Upcoming surgery is causing very bad obsessions

[NicoletteCB]

Greeting everyone.

I have a surgery scheduled nine days from now for my knee/patella region. It’s not a considered a “high risk” surgery for me to have and my surgeon is skilled. I’m just having one ligament tightened and another one cut/released. I also had a check up and was ok’d by my general care doctor for the surgery. 
 

I am going to be put to sleep for the surgery though and I have been agonizing and obsessing over my fear of dying during the surgery. I am absolutely convinced I will die during surgery.

 

I seem to also be having terrible magical thinking obsessions in regards to this all. There is a painting (of a somewhat religious context) that scares me. Everytime I am online on a certain website I get intrusive thoughts worrying that if I see this painting I will die as I am scrolling through the site. Well literally everytime I think these thoughts, I see the painting exactly after the thought.  I am convinced that this is an omen that I will die during surgery

 

I cannot stop ruminating and trying to think of every possible thing that could go wrong and cause death during a minor surgery.

 

 

[PolarBear]

Look, nicolette, you are creating all of this by paying attention to the thoughts. Are you probably Googling what can go wrong? That would be a compulsion. Ruminating is a compulsion. These only make your situation worse.

[Angst]

It is a common concern with people with and without the diagnosis. However people with OCD will developed unhealthy compulsions to deal with the fear. So be aware of your anxiety and manage your forebodings with things which calm you.