff

For Sam, my mother and those I love

You are a very important part of my dream
and my awakening.
And in those moments we touch heart to heart,
you are my vision and memory of oneness.

Velvalee

When I was in the middle of my obstetrics and gynecology residency in the late 1970s, spending hours on end every day in the operation room, I was inspired by Dr. Robert Mendelsohns classic book, Confessions of a Medical Heretic.

The most memorable section was the chapter on The Church in Modern Medicine in which Mendelsohn described the operating room as a modern day sanctum sanctorum in which the ancient roles of the priests had been taken over by surgeons. He described the operation room as a place where elaborate rituals involving gowns, gloves and instruments were carried out in highly specialized and meticulous ways with each surgeon, the equivalent of a high priest, having his, or occasionally her, peculiarities attended to in the process.

Mendelsohns description, which I agreed with completely at the time, reminded me of something I was learning every day. The faith our culture used to place in God or the Divine has, to a great degree, been replaced by our collective faith in the powers of modern medicine to save and rescue us.

There is no question, especially in emergencies, that this power is of great benefit to all of us. And our cultural fascination with surgeons as saviors and rescuers is reflected in the most popular television shows of our times.

Since the operating room has become such apowerful symbol for curing in our collective imagination, why not take maximum advantage of this by consciously bringing your own innate healing ability into the operating room?

Peggy Huddleston and other pioneers in mind-body medicine understand that the full potential of the surgical experience can only be realized once the patient has become a complete partner in the healing process.

I often tell my patients that surgery, when properly prepared for, can become a healing ceremony that is both life-changing and life-enhancing.

This book is the most practical and complete manual for approaching surgery with maximal healing power that I have ever seen.

The only way to take full advantage of the healing through surgery is by acknowledging an ingredient that has been missing for far too long the innate wisdom of the patient. All surgeons know that though we can perform operations well technically, we do not have the power to heal the tissue we have injured. This is up to the patients and their connection with their own inner wisdom.