New Hospital Program planned for Surgical Headphones

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For the past 5 years we have been marketing our surgical  headphones primarily to individuals who are preparing for surgery.  After selling hundreds of these clinically and scientifically proven headphones with our proprietary music on them, we have decided to also have a different headphone that we will market to hospitals.  The new headphones is intended to be given or issued to each surgical patient for them to keep and take home to continue using in their recovery.

We have put thousands of hours into this process and are excited to reveal that we are getting really close to having this new surgical headphone ready to provide to hospitals!  With concerns about infection-control at an all-time high, many hospitals don’t want to re-use anything that they can make disposable.  Although we wouldn’t call this new surgical headphone disposable, we do believe that the new price will allow hospitals to give all surgical patients their own surgical headphone and in addition, patients will have at least four different playlists to choose from.

When we went to the AORN conference in Denver in 2015, this nurse from Johns Hopkins hospital was extremely enthusiastic about our surgical headphones!

Of course we will keep selling our premium surgical headphone will 4 GB of memory and a battery life of 20-24 hours.  We anticipate that dentists will buy these because they can more safely re-use them, as well as cosmetic surgery practices where price restrictions are not so intense.  To order these, just go to www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com.  We look forward to providing our proven surgical headphones to all patients preparing for surgery!

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C-Section: How can you create a memorable experience?

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One of the biggest populations to benefit from the Surgical Serenity Solution is women who are preparing for childbirth, know that they will probably have a C-section for various reasons.   A C-section is considered major surgery, but the reason for it, ultimately is a happy reason.  The normal recovery time for a healthy young woman is about a month.

The patient in this photo was waiting for her first child to be delivered by C-section.  She happened to be a professional musician and was fairly skeptical about whether or not music through headphones could make a difference for the tremendously anxious and fearful patient.

C-section Serenity Headphones

Waiting to go into surgery.

When the procedure was over and patient was home with her new daughter, she had this to say:  “I am so glad that I used the Surgical Serenity Solution!  As it turned out, I was put in a big room with other women waiting for C-sections and they were very noisy, some fussing and yelling at their husbands, talking loudly on their phones to family members, some even crying!  If I had not had these wonderful headphones, I don’t think I could have stood all the commotion.  I took the headphones off for the actual delivery, but put them back on when I got to recovery.  I’ve been using them at home just to relax when baby is sleeping and I look forward to using them for years to come!!  Thank you Dr. Cash!”

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Baby Boomers and Knee Replacement Surgery: Important Information

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The Baby Boomer generation is having joint replacement surgery at an unbelievable rate.  It is definitely one of the most frequent surgeries that we Baby Boomers have.  Although I have not personally had one, I have helped many people get through them with the help of the Surgical Serenity Solution.

There are many Boomers who have never had any kind of surgery and when they find that they are going to have to have surgery, they are literally scared to death.  Many of them choose not to have the surgery because of this fear and terror.  Because they can’t move around easily, they often gain more and more weight, have more and more pain, and eventually become house-bound, depressed and isolated!

But listen to this lady tell her story.  She had undergone many surgeries and was getting increasingly fearful and anxious of the pain that she knew would follow.  She found out that she really did need a knee replacement and had tied herself up in knots trying to decide whether or not to go through with it. A dear friend heard about the Surgical Serenity Solution, and decided to get the preprogrammed, cordless headphones for her friend!

Here is what she told me, about two weeks after the surgery:

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Benefits of Music with Surgery: Revisited

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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!!

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Surgical Serenity Solutions featured in local magazine

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FullSizeRender (3) Yes, I was thrilled when a local journalist wanted to write an article about Surgical Serenity Solutions.  One of the challenges that we musicians, music therapists, and clinical musicologists have is publicity.  In the past, unless one had a very healthy  marketing and advertising budget, it was just not possible to let the world know what all of the possibilities were for healing with music, how music affects the brain, and the tremendous benefits of music with surgery.  Now, much of that has changed!

