I had two major ankle surgeries within the past three years and I was absolutely beyond terrified of waking up in recovery and being sick. I expressed this to all of my nurses and surgeons ahead of time, and let me tell you, our fear is more common than you think! They were totally calm about it, and reassured me that they would pump me full of all sorts of anti-emetics and even gave me the patch behind my ear just in case.

After my first surgery, I woke up and did have a quite severe panic attack, but never v*. I don't even know if it was possible for me to be sick at that point with all of the meds they put me on! Regardless, it was miserable, but I was not ill.

The second surgery, I woke up and again began having panic attacks, but this time a nurse gave me a small dose of Ativan. Let me tell you, that was amazing. Not only did my panic attacks end almost instantly, but I wasn't worried about being sick in the least. I was floating on cloud nine, happy as anything!

Just communicate your fear to your nurses in pre-op and post-op if needed, but try your best not to worry too much! I will be thinking about you, and I hope everything goes well! Hang in there, you are so strong and you can get through this!!