I had what is known as an awareness episode… My brain woke up while I was still physically paralyzed.
It was absolutely as horrible as you might imagine. I’m thankful that it was brief, occuring close to the end.
Some people have been aware throughout surgery, and that I cannot fathom.
Google away…
Existentially I found it very disturbing… where was I for 1 and a half hours?
I’ve never had a problem with it, although I’ve only experienced it twice (that I know of, the first time when I was a very young child). I don’t have reactions afterward.
However, two family members of mine always throw up and look like they’re on the point of death after general anesthesia. One of them even looks like’s ill for several days thereafter. This freaked me out before my last surgery, as I thought due to genetics I would have the same issues, but nope. I wrote down the list of medications that were used, just in case.
I’m going to need sedation soon. I confess I’m terrified. I hope the drugs they use now don’t mess me up much as the ones they used before.
Totally ouy for cancer surgery. My memory is spotty for thee next couple of days.
Had my bottom 2 impacted wisdom teeth removed during ‘A’ school. Local only. No pain, but my jaw and head could feel the pressure. A cloth was over my eyes, but I could see pieces of tooth and gobbets of gum on his gloves.
Sedation for a minor invasive procedure. Came out of it toward the end and watched what was going on. No pain.
Been knocked out multiple times in the past year - got dx with colorectal cancer, stage 3 last March thanks to a Feb colonoscopy, have had a second colonoscopy, 2 sigmoidoscopies, and had a port for the chemo planted. All the times with the same gas-passer, procedure is I go in, vitals, they previous to the port set an IV and gave me a zofran, though I much prefer the port, a dab of Emla 2 hours before and I don’t feel that 12 ga needle being shoved in =)
In general, I seem to have been given ‘milk of amnesia’ - propofol and versed. Gurney rolled in, shimmy over onto the table, and out like a light to wake up in recovery. I also oddly pop awake pretty much immediately they get me into recovery, back in 95 when I had a procedure to remove a tumor at the Naval hospital in New London they had the corpsman sitting by the bed for each patient in recovery and the corpsman for my neighbor and myself were discussing New Orleans and were freaked out when I popped awake and started giving them suggestions as to where to eat and what some of the more interesting touristy things to do were.
Word of advice, it won’t hurt and will help with nausea - always ask your gas passer if you can have a zofran for post op nausea =)
You (and many others here) must be among the many (minority? large minority? majority?) who just react badly to anything of this nature. I’m extremely fortunate that I’ve never had much / any nausea related to surgery - then again, I don’t tend to throw up, ever, barring food poisoning every 30 years or so.
It does take well over 24 hours for any sedation to wear off, ditto narcotic pain relievers, even when I’m supposedly well past the point where there should be anything significant on board, if you calculate the elimination half life. I found that out when I had my wisdom teeth out. Took a Percocet Sunday afternoon, went to work Monday, spent a half hour looking vacantly at my computer terminal, then went home, realizing it would not be productive. They are not kidding about “don’t sign anything for 24 hours or more”.
But months after nitrous?? That’s taking it to a whole new level. You’re an overachiever!!!
:eek::eek::eek::eek:
Must have missed this if you announced it before.
:eek::eek::eek::eek:
How are you doing???
Yeah, yikes, how are you doing?
“milk of amnesia” usually refers to propofol, which people recover from faster than Versed. You had both?
It was Versed that I had such a bad time with. I’m hoping the propofol isn’t as bad.
Hm, never came out and started a thread announcing it, mainly complain in the monthly rants or comment in threads of similar experiences.