With the internet and the world wide web, Surgical Serenity Solutions now has the possibility of electronic magazines (ezines), blogs, Facebook, Twitter and so much more.  All of these are basically free, but there is just a little bit of a learning curve.  Thanks to all of the new “social media” options, millions more people are now aware of the healing power of music.  And this week, out came one more great article about the Surgical Serenity Solution.  http://issuu.com/todayswoman.com/docs/todayswomandecember2013

The only way that we can get our wonderful, pre-programmed headphones into every hospital is to use social media to the max!  Surgical Serenity Solutions not only has a website, but also a blog, a FB page, www.facebook.com/surgicalserenitysolutions , a Twitter account, @music4surgery , a Instagram account, #surgicalserenitysolutions and other websites such as www.SurgicalHeadphones.com.  I do hope you’ll connect with us in as many of these venues as possible!

There is so much to understand about how to use music with your surgery and so much medical research to report on now!  Don’t miss out on this exciting new development in the world of surgery and the world of MusicMedicine.

Would love to get your comments and questions after reading  this!  Thanks!

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New research study on the use of music and reassuring words during surgery

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Just important might reassuring music or reassuring words be to you during the surgical process?  Quite a bit, according to a study that just came out of Sweden.   Why do people utter words of reassurance?  Why do people like hearing words of reassurance?  When undergoing a medical procedure that is potentially painful, we tend to give our power to the doctor and the medical staff.  If they reassure us that it probably will turn out well, or that the pain will be brief of even not that painful, we like that!

Add some soothing music to the formula and it’s going to be even better!  Check out this new study that verifies that this is really true!  🙂  Enjoy!

“(NewsFix) Women who heard relaxing music and reassuring words during an operation made a much better recovery than those who did not.
Although you are unconscious during surgery, the brain may still be aware – at some level – of what’s going on around you. Researchers at Orebro Medical Center Hospital in Sweden have demonstrated this to dramatic effect. A group of 90 women undergoing hysterectomies were assigned to either relaxing music, reassuring words and music, or the usual sounds of the operating theatre.

Those exposed to music along with the soothing sound of ocean waves – with or without reassuring words – experienced less post-operative pain and fatigue and were able to sit up sooner after surgery than those who did not hear music. They also felt better when they got home. But there were no benefits in terms of length of hospital stay, nausea or bowel function.

Since playing music and saying reassuring words is simple and inexpensive, there’s not reason not to try it out with all surgical patients, say the researchers. At the very least, it would blot out any worrying comments being made by the medical team which might be picked up – at some level – by the patient.”

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Fear of Surgery: is it holding you back?

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Let me start by saying:  fear of surgery is not unusual!  Nor is it wrong, or silly, or stupid.  Actually, I think that someone who had just been told they need surgery, would be foolish simply to accept that blindly.   I’ve had surgery numerous times, unfortunately, but obviously I survived!

No one wants their body to be cut on! Nobody in their right mind, but sometimes, the doctor needs to go in and repair something, remove something, or perhaps, just improve it.   In that case, you’re going to need to have surgery.

I’m a great believer in educating yourself and now that we have Google and Bing and other search engines, you can quickly get lots of quality information on most any subject imaginable.  Many people take the ostrich approach and bury their heads in the sand, thinking that if they can just ignore their physical problem it will go away…but it never does!

What if you could be reassured enough to go ahead and have your surgery done and put it behind you?  Many people neglect their surgery because they are truly afraid that they won’t wake up from anesthesia and will never see family and friends again.  Others fear the pain that will invariably result from cutting into the body.  But did you know, that when music is put into your brain, through headphones, anesthesia and pain medication can sometimes be cut in half!!  Yes, this is what research in the fields of music therapy, nursing, surgery and music medicine have shown.  Even if you don’t require 50% less anesthesia and pain medication, you will require less of each, and the less medication you require, the more like you will awaken from surgery and get back to your life.

If you’re interested in knowing more about this, go to Surgical Serenity Solutions and begin educating yourself about music with surgery!

