@jocelynk Now may be a good time to get into a habit of taking care of yourself when you need to calm down, or distract yourself. There are many tutorials on beginning crochet, as my neighbor told me, on Youtube. I am left-handed but crochet right-handed, and after almost 15 years still consider myself a beginner, content with easy/simple patterns that use very basic stitches! The repetition is calming to me.

I am glad you shared about your upcoming surgery. One thing you might consider, is journaling about it all, to move thoughts and concerns out of your mind, as they do the little hamster wheel thing of occupying your time. Here is a discussion thread about that, that you may find interesting. https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/journaling-the-write-stuff-for-you/ Being able to write things down has helped me in my health challenges.

Please come back for more support!
Ginger