Will Surgical Serenity be covered by insurance?

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Will the Surgical Serenity headphones be covered by insurance?

C-section Serenity Headphones

Waiting to go into surgery.

This is a fair question, and one that I get asked fairly often.  The Surgical Serenity Solution has the capability to reduce anxiety before surgery, anesthesia requirements during surgery, and pain medication after surgery.  The Surgical Serenity Solution can decrease nausea and vomiting in the PACU so that patient is able to be discharged to hospital room or home sooner and begin their overall recovery.  This ingenious and revolutionary tool has the ability to create a win-win for both patient and hospitals by contributing to patient health, but also increase patient satisfaction scores for hospital and allowing them to have faster turnover and treat more patients in the same time period.

So when will health insurance start paying for this?  The insurance industry is a conservative industry and I believe that they will require more studies on this, even though we have at least a couple of hundred in the last two decades.  I believe that BC/BS of California already covers some tapes/CDs that have affirmations for healing on them and actually issues them to patients with various health challenges from chemo to surgery to depression.  I see no reason that they won’t eventually cover the Surgical Serenity Solution, too.

In the meantime, we are working tirelessly to find a headphones that is so affordable for hospitals, that they can actually GIVE them to patients when they arrive at the hospital the morning of the surgery and use them throughout the process and them take them home to keep during their recovery and afterwards!

Are YOU having surgery soon?  Do YOU want to use the absolute best music during your procedure and afterwards?  Just go to www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com now and get some for yourself.  They hold 4G of music, so you can add whatever music you want afterwards and use them for years to come.  You’ll be so glad that you did!

 

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Abdominal aeortic aneurysm: Music Made a Huge Difference!

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

An abdominal aeortic aneurysm is a very dangerous condition.  According to the Mayo Clinic website, “Tears in the wall of the aorta (dissection) are the main complications of abdominal aortic aneurysm. A ruptured aortic aneurysm can lead to life-threatening internal bleeding. In general, the larger the aneurysm, the greater the risk of rupture.”

Walking around with any kind of aneurysm is frightening and stress and anxiety is inevitable.  This 70-year old gentleman had read about the Surgical Serenity Solution online and was very eager to give them a try for his upcoming surgery.

Like the vast majority of our customers, he had a very positive experience and was eager to return to my office and tell me about it!  Listen as he relates what happened to him!

 

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Having a hysterectomy? This woman felt it made the procedure a very different experience!

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Each year approximately 600,000 hysterectomies are performed in the United States, i.e. a little more than one uterus for every minute of the year.Oct 3, 2014.  Sadly, experts reports that as many as two-thirds of them are unnecessary!  The hysterectomy is a traumatic surgery for women because it represents the abrupt cessation of the women to give birth, whether she has had children in the past or whether she never had any but had hoped to!

As a result, the woman who is about to have a hysterectomy for whatever reason, is in a uniquely fragile state, both psychologically and physiologically.  The woman who is about to have a hysterectomy needs to be taken care of with lots of love and attention.  This woman is a perfect candidate for music before, during and after her surgery.  Such a woman was “Mary.”  Mary had never given birth, but had wanted to before divorce and severe fibroids took away her options.  Mary did everything she knew to do to avoid having a hysterectomy, but at age 53, her periods brought such severe pain and cramps that she could stand the pain no longer.

Mary loved music and when she heard that someone would help her choose her own favorite soothing music and create a CD just for her surgery, she knew this was something she wanted to do.  Mary had a history of bad experiences with anesthesia because as a small person, it didn’t take much at all to put her to sleep.  So she came to me, and together we put together about 60 minutes of her favorite classical music that would loop until she woke up in the recovery room.

Her first comment after she was back in her hospital room, was that the music had been wonderfully orienting to her when she began to wake up in recovery, groggy and confused.  She reported that she had much less nausea and vomiting than previous surgeries and that she felt that the music had made a previously untolerable procedure, a tolerable one, and one that she was very glad to have over with.

This was before we had created the actual Surgical Serenity Solution, and was a precursor to the cordless, pre-programmed headphones.

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Heart Surgery with Therapeutic Music

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail
Nurses and Music

Nurses are using music in the ICU more than ever before.

