Week Nine Day One: Understanding the Mental Health As Not Being a Complication.

Well seniors! The project is almost coming to a close, and I hope everyone is getting excited about college and their future. With my project ending soon, I'm trying to nail down and get a full grasp on some of the definitions I'm using for my presentation, the main one being complication, which I'm defining as an unexpected and unwanted consequence of the surgery.

Most of the time this means physical complications such as the progression of the curve of the spine following the insertion of the rods, lose screws, breaking of the rods, etc. But today, after seeing a patient who's gone through multiple surgeries and is suffering from unhappiness (I cannot define it as depression since I do not know) it made me think about whether or not there can be mental complications following the surgery.

Before the spinal fusion surgery, some people may have to quit sports or activities that they enjoy, which can cause a depressive state. In most cases, from what I believe, doctors are on the look out for the patient's mental state, before, during, and after the surgical process, as it can be "expected" for their to be some sort of unhappiness given the discomfort patients must endure.

In that case, it wouldn't be a complication, as most doctors can expect/must look out for this, however depression wouldn't be the only possible mental side affect.

Through reading Scoliosis: Ascending the Curve I found that some people began to have anxiety following their surgery surrounding crowds, or sports even after their doctor has given them permission to continue doing said sport. Some people are fearful of being bumped into, and therefore can suffer social or crowd anxiety.

In cases like these, it can also be considered understandable reaction, and though unwanted, it isn't necessarily unexpected.

So for the sake of this project, and me gathering up the small amount of data that I have, mental side affects are not considered a complication.