UpClose & Personal - Debra Brooks

I learned long ago, there are no bad things that happen, only things to learn from to help others. The spring of 2002 brought about another learning experience. And this is what this story is about.

In December of 2001, I started my period. When December came and went and I was still having a very heavy period with not a day off, I thought, "I must be going through the weird menopause thing. It’ll quit when it’s done doing its thing."

In February, it was still going strong and I was getting weak. I remember lifting weights one day and I was struggling with my three-pound weights thinking I was “wimping out.” I was joking around that I had had a period since last year.

By the end of February, I had given up my weight training and my walking 5 miles a day, because I was just too tired. I called my doctor to get in to have a check-up and mentioned the marathon period. The soonest I could get in was later in March.

One Saturday evening in early March, I was getting ready to go to bed and realized that I was visibly shaking and could not stop. I remember feeling very cold. I sat on the edge of my bed and for the first time thought, "I wonder if I’ve lost too much blood with this weird menopause thing?"

I went to the bathroom mirror, pulled down my eyelid and got my answer. It was completely white. I calmly called the hospital, told them my name and that I had lost an extensive amount of blood and that I would be at the emergency room in twenty minutes. I got in my car and prayed that God would protect me and everyone on the road I met, and to please get me to the hospital safely.

All of my friends asked me later why I didn’t call an ambulance. Frankly, I didn’t know how much time I had left, as I knew I was seeing signs of my body shutting down. And since I live out in the country, it would have been almost an hour by the time they found my place. I, however, knew the most direct route and could make it there quickly. One could also argue that with such a blood loss, I wasn't thinking very clearly. Which, quite honestly, up to this point had been my modus operandi.

When I reached the emergency room I had my insurance card ready. However, when they saw me, they did not take my card, but sent me directly to triage, started taking my stats, blood, etc. I then spent the rest of the evening and the early the next day in the emergency room.

They gave me a very potent drug to stop the bleeding; however, it made me very sick. My gynecologist took me off of it as soon as he came on the case, as it was way too strong of a drug for someone like me who doesn’t take medicines. He put me on a different hormone and said that it should stop the bleeding. I could take up to three per day, but no more. I also was prescribed iron and put a high iron diet. He had to get my strength up so they could do surgery, but I was too weak and my hemoglobin too low for any surgery.

So with the bleeding stopped, I headed off to a convention in Chicago. I was doing okay. I was tired and weak, but okay. Then on the fourth day the hemorrhaging came back with a vengeance. I upped the pills to 3 a day and nothing changed. I was flowing like there was no tomorrow.

I called the doctor, tried to get a flight home (no luck—spring break), so I laid low for the rest of the convention having one of my friends check in on me to make sure I hadn't checked out.

I finally got home, got scheduled for surgery and wrote a letter to my doctor and anesthesiologist. My doctor was leaning towards a hysterectomy because of a strong tumor possibility. I told him that I did not have a tumor. It was just something weird going on in there and on my right side. I knew this because of something very simple. (And the women will be able to figure this one out.) I wasn't being very scientific at this point. But I was now finally paying very close attention to my body. Fortunately, I was too weak for the hysterectomy. This was when this learning experience finally dawned on me.

I have lectured about the Mind Body Connection for several years. Bernie Siegel (Peace, Love & Healing) had once said that he was operating on a patient whose heart became erratic during surgery. So he leaned down and asked the patient, who was under anesthesia, to stabilize his heart rate to 80 beats per minute. And the patient did.

I thought, you could control all of the vitals while a patient was under anesthesia. How cool! Now I was going to get to actually experiment on myself. So I wrote a letter that I gave to my doctor and anesthesiologist the morning of my surgery:

Dear Dr. _____:

Thank you for doing this surgery on me today. Before you begin, I want to offer my assistance as the patient.

When I am under anesthesia, tell me the trach tube is there to help me breathe and I will feel no discomfort from it when I awake after surgery. During the procedure, if there is anything you need me to do such as lower or raise my blood pressure, stabilize my pulse/HR, stop hemorrhaging, just let me know by telling me.

Be very specific, such as, "I would like your pulse rate to be 82." As an unconscious patient, I am very compliant and very aware. Whatever you want me to do, I will comply towards my good health.

Please explain to me what you are doing as you do it. If you remove any tumors, polyps or cysts, tell me that my body is not going to host any more tumors, polyps or cysts.

When you are through with the procedure, BEFORE I come out of the anesthesia, let me know of your success & tell me there will be no need for pain medication, and that I will heal very nicely and promptly and regain my excellent health.

I want to thank-you again for your expertise in this field. I have the utmost confidence in your skills.

Sincerely,
Debra L. Brooks

After I handed this letter to both of them before my surgery, I talked to them about it. The anesthesiologist was very interested in participating in this peculiar interaction with a patient who was obviously not going to be conscious. My doctor was, well, polite about it. So I urged my anesthesiologist to encourage him into participation.

I talked with the anesthesiologist the next day and he was still excited about what happened during my surgery. The first thing he wanted to know was how I did it. I explained to him that I did nothing but listen and do what he said. I asked him why.

He said that after I was under, he told me an exact number where it was ideal for my heart rate and blood pressure to be during surgery and he watched as both went to those exact numbers on the monitors. He also told me to stop hemorrhaging. He said the most amazing thing was that my vitals never fluctuated during surgery. He had never seen that happen before and he pointed this out to my doctor, who then decided he might as well start talking to me because of his surgery partner’s enthusiasm and encouragement. As I had told the doctor, there was no tumor. It was just an anomaly (peculiarity with no known cause) on the right side of my uterus, which he cauterized.

Several days later the anesthesiologist told me he was going to start to do this with other patients. He wanted to know if they needed to know he was doing it. I said no, as long as it was for their good health. But why not tell them? It would give them a sense of having more control in their own healing, which is a key to successful healing and wellness.

Months later, I have returned to excellent health, am back walking and working out with weights and feel great. And no, I never needed any pain medication after surgery. My only regret is that I didn’t tell the anesthesiologist to tell me I would be optimum weight!

Contact Debra by email: MontanaDebraBrooks@yahoo.com