Well, I did 12 infusions - nausea reasonably well controlled with zofran though [even still] the smell of italian sausage, peppers and onions frying up on a flat top is pretty much instant projectile vomiting - don’t even have to eat the stuff. Ended up with neuropathy in hands and feet, still hanging around. Did the 26 sessions of radiation with oral chemo, zofran works well but ended up in hospital with intractible diarrhea badly enough that it took them a week of IV going in full blast to rehydrate me because nothing would stop the runs, including 4x a day of some anti diarrheal with atropine, 4 mg immodium and a dose of kaopectate [docs orders] and a dietary attempt at changing [yay for mashed potatoes and anything made with white flour like pasta, bread and crackers and almost no fat at all?] but the after infusion butt spelunking and after radiation butt spelunking showed nothing but scarring and the biopsies came out clear, so I am on treatment vacation for another 6 weeks and then we have to decide if we are going to play safe and I crap in a bag for another 30 years or so, or we risk me just monitoring really close and wait and see if I really am clear. I am hoping for no surgical procedure obviously =) but the nausea and runs have pretty much resolved as long as I stay away from higher fat options [the whole thing started with an idea this might be gallbladder related, so it may still have a gallbladder bile release timing issue.] I am now lowering from the 4000 calories a day I was passing through my system back down to my normal 1800 cal a day type 2 diabetic compliant diet … I still lost almost 30 pounds on 4000 calories a day. I had mental issues at breaking the diet I had been on for the better part of 37 years. On the other hand, I know exactly how much sugar to add to 2 liters of water to make 1800 calories [from when I was spending much of my day vomiting and needed some calories in and water was about the only thing staying down.]
As to the versed + propofol, it is the versed that is the short term memory drug, propofol is the one that knocks you out. I had my port put in on mainly versed to make me not remember the long needles of local being shoved in, so I was on light surgical sedation - enough to make me loopy and relaxed like when I had my parathyroid operation.
I am lucky that only nitrous causes me problems. But I make sure I tell every doctor I run into not to use it. Most of which react with “Well, duh, we would never use it” because they’re medical doctors and (mostly) only dentists use nitrous. Dentists, though, are sometimes a little over enthusiastic about using it.
LOL!
Well, I think they should be, personally (that is, aside from people like you). Honestly, even if you’re not one of the people who is terrified of dentistry, it’s got to be a LOT easier to work on a patient who’s relaxed and happy.
But I’ve never found that dentists around here are eager to use the stuff. It wasn’t until the one I saw in 2006 offered it, that I even had the suggestion made to me. It simply was not used - at all - when I was growing up, or in my younger adult years. It’s made a HUGE difference to me. So when that dentist sold her practice, and the new one needed to do a filling, she was surprised when I insisted on it.
My husband, on the other hand, is very anti-nitrous. His attitude is not unreasonable: one family dentist, when he was a kid, used nitrous instead of a local versus in addition to.
Aruvqan, I suspect you’re right about the Versed being the one used initially to make you forget. I’ve never had that combination myself, as when I had my wrist surgery they basically took me straight to the OR with regular general anesthesia after they did the regional block. Pretty sure that was Versed - and for similar reasons: there was a big needle (I gather; I have no memory of it) involved and really, surgery is tricky enough without having to do it while chasing the patient.
I do wonder, still: that kind of thing is likely to be very uncomfortable. What if the patient reacts to the pain and jumps or whatever?
Sorry to hear about everything you’ve had going on. At least they caught it before stage 4 (I know 3 people whose husbands are in THAT boat). If you do decide to play it safe, is reconstruction an option? While this was for a different reason, of course, a friend’s niece went through colectomy (ulcerative colitis) and after a couple more surgeries, they were able to basically build her a new connection out of small intestine tissue, so bye-bye baggie for her.
Interesting. I decided to do some searches for pain reaction despite Versed etc. - and stumbled across this article which suggests patients feel more pain on Versed versus other sedatives. Propofol evidently does as well but not as broadly.
“With inappropriate analgesia, nociception can cause unfavorable responses of the autonomic nervous system and involuntary movements in the patient and potentially untoward psychological sequelae.” (nociception is the reaction to pain = yeah, I had to look it up also).
“The notion that propofol was used to treat inadequate analgesia in a scientific report in 1999 44 prompted the following commentary: “Too often, in our opinion, patients receive propofol, at a time when an analgesic would serve them better. Many times, our surgical colleagues insist that propofol, or “that white stuff”, works much better. They seem to think propofol can replace adequate analgesia obtained by infiltration with local anesthesia…”
Another article, talking about pain during gastrointestinal procedures done using Versed, suggests that a LOT o patients have very visible pain reactions.
Yeah, neither Versed nor Propofol do much for pain, but they make you loopy and relaxed and block memory formation. Yes, your doctor wants to roofie you.
They are great for the surgeon, because they act fast, the patient doesn’t complain during the procedure, and the patient doesn’t remember anything to complain about after.
I am quite glad we caught it before it really went nuts!
