Rhythmic Entrainment: The heartbeat of Surgical Serenity Solutions
Have you ever had surgery? It’s not something that anyone ever looks forward to. Many people find out suddenly that they need surgery just days before the doctor recommends it. There’s not a lot of time to prepare. Even if you have heard that music before, during and after surgery is a good idea, you don’t really have time to put together a playlist of your favorite calming, soothing, comforting music.
My Story
This is what happened to me. My back and leg had been bothering me for almost 6 months and it was definitely getting worse. I had done several rounds of physical therapy but it wasn’t getting better. I was trying to walk a little each day and also had gone to a hot pool water therapy class but it just was not getting better!
One day, after X-rays and an MRI, my doctor said that I was probably going to need disc surgery because I had a bulging disc and my left calf was getting numb. It was a scary moment. He scheduled me about 3-4 weeks out so I had lots of time to think about it and maybe it would get better on it’s own?
Because I was already working at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, doing research on the healing power of music, I was aware that using music before, during, and after surgery, could do all kinds of wonderful things for the patient. But the information I was seeing about this phenomenon was about using music through speakers in the operating room. Some doctors were in favor of this but some wanted to play THEIR favorite music. Understandable.
The Big Misunderstanding
At that time (1995) I was learning about the concept of rhythmic entrainment and about how much affects the patient having surgery. I was beginning to put together how rhythmic entrainment would be working on a patients biorhythms even if they were under anesthesia. I remember bouncing this idea off of some of my music therapist friends at the University of Louisville in an effort to understand why music wasn’t played more often in surgery in order to help the patient reduce the amount of anesthesia, anxiety meds and pain meds and there was really no good answer, I didn’t think.
So a patient’s body responds to the pulse of the music even thought the patient is not consciously “listening” to the music.
I hope this all makes sense to you and that you find it interesting!! Please let me know if you have more questions.