The human heart is an amazing organ. It pumps soon after conception and is the last organ to stop functioning. There are hundreds of different heart surgeries that a human can undergo, but one of the most frequently performed is surgery heart bypass surgery.  According to one hospital site:

The heart is also the body’s timekeeper. When it is nice and steady, we are probably in good health. When the heartbeat is too fast, too slow or  too erratic, chances are your health is not good.

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) is the most common type of heart surgery. CABG  improves blood flow to the heart. Surgeons use CABG to treat people who have severe coronary heart disease (CHD). CHD is a disease in which a waxy substance called plaque (plaque) builds up inside the coronary arteries.

An earlier version of our headphones was used for CABG in 1994 in Greenville, SC at Greenville Memorial Hospital.  The patient was a 69-year old woman, with no known history of heart disease.  This woman was my mother and she was honestly not that enthusiastic about using music with her surgery.  She was quite frightened about whether or not she would even wake up from the surgery.  After much reassurance that the music chosen for her would actually improve her chances of waking up.  Even in 1994, the cardiac surgeon had no problem letting her take the headphones into surgery and said anything he could do to improve her chances of a successful surgery and a good recovery.

My mother had 5  by-passes in her heart and was in surgery for hours.  When the surgery finally came to the waiting room and told my father and me that we could come back to recovery, we didn’t know what we might find.  I fully expected her to be still sleeping and not able to talk, but to my surprise, when she saw me, she seemed to perk up.  Then, the spoke weakly, but enthusiastically, “Oh Alice, the music was beautiful!!  I’m so glad that I had that the entire time and I will never have surgery again without this music!”

No one was more surprised than I!  This was over 20 years ago, and she’s 89 years old and doing quite well.  She has had other surgeries since them including a serious hernia operation and hip replacement, but every time she has had the Serenity Headphones and she loves to tell everyone about her experience.

healthy resting heartbeat entrains to music through headphones

Patient enjoying serene music that entrains with healthy resting heartbeat

The surgeons said that her recovery time in the recovery room and at home was much less than expected and she said that among other things, the “headphones with beautiful music” kept her from hearing other nearby patients who were moaning and calling out for the nurse. That alone was worth it, she said.

Our headphones are in use around the world now and we get rave reviews on a regular basis.

If your hospital is ready to step into the world of 24/7 Music Medicine, go her NOW to order. Each started box of 25 headphones comes with a package of 50 pair of disposable earpiece covers. ORDER HERE.

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Music after Surgery: 3 things you will love!

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Whether you’ve used music before and during your procedure or whether you are introduced to it in the recovery room, the powers of the music will help you greatly!  There has been so much written about music in recovery that there is absolutely no doubt that it will help in many different ways, but the top three are:

1.  You will likely experience a greatly decreased perception of pain.

2.  You will likely experience a greatly decreased amount of nausea and vomiting.

3.  You will likely be released first from the recovery room, and them from the hospital much sooner because you will have less pain medication in your system and will begin to feel “normal” a lot sooner.

A study entitled “The Effect of Music Therapy on Postoperative Pain, Heart Rate, Systolic Blood Pressure and Analgesic Use Following Nasal Surgery.  1School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China reported that:
“The prevalence of unrelieved postoperative pain is high and may lead to adverse effects including prolonged hospitalization and delayed recovery. Distraction may be an effective pain-relieving strategy, and can be implemented by several means including affective imaging, games, and possibly music. The aim of this study was to explore the effect of music therapy on postoperative pain. Fifty-seven patients (24 females, 33 males; mean ± SD age 39.9 ± 14.35 years

[range 15 to 69 years] were matched for age and sex and then nonselectively assigned to either an experimental (n = 27) or a control (n = 30) group. Music was played intermittently to members of the experimental group during the first 24 hour postoperative period. Pain intensity was measured using the Pain Verbal Rating Scales (VRS). Significant decreases in pain intensity over time were found in the experimental group compared to the control group (p < 0.0001). In addition, the experimental group had a lower systolic blood pressure and heart rate, and took fewer oral analgesics for pain. These findings suggest that music therapy is an effective nonpharmacologic approach for postoperative pain management.”

