Experience with Anesthesia

In My Humble Opinion
1

Just wanted to know how other people responded to it.

My only encounter was when I went to the dentist. The first few times was when I had extractions and it was just a tickling and numbing feeling around my mouth, SUPER uncomfortable and didn’t help that much.

The latest was when I had my wisdom teeth taken out and the only thing I remember or was aware of was closing my eyes and opening them again (almost blinking). I asked if they were going to start soon and my mom said they finished. It was certainly the most mind boggling thing ever, that an hour passed with just the blink of an eye and I had no awareness during that time. It was crazy.

2

Yep, that’s kinda how it works. Lost time, no memory.
ETA, when the lil’wrekker had her wisdom teeth out she moaned and groaned and tried to talk while out. She has no memory of any of it.

3

I’ve had anesthesia several times over the years, but the only one that stands out is the one that was used in my open heart surgery. I had the surgery on a Monday morning. The next thing I remembered was Monday night. I remembered being in bed, with nurses coming in and out. In the morning, the surgeon stopped by and asked me whether I was feeling better than yesterday. I told him “no”, thinking he was referring to Monday morning, before the surgery. He then corrected me, saying that “yesterday” was Tuesday and “today” was Wednesday.

I had lost an entire day.

4

The U.S. Army took my wisdoms in '88. Their SOP was to take one side, let it heal then take the other. The time between appointments/extractions is typically two weeks.

My first appointment I get a Regular-Army dentist. he gives me just enough local that I maybe wouldn’t feel a toothbrush, and goes to work like Christian Szell after a few lines of cocaine.

It’s the closest I came to striking an officer.

It took almost four weeks for the right-side of my jaw to heal up enough for my lefties to be extracted.

The next dentist I drew was a National Guard fella who was in for his annual two-weeks. He told me flat-out that my previous dentist was a Regular-Army-Asswipe who took the Army’s money for his education, and then resented the fuck out of the time the Army demanded in return for paying for his education, and who was taking his ire out on his patients by under-anesthetizing them and going in like a street-worker with a jack-hammer digging for gold.

Which is one reason you won’t seem me rushing to support single-payer health care; I’ve had government supplied health care, with mixed results. When it’s good, it’s as good as it gets. When it’s bad, it’s fucking torture. Literally, state-sponsored torture.

And you, Good Citizen, have ZERO recourse, because it is literally the ONLY game in town.

In any case, my Army National Guard dentist (who had a civilian practice back in Real Life) knocked me the fuck out. All the way out; and my experience coincides with Machinaforce’s. One minute, I’m like, “Let’s do this.” The next, it’s “What? We’re done?”

My left-side extraction healed up well, faster than average, but I’ve had problems with civilian dentists ever since; I DEMAND more anesthesia than they feel is necessary (good, heavy locals; haven’t had a procedure that needed general), and an easy hand on the drill. When I explain why, they’re generally sympathetic and cooperate; the one who wasn’t hasn’t seen any more of my business since.

That one visit to the dentist ranks on the short-list of Most Traumatic Experiences Of My Life; not just for the procedure, but for the post-op inflammation and extended recovery due to a government-paid hack who couldn’t give a single flying fuck about the pain and suffering he was inflicting on helpless victims.

5

I’ve definitely heard of prison dentists doing that, or at least wanting to, depending on what the inmate did.

6

My only experience was for having my appendix out. The two wisdom teeth I had out were just novocaine and nitrous; they weren’t impacted, just a touch too little room for all four, so it was a relatively simple extraction.

It wasn’t really all that freaky. They put the mask on, I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths, and then I was back in my room post-op. It wasn’t all that different than simply falling asleep except for the change of venue. Even that wasn’t all that freaky since I’ve slept through lots of stuff going on, like live fire tank ranges, and treat air travel as nap time. I’ve been tired enough if I knew that someone was going to wheel me to a room after going to sleep that probably wouldn’t wake me even drug free.

7

I’ve probably been out 8-10 times in my life. When I was young (we’re talking the late 1950’s/early 60’s here), I got the 'ether poured on the cloth/device over my nose), which while it worked did make me a little sick afterwards.

Since then it’s been an injection in the arm and nighty-night until I wake up, no memory of anything. Never a bad reaction, just lay back and blip…

8

Well, thank heavens, nobody’s proposing the military run single-payer health care. I know a guy who had several teeth pulled when he was in the Marines. They could have been repaired, but it was cheaper and faster to pull 'em. Like you, he wasn’t given much anesthetic. It sounds pretty rough.

9

Any “connoisseurs” here that can opine on halothane vs isoflurane vs …?

10

It’s been a couple of decades since I had surgery, but this was my experience. They told me to count backwards from 100.

100
99
98… nothing’s happening.
97… still nothing.
96
I’m in the recovery room… Wait. What?