Well, since it had already started to make a break for the outside world, the skin around the anal ring was involved, though in full kegel clench it was demonstrated that the ring of muscle was not damaged [never did become fully incontinent other than the raging diarrhea which at times depending on what I ate occasionally ended up explosive] however, it was the end 15 cm that is where the tumor settled - the oncologist is pushing for total surgical intervention but the surgeon favors the wait and see side - he said he didn’t see making me deal with 30 years of a bag if there wasn’t any known extant tumor remaining and the fact that it was involved in the skin around the butthole, there wouldn’t really be a way to rebuild.
Good luck!
Heh, my first experience with something besides local was getting my impacted wisdom teeth out at around 17 years old. The doc gave me a drink that he described as “tastes like gasoline, but works like 8 martinis.” He was right, I walked down the hall and drank it, and was on the verge of stumbling when I got back to the chair. Then they started to apply the nitrous. I remember being woken up enough in the middle of the operation to tell me “No, scabpicker, you can’t sing while we do this.” I’m kind of sure I was singing Pink Floyd, appropriately. I hit on ladies willy-nilly on the trip home, apparently. I don’t usually do that in an overt way.
Decades later, I had to have a procedure on my shoulder that required a nice, strong general anesthetic. I remember thinking “wow, that’s cold” as it entered my arm. My next memory is in a chair in the recovery room, declaring that Slice is an awesome drink, we should buy some. I’m not such a fan of that soft drink these days.
This was hugely disappointing. My nose wasn’t large enough, so they went in through the mouth. The endoscopy was okay, but I needed a follow-up endoscopy, and the doctor insisted I get sedated for that one.
So that was yesterday. Propofol wasn’t as unpleasant as Versed/Fentanyl, but I’m not a fan. They hooked me up to a lot of tubes, got me into position, and around noon said, "we’re going to give you the propofol now, it will sting a little. The last thing I remember is the discomfort of the drug entering my vein (and perhaps it got worse after my memory turned off, because that wasn’t too bad.) I woke up more than an hour later. (after a 15 minute procedure) I think my memory clipped a little after I woke up, because the first thing I remember is sitting in bed with the nurse trying to get my attention, but my glasses were on. I’m betting I put them on before I was fully back.
I felt dizzy and drugged, and insisted that my husband hold my hand as I walked to the car. I was still dizzy at home, and felt a wave of depression. I wanted to weep. I assume that was an after-effect of the drug, although I suppose it could have just been due to stress.
By 3PM I didn’t feel dizzy and felt like I was recovered enough to watch light TV. I watched “The Incredibles II”, which is not a great movie, but it has beautiful animation, and it was about as much as I was up for. The weird depression lifted around 4PM. But I felt unwell for the rest of the day, and once again, had trouble sleeping. (That’s partly due to the discomfort of the procedure, perhaps.)
Judging by how sore my throat was afterwards, this doctor was rougher than most. And that evening my jaw was so sore it was painful to lie down and sleep. They give you a ball-gag with a hole through it for endoscopies, to protect your teeth from the scope and vice versa. I’m pretty sure that I was in pain, and bit down so hard on the ball that my jaw was sore for the next five days. I can still feel it.
My doctors were professional and polite to me, and I had 2 doctors and 2 nurses in a tiny room for a procedure that took all of 15 minutes. I’m sure they didn’t do anything inappropriate. But I woke up with a profound sense that I had been violated. I think it was the disconnect between what my gut said and what my brain said that led to that feeling. (My gut knew I’d had a big tube shoved around in me, my brain was paralyzed and couldn’t form memories.) I had to reconstruct the procedure from the report, and from talking to the doctors about the timeline before the sense of violation lifted.
So I’m not sure there’s any correlation between how you feel about it and what actually happened. I don’t know if that’s reassuring or otherwise.
I don’t play well with anaesthesia. Last time I was under, they wouldn’t let me go home until I stopped puking… but I didn’t.
So last surgery I got a block, and stayed awake.
At the dentist, I often ask for zero anaesthesia. I’d rather have ten minutes of pain than hours of floppy novocaine mouth, where I feel like my lip is dragging on my collar.
My daughter (Nurse Anaesthetist) keeps telling to try some new anti-puking drug, but since I had a weird psychotropic reaction once, I just go with the pain.