With our Surgical Serenity Solution, we have observed patients with all kinds of surgeries, who have used music before, during, and after their procedure, get through the process faster and with fewer side-effects to the anesthesia and less nausea and vomiting afterwards.  They’ve also needed less pain medication because music causes the patient to feel less pain.  It’s been proven over and over for decades now.

If the hospital you’re going to doesn’t have music waiting for you, order the Surgical Serenity Solution now!

Read More: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.1080/J354v19n03_05

 

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Surgical Serenity Solutions: Ideal music delivery

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

While reading through some new research this morning, on the benefits of music before, during and after surgery, I came across several patients who commented that although some “pretty music” was playing in the operating room during their procedure, they couldn’t hear it very well.  I wonder why?  Some of the things that could very well be going on in the OR would be:

  • Lots of beeping from lots of different medical device machines
  • Lots of conversation between surgeon, nurses, assistants
  • Sawing, hammering and drilling if it’s a joint replacement
  • The music chosen by the surgeon, which is probably loud and upbeat…not what you want if you’re the patient!

Sooooo, why did we decide to find some fabulous cordless headphones?  So many great reasons:

  • Programmable unit is totally self-contained
  • Our proprietary, scientifically tested, highly-praised music comes loaded on the headphones, but
  • You can add your own favorite music, if you wish!
  • There are no cords dangling around neck to tangle with other equipment
  • The headphones block the distracting conversations and unpleasant sound of surgery

If you’ve just found out that you need surgery, you’re probably scared and anxious.  If you’ve never had surgery, you don’t know what to expect.  If you have had surgery but had a bad experience, or a negative reaction to anesthesia, then you are even more fearful of going through this again.  Do yourself a favor!  Order the Surgical Serenity Solution now, download the free “How to Talk with Your Doctor about Using Music During Surgery,” and start getting proactive.  Thousands of people have had music during their surgical experience and those that used the headphones simply rave about how easy they were and how much they helped!

Please feel free to contact me with any questions!

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Three Questions you’ll want to ask when considering Surgical Serenity Solutions? Some FAQs

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

The concept of using music for the patient during surgery is still a new concept for many people.  But the research is coming in!  Even when you are asleep from anesthesia, your body STILL responds to the slow, steady pulse of the right music!  How do I know this?  Because I am a clinical musicologist who has spent the past 25 years studying this phenomenon and helping surgery patients create their own playlists from their favorite music, and then creating the Surgical Serenity Solution for those that either don’t have time to choose their own preferred music or would rather get something that is ready to go and proven effective!!  Here are some more of the questions I often get:

Q1.  Why should I use music before, during and after surgery if I’ll be asleep anyway?

A1.  When you listen to soothing, steady, instrumental music before surgery (or other anxiety-provoking medical procedure) research documents measurable decreases in anxiety medications; when music continues into surgery, there is not only less anesthesia, but stabilized blood pressure, body temp, heart rate and respiration rate.  The body synchronizes with the slow, steady tempo of the music and has a lower report of pain perception.  After surgery, into the recovery room, the patient awakens with less nausea and vomiting, better oriented to time and place, and requiring less pain medication!  This is big!

Q2.  How can talk to my doctor about wanting to use the Surgical Serenity Solution?

A2.  If you go to www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com, you will see a link to the blog.  Click on that and in the right-hand margin you will see a link to our complimentary report “How to Talk with your Doctor about using Music in Surgery.”  The brief report includes research studies that have been done, documenting all the positive benefits to patient when the right kind of music is used during surgery.

Q3.  Why can’t I just bring my own iPod with earbuds of headphones?

A3.  You can probably do this, but then the surgical team has to try and avoid the cord that is hanging down to connect iPod with headphones or earbuds.  Our pre-programmed headphones are totally cordless and do not transmit any signal that could interfere with other devices in OR.  Also, our headphones will be brand-new for you and completely sanitized and disinfected.  And while your music may be favorite music and enjoyable, our proprietary classical blend has been specifically chosen to entrain or synchronize with your heart-rate and breathing.

