I didn’t wake up during surgery that required general anesthesia, but I once had an epidural that only took for half my body. My right side was completely numb, but my left side was in excruciating pain. The floor nurse called in a nurse anesthetist who re-placed the needle and that one worked. It was a strange experience. (I was in labor, not surgery, but still. Anesthesia is anesthesia.)
Robin
I woke up from a bunion-ectemy (sp?) a few years ago. There was a blue curtain that stopped at my hips so I couldn’t see anything. But I distinctly heard the whirring of a saw :eek:
I scared the nurse-anethesiologist. I sat right up and asked her the time. She got all twittery and disappeared behind the blue curtain. A few minutes later I was out again.
Once is too often.
You should have the seen and heard the 3 victims they interviewed. These poor people were really really seriously screwed up. Plus, if this kind of horror can be avoided by simply buying some kind of brain wave machine, then the hospitals who don’t should be prosecuted.
IANA anesthesiologist but I am a medical student who has shadowed anesthesiologists. They did have some kind of device that was used as a CYA to prevent things like this. The problem was that the measurement it used doesn’t have a definitive point above which they could say that people are unconsious. As with everything there is a wide range of “normal”. So they had a wide interval within which they think people are fully unconsious but there could be someone who measured in that range but was still consious. And general anesthesia has its own risks so you want to use smaller amounts of drugs when possible. The end result was that no one I shadowed placed much emphasis on the nifty device and one expressed doubts as to its validity. They glanced at it sometimes but were much more concerned with monitoring standard vital signs.
My experience meshes with pendgwen’s. No anesthesiologist that I know of wants to have someone experience pain or anxiety during surgery, nor do they want to kill anyone with an overdose of anesthetic agents. Consciousness monitors can be useful but they are not binary ‘yes-no’ devices. Anesthesiologists tend to use less anesthesia rather than more when they have such a monitor in place; in fact, the marketing literature for such devices emphasizes the cost savings of using less drug and having the patients wake up more quickly at the end of procedures.
I was also awake during my cataract surgery. The stuff they used to numb my eye worked well enough, but the “twilight sleep” stuff they gave me did not work very well. In recovery, whatever they gave me to counteract the stuff that did not work well brought my heart rate down to 21. I will need the other eye done in the next few months. we will be having a serious talk about these things beforehand
Having heard this type of horror story, this was actually what I was most anxious about when I had my surgery. Luckily, I didn’t wake up. Or if I did, I don’t remember doing so. (I do remember waking up in Recovery, and then nothing until I was in my bed, although I was told I had a 10-15 minute conversation with my sister in the hall outside my room.)
I have had general anesthesia somewhere around 15 times, and have never (to my knowledge) been conscious during any of it.
Someone upthread mentioned Versed, which is an anti-anxiety drug given pre-op that also works as an amnesiac, erasing memories of about the time the drug is in effect. But Versed doesn’t work for me. I always remember the minutes before they put me under perfectly well. In fact, I often tell them not to even bother with the Versed. But if I’m conscious at all during the surgeries/procedures themselves, I don’t know about it.
I disagree. Should they be working on a way to solve this problem? Absolutely! Is it horrible and traumatic for the people it happens to? No doubt. But if you say even once is too often, then what are the alternatives? Never using general anesthesia? Just not using general anesthesia until we find a solution to this problem? What do we do about the people whose lives would be saved/vastly improved in the meantime? Tell them to get over it? Or do we just use so much anesthesia that, instead of risking consciousness at some point, we risk death?
I’m not trying to be snarky, honest. It’s just that if you truly think that once is too often, what alternative do you propose?
I have seen a documentary about this phenomenon (I think it was the Discovery channel). In it, they interviewed a poor lady who woke up in two surgeries!
Anyway, they showed a (seemingly) simple plausible solution: the keep one arm un-sedated (I don’t remember how it’s done, but Cecil also mentioned this). In addition, someone holds that hand, and a headset is placed on the patient’s head repeating: “if you can hear this, squeeze with your right hand… if you can hear this, squeeze with your right hand…”.
I don’t see how this would work if paralytic drugs are being used. They appear to be systemic drugs that could not be targeted at individual limbs.
Not I. But. in addition to my recallection, we have also The Master’s Word on it:
I think the added headphones are supposed to increase the odds of the patient being oriented enough to signal his doctors.
I saw that. It is contrary to my understanding of the drugs used to induce paralysis.
When I had bypass surgery I was put under general anesthesia for a little over 5 hours (they tell me), and I remember absolutely NOTHING! When I woke up in the recovery room my mind felt like it was dead for those hours. I remember going under, counting down from 100, got to 97 and I was gone to the world.
Good question. And scary scary scary.
I recently had a cystoscopy (brrr) with Versed and all I remember is being wheeled toward the OR and later awakening in the recovery room and pissing on my leg. Nothing whatsoever in between.
At my post-op appointment with the urologist I asked him if most of his patients were conscious when he did the procedure. He kind of hemmed and hawed but finally said yes. I then asked him if I had been conscious. After a pregnant pause he said he didn’t remember. Yeah right.
I strongly suspect I had a very unpleasant period of which I remember nothing. I think I would choose to die rather than undergo a conscious cutting open of my belly or chest even if I wouldn’t remember it at all. Actually I probably wouldn’t make a conscious choice – I just wouldn’t be able to summon the courage to check in for the procedure.
Thanks a lot. I am on the verge of going on to the waiting list for a double lung transplant. This thread is not helping.
Is there anyone here who can give actual figures as to the probability of being awake during surgery, instead of just telling horror stories?
I feel for you I really do. I don’t know what kind of surgeries await me in the future but I’ll certainly be having a long talk with the anesthesiologist. And I’ll probably still be scared shitless.
Here’s a transcript from the show. It’s starts about half way down the page with the following:
According to USA today, about 0.05-0.1%, or 100 patients per day in the states.
However, the study was financed by the company that produces the BIS machines designed to minimize the risk, so the result might be biased.
I was awake (and forming memories) when my wisdom teeth were removed years ago, but whatever anesthesia I had for an esophageal stretching this year worked very well. I went to sleep quickly and totally, then woke up quickly and totally when it was over.
Only if spinal works more reliably than epidural… I know they have some similarities and the main difference is the exact location of the needle (inside vs. outside the dural membrane?). However I’ve had epidurals twice and, well, they didn’t work so good either time. When you’re having a c-section, that’s sorta bad (though admittedly not as bad as it might have been; I didn’t actually feel the cutting, but I sure felt the pain from the shoving and poking when they started rearranging my innards).
OTOH, if I were all prepped for a spinal, and the anesthesiologist was all set to put me under if need be, at least I’d (presumably) be able to let them know, via SCREAMING, that it still hurt!
I’m not being snarky but what does it matter if you wake up in the middle of your surgery? What are your options? To not use a general anesthetic? To not get the surgery? You may as well lay back and relax, it’ll be easier on your blood pressure. 
I woke up during a colonoscopy once. I was laying on my side and was getting up because I was thirsty…:rolleyes:. The nurse gave me a damp washcloth on my lips and I was back out in a jif. No pain, just the memory.
I also woke up during recovery from a breast lumpectomy feeling like I was choking. They later told me it was the vent tube being removed.
You know how the anesthesiologist comes into the room before surgery? I have a friend who has to have a colonoscopy every year and she has a very high tolerance to the anesthetic. Every year, she tells him she weighs 497 lbs (she weighs about 120) so he will give her enough anesthesia. He just rolls his eyes and does his own thing.