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Fear of Surgery and Anesthesia: Is it realistic?

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In the year 2013, hasn’t most of the danger of surgery and anesthesia been eradicated?  Well, I don’t want to discourage you from having needed surgery because the vast majority of procedures go as planned and improve the quality of life immeasurably for that patient.  But just how wrong can things go?

I don’t need to recount the horror stories of surgeries gone bad from all kinds of mistakes, but you’ve heard them.  I believe that things have improved over the last few years but occasionally we still hear of the wrong limb being operated on or even removed.  We still hear of sponges being sewn up in patients, all things that could be prevented.

What can’t be prevented is bad reactions to anesthesia or pain medication in people who have never had surgery or had medical treatment at all.  Here is when using music can be particularly helpful by supplementing the relaxation effect and decreasing the need for as much anesthesia or pain medication.  Why wouldn’t a person use music?  Well, there are a few that I can think of:

  • They don’t know about how powerful music can be in surgery
  • They don’t realize that they can buy pre-programmed headphones for surgery
  • And that’s about it!

If you have been told that you need any kind of surgery at all, including dental surgery, please plan to use music.  Either your own favorite music through an iPod, or the pre-programmed headphones will give you a more positive experience and outcome!  Feel better!

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You’ve just found out you need surgery? Now what?

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No one wants to have surgery.  But some people are so terrified of “going under the knife” and “having general anesthesia,” that they put off needed surgery because of this fear.  The good news is, today there are so many resources with accurate and easy-to-understand information that people can get much-needed and reassuring information about what goes on during the procedure they need.

One of the many things that people can do is to use music before, during and after the procedure.  Using your favorite soothing, comforting music before surgery can calm you down and begin to relax your body so that it takes less anesthesia to put you to sleep.  If you’re particularly sensitive to anesthesia this is really an excellent idea!  If you’re able to put different music on your iPod, the music for surgery should ideally be purely instrumental and have a steady tempo, close to the tempo of the healthy resting heartbeat.  Choose your favorite genre and practice listening to it and relaxing before your surgery.

For the recovery room, chose something that is just slightly more upbeat, but still gentle.  When you’re listening through headphones, you will not only be putting this soothing music directly into your brain through the 8th cranial nerve.  This also blocks out operating room sounds that can be quite disconcerting.  Especially if you happen to be having joint  replacement surgery, you can hear hammering, drilling and even sawing!  Having soothing music in your ear, through headphones can be a real blessing!

Don’t have the time or the knowledge to create a playlist for surgery?  You’re in luck!  I’ve already done it for you.  Just go to www.SurgicalHeadphones.com and you can purchase either the cordless, pre-programmed headphones, or you can just purchase the download for your own MP3 device or iPod.  Let me know if you have questions!

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Prepare for Surgery: The “Lost” Tool

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Patients wearing our headphones

Prepare for surgery

Preparing for surgery is something that no one really wants to do, but taking the “ostrich” approach   doesn’t work either!  If you need surgery for whatever reason, you might as well educate yourself  about ways that you can make the process easier and more effective!  One of the tools that humans and physicians from ancient times have used is music!  Why?  Because music soothes, comforts, calms, and relaxes the body and mind simultaneously.  When the mind and body are calm, it takes less anesthesia, less pain medication and less anxiety medication to get you through the procedure, whever that procedure might be. Is this just a theory of mine?  Absolutely not!  Just go to www.pubmed.gov and do a simple search for “music with surgery.”  I just did it and came up with 1003 citations!!  Still, most patients and even many, many physicians don’t realize how potent music is, in it’s ability to help the patient calm down and have a better result from their surgery.  The news media seem to rush to publish the catastrophic disasters encountered during surgery, but how often do they publish simple tips for people who are preparing to have surgery?  Music is an oft overlooked addition to the tool-kit.  Don’t YOU be one to forget about music!  You can make your own playlist or purchase headphones that are already pre-programmed and ready-to-go!  Please contact me here if I can help!

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