Another Shoutout to MIL

MIL sent me a link this week on Postsurgical Depression. Wow, that one hit home. I remember long ago Dr. Kripke warned me that patients often get depressed after surgery but I didn't think it would get this bad.

Here are a couple excerpts from an article titled An 'Understandable' Complication:

Other psychological issues crop up during the recovery period. When we're healthy, we tend to think of our bodies as somehow intact, both inviolable and homogene-ous. Major surgery can shatter that image, and with it the concept of self-sustaining health. The feelings of mortality, of loss, and of vulnerability can be profound, and recognizing depression in surgery's aftermath becomes very important.

Postoperative depression, on the other hand, is more likely to occur well after the crisis of surgery has ended and the patient is back at home or even at work. That can make it particularly difficult for patients to cope with feelings about what they've endured and what their future is likely to be, or for family members and physicians to see and understand their feelings. Stigma continues to surround depression, adds Vaccaro, and many patients may hide their state of mind from families and caregivers alike.

Again not that I am trying to place blame, but this does make sense.