31–40 of 44 posts
I have very hazy memories of wisdom tooth extraction. No pain, but very hazy. It doesn't bother me.
I've got to wonder if it's as big an issue if patients don't remember the pain. It seems to be like the tree-falling-in-the-woods problem: if a patient feels pain but never remembers, as far as he's concerned, did it really happen? I have very hazy memories of wisdom tooth extraction. No pain, but very hazy. It doesn't bother me.
I would always wonder if I could use the same logic for surgery
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Especially in the case of an intubated patient with neuromuscular blockade, I don’t think an EKG would be useful. You’re already going to have all kinds of fluctuations from the anesthesia, muscle relaxants, analgesics and just from the intubation. I’ve read about the use of EEG [1] as a way to detect awareness, but it has serious limitations. Most of all though, many anesthetic agents have a profound effect on the a…
Paralytics used in surgery impact voluntary muscle control only, they have very little in the way of effect on things like heart rate. Heart rate is absolutely monitored closely during surgery (precisely because it can be an indication of inadequate sedation).
I've woken up during surgery (for appendix removal). It was uncomfortable but not especially painful. I didn't feel panicky or disoriented, but then I've always been OK with medical situations. The anaesthetist looked pretty horrified though.
My spinal analgesia for an unplanned c-section utterly failed. My anesthesiologist thankfully kept it together and immediately went to our discussed plan B, but I felt so bad about it that I sent her a gift basket. I wonder how common that all is.
I woke up during my wisdom teeth surgery. Actually, I'm not even sure I did, but I remember doing it. The doctors never told me anything about it. I remember waking up and seeing something covering my eye, and moving my hands to do thumb ups and peace signs (I knew there were students in the room watching the surgery), and then I remember hands trying to immobilize me, and me trying to start thumb wars, then blacking…
I also woke up during my wisdom teeth extraction. Likewise don't remember any pain, just being shaken as they tried to extract one of the teeth. Contrast that to my first eye surgery, for which I was completely awake, and the local anaesthesia wore off. That was hell. Excruciating pain while the doc had various instruments in my eye. I voluntarily stopped breathing as I clenched against the pain. Set off all sorts of…
The asshole anesthetist denied it happened.
Even if you don’t wake up during surgery, it feels like there’s an imprint of the trauma. I had a very long operation and by the time I came round I was in pieces emotionally, with no clear idea of what had happened but still a deep sense of dread. On some level it felt like my body knew what had just happened.
Are you sure that isn’t just the comedown from the anesthesia?
As an anaesthesiologist (well, senior trainee), I hesitate to comment on this, but here goes nothing... I think it’s important to remember that the vast majority of anaesthesia delivered does not involve ‘general anaesthesia’ nor neuromuscular blocking drugs. Most patient’s experience of anaesthesia is sedation, where the aim is comfort, not absence of recall. There is a bit of a movement to reduce our reliance on ne…
Interesting to see I'm sort of an outlier.
Is it common to have general anesthesia for wisdom tooth surgery somewhere in the world, maybe USA? I live in Finland.
One of my operations turned out problematic and slightly traumatic. No one wants stressful situations like that, of course. I'd still rather remember what happened and try to come to terms with it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I also woke up during my wisdom teeth extraction. Likewise don't remember any pain, just being shaken as they tried to extract one of the teeth. Contrast that to my first eye surgery, for which I was completely awake, and the local anaesthesia wore off. That was hell. Excruciating pain while the doc had various instruments in my eye. I voluntarily stopped breathing as I clenched against the pain. Set off all sorts of…
I also woke up after a wisdom teeth extraction, while still intubated, choking, and remember the nurse pulling out the tube quite painfully (for me) while I was gagging. The asshole anesthetist denied it happened.