So, yeah, a lot like the OP. In just the blink of an eye a couple of hours were gone. There was no “gee I’m getting tired” or slowly fading out. It was just blink… gone.

11

I had a bone chip removed after I fractured my elbow a few years ago. I hadn’t had any surgery in about 25 years and I was very anxious about it. But then the nurse started an IV. I didn’t notice at the time but I remember now that I suddenly was very calm. The doctor came in and talked to me. He laughed and said I probably wouldn’t remember any of this. I was wheeled into the operating room and the nurse said “sweet dreams”. The next thing I remember was being helped into the car to go home. I think about four hours had passed and I had been “awake” for a couple. Anesthesia is amazing these days.

12

I had a heart attack in July. I assumed that I would have been put under the Twilight Sleep anesthesia and it would have been “lost time” but I was absolutely awake and aware while the Doctor put in a stent. It was not too uncomfortable, but I would have much rather slept through it.

13

The under-during-the-procedure part goes okay for me, but I’ve been nauseous more than once before or after.

When I had my hysterectomy last year, the last thing I remember before I went out, when they wheeled me into surgery, was saying that I was going to be sick–and then I did throw up (mostly foam, since I hadn’t eaten anything) in one of those little metal kidney dishes. When I woke up afterwards and they were wheeling me down the corridors, I was sick again with dry heaves. I was supposed to go home that afternoon, but because of my reaction they kept me in the hospital for a couple of nights.

I also remember being sick on the way home some years ago after a colonoscopy; the friend who was driving me had to pull over quickly to the side of the road so I didn’t vomit in her car.

14

I has a fairly lengthy operation to repair a really nasty ankle injury a few years ago. I vaguely remember being wheeled down to the operating theatre but that’s about it. I was heavily sedated at that point I guess.

What I do remember is coming round in the recovery room afterwards, and asking the nurse that was sitting with me if she would marry me. Reader, we didn’t get married

People coming out of general anaesthesia say all sorts of things apparently.

15

Decades ago, I got hold of some bad frozen breakfast and after 12 hours of vomiting, I started puking blood. Went to the ER. Got admitted to the hospital. They scheduled an endoscopy for the next day. Wheeled me in, added the joy juice to the IV, gave me something to halt the gag reflex, turned me on my side so as not to choke on my saliva and gave me the camera to eat. Damage wasn’t too bad; I asked if I could get a look-see and they said Sure and held the eyepiece for me to see. Whoa! that’s messed up! I said; everyone chuckles, me included. Da end. What a fun experience, considering.

16

In 1992 I was having a dacryocystorhinostomy performed under monitored anesthesia. You’re in, you’re out, everything seems a little distant and vague.

The physicians were discussing what instrument they were going to use to excise the lacrimal sac; and I piped in “I downloaded an article from Ocular Surgery News and they recommended a number 11” The surgeon says to me; “We’re going to use a number 15” and to the anesthetist he says “Take him down a little more” and the next thing I knew I was waking up in recovery with my hands tied down.

17

Were they afraid you were going to do it yourself? :slight_smile:

18

That was exactly my experience having my wisdom teeth out. When it was over, all I cared about was how did I get from the procedure room to the recovery room. Finally somebody told me I had walked, and then I calmed down…

I’ve had two colonoscopies, and for the first they put me all the way out, but it must have been something gentler, because afterwards it felt more like I’d been asleep than blacked out. I did come to in the middle of that procedure, and remember the doctor saying something along the lines of, “push more.” For the second colonoscopy they just relaxed me, and didn’t put me all the way out. They still said I might not remember it, but I did.

When I come out of anesthesia, I’ve always felt like I came out completely. When I wake up, I’m good.

During my wife’s emergency gal bladder removal, after they had given her a pain reliever and relaxant, but she wasn’t out, the pre-OP nurse checked in and asked my wife what she was there for. She replied, “they’re installing laser beams under my fingernails.” That prompted lots of chart and wrist band checking.

19

My dentist must have used a bucket of novocaine for a root canal, but it just would not numb the nerve entirely. Most of my face, yes, all of the nerve, no.

Drilling into un-numbed nerve is not good.

20

The one time I’ve been under for surgery, it was like someone flipped the off switch then back on in the recovery room. I remember coming round fast, no weird fuzziness- the room used to be part of the paediatric unit, and someone at some point had thought it would be a good plan to paint giant butterflies with huge black eyes with red slits pupils and big grins, and my first thought on opening my eyes was ‘that doesn’t seem like the best idea to in a neurosurgery recovery room’.

I was in for back surgery, not brain (unlike most of the others in the ward), and I have since confirmed with a nurse friend who worked there, that no, I didn’t imagine the giant creepy insects.

I did, however, throw up.