Is it true that people say things when coming out from under anesthesia that they normally wouldn’t? Embarassing things, or perhaps just nonsense? If so, does this happen more frequently with certain varieties of anesthesia than others? And why does it happen? What is going on in the brain that lowers one’s inhibitions or increases confusion, or whatever?
When I came out of it the one time in my life, I was already talking as I regained my self awareness. The nurse was politely trying to get me to shut up. I don’t know what I was saying, but I think it was something kind of silly.
Of course, I’m just one case.
Anesthetics (like alcohol or drugs) can cause cognitive impairment. It’s not much different than trying to talk to someone who has just come out of a really deep sleep, or someone who is really drunk, or someone who is groggy from antihistamines. Quite simply: It’s chemical impairment (some type of intoxication, really).
There are two types of anesthetics when you “go under”: One paralyses you, so you don’t fight of the Big Ouch, the other keeps you knocked out. It’s the latter that likely turns your brain to porridge. To keep you out cold the anesthetic fiddles with your brain chemistry. So neurotransmitters get all wonky. So as you come out of it, you suffer symptoms of delerium: clouding of consciousness, difficulty maintaining or shifting attention, disorientation, illusions, hallucinations, memory deficit, etc.
Og, help you if you open your mouth and try to discuss all these flights of consciousness.
When I started to wake up from a general anesthetic when I got my wisdom teeth pulled (oh, yeah, they had to knock me right out or I’d fight), I asked the one nurse “ah aah aaah a aahahoh oo ee-ee oo ah arr ar-ar?”
She had no idea what I was talking about, but the astute Older and Wiser Nurse said: “She wants a stethoscope so she can listen to her heart murmur.”
The detailed elements of your question may be hard to answer, since the effect of some of the drugs may vary on some people, depending on their metabolism and the nature of the drug (narcotics, sedatives, hypnotics etc.) - delirium has several factors affecting its cause - you’re dealing with neurology here.
I wonder if Qadgop is around.
Wow, that’s weird–I’d never heard of anyone babbling when coming out of general anesthesia before. My own experience was of the “When did I move to this chair from the operating chair? Now get me home so I canzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” variety. Even if I had felt particularly loquacious, I wasn’t really capable of opening my mouth since it was stuffed full of soggy gauze.
I’m not sure whether or not the OP meant to include this as well, but people do say some really fun things under the influence of laughing gas…apparently my dad (who’s a stock market analyst) once threatened to downgrade a surgeon if he didn’t perform up to expectations.
I vaguely remember starting to babble when I came down from my general on a hemorrhoidectomy. I definitely wasn’t fully cognizent of my environment and I remember as if hearing myself screaming for someone to “PUT ME THE F*CK BACK UNDER!”
Not sure if I said anything else, and I never got to apologize to the poor nurses who evidently had to deal with me in post-op before I was sedated again.
Just wanted to chime in and say that I too also experienced this at one point. I had just gotten my wisdom teeth taken out, and I was just resting in the backroom in some dentist’s chair or another. The soonest, clear memory I have is me trying to talk to the guy next to me, fairly loudly I think, and the nurse saying, “Could you please be quiet? You should be getting some rest”.
Considering I’m not a doctor or anything similar, my WAG is that it’s just because you’re slightly ‘inebriated’ as it were, and so you’re more open than you would be normally.
I am told that as I came to after being under for a simple procedure, I asked for my lipstick and a margarita.
It still makes good sense to me…
My dad told me that when I came out after my back operation he asked me how I felt and I replied “Fuckin’ great!”
I actually have the vaguest memory of it too.
When I was a child, I would. I’d be in the unconscious and babbling state for about an hour. As an adult, I don’t do that. Instead, I come out much earlier than is normal (fortunately, always made it to the recovery room beforehand, though). For my tonsillectomy, I came out of anaesthesia howling in pain. For the removal of half my mandible (not quite), I came out of it with a simple “I’m out from anaesthesia.”
I had my wisdom teeth out under Demerol. They told me that Demerol is not exactly a general anethesic (sp?) – you are conscious but you cannot form memories of the experience. As you “come out of it” you slowly regain the ability to remember things from minute to minute.
So, when I came out, I asked the same questions over and over for about a 1/2 hour (did I sign that form? Where’s my cell phone? Do I have my wallet?) without recalling the answers or that I asked the question in the first place.
Very odd experience.
I had breast reduction surgery in April of 2001. I remember waking up in the recovery room feeling the most incredibly intense pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I told the nurse, “It ought to be illegal to hurt this bad.” She promptly gave me some more morphine and I was back in lala land.