At the request of many potential surgery patients, I will be publishing more of these Q and As so let me know what YOUR questions are!

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Benefits of Music with Surgery: Revisited

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

As our Surgical Serenity Solution isn’t exactly well-known, I spend a lot of time explaining to people of all kinds, what the benefits of music before, during, and after surgery can be!  Luckily, you can also search within this blog as well as my Healing Music Enterprises Blog, and my Brain and Music blog, for lots of other posts I’ve written through the years about the use of music during surgery.

Most of my readers know intuitively that music has great power to calm, soothe, comfort and heal.  Having surgery is an extremely stressful event and very few people go into it except by medical necessity.  Fear and anxiety are sky-high, and for many, many reasons.  First of all, patients are afraid because of whatever is causing them to need surgery:  cancer, joint replacement, heart valves or by-passes, need for a C-section, and on and on.  Then there is the very real fear of anesthesia and what could happen if they have a bad reaction to it.  This is especially true if they have not had general anesthesia previously.

When our scientifically-chosen music is administered to the patient through pre-programmed cordless headphones, research shows a significantly decreased amount of anesthesia and pain medication is needed, during and after the procedure!  As a result, the patient recovers faster and has fewer post-op side-effects such as nausea, vomiting and dizziness.

Of course depending on what the surgery or procedure is, the patient will not be dancing out of the recovery room or hospital, but if we can decrease not only the side-effects experienced, but also the length of hospital stay, then using carefully chosen music, through cordless headphones, is definitely the way to go!!

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Will MY hospital have these Surgical Serenity headphones for me?

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

prepare.surgeryIf you are going to one of the cutting edge hospitals in the U.S. (and we’re not allowed to name the hospitals who have them waiting for you at this point) you might very well find the headphones there.  Four of the largest hospital systems in the world either have the headphones or are seriously considering them for their patients.  All you need to do is ask your surgeon if the hospital where your procedure is being done, utilizes the Surgical Serenity Solutions.  He should know immediately whether they do or don’t.

One of the main reasons I had the idea to create pre-programmed, cordless headphones for the patient was for the patients convenience.  I know that when I had surgery 20 years ago, I did not have a lot of advance notice.  I was literally up all night the night before my back surgery, creating three cassette tapes for before, during and after my surgery.  Because I was a clinical musicologist even then, I knew the benefits of steady, soothing, instrumental music in the surgical process.  My surgeon was fascinated by all of this, and even though I used a Walkman, connected to headphones with a wire, the surgeon and anesthesiologist allow this in the OR.

In 2005, when the idea to create programmed, cordless headphones was born, one of my main reasons was so that patients who were likely already in pain and quite fearful of going under general anesthesia, could have easy access to music for their surgery that had been tested and approved by hundreds of people.  Now we have this!

The headphones are getting national attention now and I do believe that one day they will be standard equipment in all hospitals.  If your hospital does not have them waiting for you, please order yours now!!  You will be so glad that you did!

To order:  www.SurgicalHeadphones.com

 

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

Case Study: Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail

This 70-year-old gentleman had undergone surgery many times and, although he wasn’t excessively anxious about his procedure, he was quite intrigued by the idea of using music with his surgery, especially since he is a huge fan of classical music.  Here is his story:

Jim came to my office for about 30 minutes, a week before his surgery.  We talked about his procedure and how music might positively affect the total experience.  Jim is huge classical music afficianado, so when he found out that our proprietary music is classical, he was thrilled.  When he was told that after his surgery, he could put any music he wanted on the headphones and continue to use them for probably another 5-10 years, he was excited!

After his serious surgery, Jim wanted to come back to my office to tell me his story.  You’ll hear his story in the video above, but just let me encapsulate by saying that he was told before the surgery that it would probably take 4-5 hours.  It took slightly less than 2!  He was told that he would be in ICU for probably 3-4 days.  After one night in ICU and continuing to wear his headphones, he was discharged from the hospital to his home in exactly 24 hours!

Of course Jim attributes all of this to his headphones and we are agreeing with him!  Don’t you want to try them too?

To purchase your own:  www.SurgicalHeadphones.com

 

 

FacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterpinterestlinkedinmail
Go to Top