On the subject of Demerol, my husband had to have a procedure done recently and they used Demerol with him. He kept asking the same questions that Hello Again mentions. “Did they do anything?” “Are you sure they did anything?” “Were you here the whole time?” over and over and over and over and over. I was happy to get him home and put him to sleep.
I had general anesthesia for my wisdom teeth, and coming out of it was like being pleasantly drunk, only more so. I only recall that I was yelling, “Kick 'im in the ass, Mom. Yeah, kick him in the ass!” the whole time my mother was paying for the bill, etc. I don’t remember this part, but my mother apparently told me about something asinine my father had done, which is what sparked this. I am sure everyone in the office heard me, as I reeled out into the waitng room still yelling “Kick him in the ass!”.
On the way home, I recall asking my mother whether or not ducks needed shower curtains before I finally dozed off.
On the flip side, my (now ex) girlfriend had some weird “twilight sleep” combo for her wisdom teeth and woke up sobbing about an ex who had committed suicide four or five years previously.
Under conscious sedation (the kind they use for procedures like endoscopy), you aren’t really “knocked out” but are sedated enough to not really remember the procedure (and who wants to remember a tube jammed up your arse?).
The common med for this is Versed.
There is a period when some people are ‘going under’ and later ‘coming out’ that they will babble or talk about things that are most private, making many of these procedures rather entertaining for the medical team involved.
Again, this happens with some people, not all.
As a circulating RN on many many surgical procudures, mostly c/sections and GYNs, I have also recovered patients just out of hernia repairs, colon reductions and open heart surgeries. People’s reactions vary widely and most are not as glamorous as articulate words. Even by the time they are transported to recovery, they have been trying to awake for a while. It takes some people a couple of hours to come out from under anesthesia. One of the first signs is their attempts to dislodge the trach tube and pulling on their restraints. Some moan, others cry, some vomit. Most of the verbalizations that are recognizable as words are a few repetative and short phrases, like “I hurt”. People who have had conscious sedation, like for endoscopy and colonoscopy are more verbal and understandable, but say much the same thing…“I hurt”. I have heard quite the long and rambling speech from women who were given Stadol IV while in labor. One young lady vividly described the purple crayola bears dancing beside her bed. But she didn’t get anesthesia, just analgesia!
Cyn, OB/GYN RN
I’ve seen people wake up from literally one extreme to the other. Some, you tap on their head, they open their eyes and you extubate them and haul them to recovery. Others literally wake up swinging. You really can’t predict how people will wake up. Although, you can make an educated guess about some. The young male who drinks 2 6-packs a day, pops Lortab like M and M’s, and a high tattoo/tooth ratio will be the one who wakes up wild. Older people wake up confused and therefore are often slightly combative. People receive many different medications during anesthesia most of which have some effect on short term cognition and it can take a while (usually less than an hour) for the effects to wear off.
p.s. Since when have you needed to pay to join the Straight Dope!!! Granted it’s only $5 but still…!
That reminds me, a friend of mine graduated from nursing school a couple of years ago. One day, her class was brought into a surgery to observe. Being a shameless flirt, she was chatting up the anesthesiologist.
Suddenly, the room went dead silent, my friend and the anesthesiologist stopped their conversation and looked around. The rest of the surgery staff, and several other nursing students were staring at the anesthesiologist. Just as he was saying “…what?” the patient sat bolt upright.
It was a bit of a learning experience. The surgeon explain that anesthesiology can be a somewhat imprecise science and that such events happen from time to time. But the “unconcious” drug usually prevents you from remembering it. (mind you he may have been making up an excuse for the dumbass who was oggling my flirty friend.)
If you want a real horror story, look up Cecil’s Straight Dope column about people under anesthetic who are paralysed, but conscious and able to feel stuff.
:eek:
I do some procedures in the Emergency Room that require knocking people out – reducing dislocated shoulders and hips, broken wrists, etc. The ideal in these cases is to anesthetize the person without paralyzing their respiration – unlike in many operations, these patients are not (usually) intubated and can speak without a big metal tube down their throat.
I hear some very unusual things, but not that often. The police department would be interested in some of the “babbles” I’ve heard.
My Grandad came out from anaesthetic, sat bolt upright and WHACKED the poor doctor because “He’d been eating Grandad’s nice piece of chicken drumstick-lunch”!
Me? I came out, burst into tears and blabbed, “I’m ALIVE!!” (I don’t like operations much!!)
I was given a pink certificate (with a teddy bear) on it for being very brave and a lollipop.
…
I was 21…
Very interesting. Thanks to everyone for thier responses.
When I was 15 I had to have a pilonydal (sp?) cyst removed from my lower back. When I came out of it the nurse transported me from the recovery room to a small private room and said she was taking me to Room 8. I remember saying, “Room 8? I thought we were in Room 7.” Other than that I don’t remember saying anything weird or silly.