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My most recent one was very peaceful. It was done via IV. My doc initials the place to cut right before hand. I was all hooked up. He verified what he was going to do, and I confirmed. Everyone smile, and asked if I was ready. Up until that point, you can back out. I said lets do it and that was about all I remember until I woke up.

Overall it felt like falling asleep and then waking up, but with no dreams. Just time missing, like someone else mentioned, if you will.

No sore throat. A bit dry, but not sore at all.
 
GA is nothing. I'd love to have more of it.
They put an IV in, injected one drug that made me feel really, really good and I started laughing.

The doc had me put some nasal spray because I was getting a breathing tube and a GI tube in my nose.

The last thing I remember was him asking me what was so funny as he injected another drug.

Once you are asleep, you get a another drug that will paralyze your body.

And, luckily, you will be unconscious when the catheter goes in. :eek:

I was so pumped full of morphine that I remember no negative side effects.

HA! I quite enjoy GAs too. Luckily I have never had to have one for open surgery, but I have had quite a few and must admit to enjoying the sensation. It is quite a nice feeling. Apart from my last one where I was in quite a lot of pain (but was on morphine for that too so the more meds the merrier! :D)

They definitely do not cathetise everyone when you go under, you may be thinking of a cannula?
 
Strange. Of course not knowing the specifics of your procedure I can't comment except to say that it's certainly not standard practice in the UK to insert a urinary catheter. However there are other kinds http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catheter which may have been used in your case.

Urinary catheters are only used in some cases. It would be unusual for a knee operation unless it were going to take awhile.
 
GA isn't bad. I'm highly sensitive to most medications and stuff, but GA doesn't really bother me too much. Like several people have said, you might be mildly disoriented when you wake up, and depending on how nauseous you are, you may throw up, but that's about it. Your throat may be a little tickely from the breathing tube, too, but it's nothing to be worried about. Drink lots of water - that will help relieve any throat pain and it will help flush the anesthetic out of your system.
 
Seems like most people have the breathing tube put down their throat. I wonder why sometimes they do it through the nose
 
The worst thing that could happen is... Oh well, general anesthetic is no biggie. I've had it 3 or 4 times and worst was a little bit of nausea. Best thing is kicking back with your buddy Vicodin :rolleyes::p
 
Best thing is kicking back with your buddy Vicodin :rolleyes::p
*big grin*
Yea, that was the best part about having kidney stones! :)


The first time I had General Anesthesia, the guy didn't tell me that my arm would burn while they injected it. I flipped out for about 3 seconds before it I fell asleep. When I was coming out of it, I was groggy and VERY irritable. My dad tried to comfort me, but I demanded he leave because he didn't know what the pain of kidney stones was like. I let my mom stay.. she's had em. :D

The second time went fine. Me and my buddy morphine kicked it in the post-op.

There was one time I went down for a catheter ablation, though. I somehow woke up during the last 5 minutes of it. I was aware of the people moving my arms and legs, but I couldn't move or talk on my own. I remember getting wheeled out of the OR. It was scary, but not particularly painful. More of a "trapped in my body" kinda thing. That's been my only bad experience, though.

Heh, one time I was getting a test done and they gave me something and told me that I'll be really sleepy but probably not fall asleep.
Nope. I was out for 9 hours. I'd had to fast the two previous days, so it was no surprise. I went there, I remember going into the room and getting the meds, and then BAM! I was home and I woke up at 2 in the morning. Hehe.
 
Thanks guys, I'm feeling slightly better after a night's sleep - my parents I think are organizing a secret wake up party for me - anyone had this embarrassment? lol
 
I had a car crash in december, and i hit my kneecap on something under the steering wheel. It severed most of the tendon under my kneecap, and broke my kneecap in half. I went into hospital that night for my operation.

They stuck an IV needle into my arm and fed me fluids that way until my op. The surgeon used the IV to give me the anesthetic. The last memory I have before I went under was him giving the syringe a bit of a squeeze.

When I came through, I was sweating (because they put too many blankets on me) and my hands were shaking. The shaking wore off after a few minutes. No nausea, no vomiting, no sore throats, it was all good :)
 
I've had 2 operations in the last 6 months, one was local the other was general. Surprisingly General Anesthetics (IV drip) was much less abrasive on me. I was out in a jiffy and when I awoke I was a little in a daze but after about 15-30 minutes I was already up in bed eating a meal (mashed of course, no solids right away). I had almost zero side effects at all from it. I remember almost everything as well, except for when I was under, it was just like going to bed and waking up. I had to do breathing exercise every hour for the first day just to clear any liquids or something from your lungs. I also had an oxygen sensor on my finger to measure my oxygen levels.

Local on the other hand was much worse. I ended up waking up once during the operation, and I was given a lot of pills with also an IV and afterwards everything was a total blur I don't remember much that happened but I was told I said and did some really silly things under the meds. I was out of it for a solid 24 hours, and overall made me feel like a bad hangover.

In both cases, the worse side effect came 3 days AFTER the Anesthetics. A killer migraine showed up and lasted the whole day. It's the worse migraine I've ever had in my life, so bad that even moving just a little would send shooting pain in my head. The next day it was gone.

In both cases I was also given Vicodin's to relieve any pain I had from the surgery.
 
Other that the creepy idea of some 'wake up party' from your parents you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

It is timeless, dreamless sleep. They inject your IV and you feel tingly for about 2 seconds and the next thing you know you are done. It's quite cool, actually. When you wake, you may shiver and have a sore throat but you'll barely remember it anyway.

Side note: Go under with pleasant thoughts because your brain cannot differentiate the time loss. E.g., if you go under scared/panicked, you tend to wake up that way, but go under thinking of beaches and you usually wake up more calm. Even animals react the same way. Just one of those things.

Try not to worry yourself, it really isn't bad. :)

Best of luck on the surgery.
 
Seems like most people have the breathing tube put down their throat. I wonder why sometimes they do it through the nose
Putting the "breathing tube" in through the nose is pretty unusual. It's usually only reserved for patients with a difficult airway who are having their operation in lower-level hospitals where they don't have video intubating equipment in the anesthesia department.
 
Putting the "breathing tube" in through the nose is pretty unusual. It's usually only reserved for patients with a difficult airway who are having their operation in lower-level hospitals where they don't have video intubating equipment in the anesthesia department.

are you sure thats not a gastro tube? ive never seen someone be intubated through the nose, doesnt seem possible to me...
 
I'm a bit worried because I'm having an operation on my knee involving general anaesthetic on Saturday...:confused:

I'm just wondering if anyone else here can give any advise to stop me from worrying... I'd love to hear from people who have had an operation before... know what general anaesthetic is like... in the same position as me... etc.

Any support would be much appreciated. Thank you...

And to be nice, no negative replies please.... :)

Just be thankful you are not on deathrow. You will be getting the same drugs as someone on deathrow hopefully in different percentages. :p
 
Putting the "breathing tube" in through the nose is pretty unusual. It's usually only reserved for patients with a difficult airway who are having their operation in lower-level hospitals where they don't have video intubating equipment in the anesthesia department.

My friend I was talking too, who also had an anaesthetic last year, had an operation on his gums in his mouth - that involved breathing tube through the nose, probably because they can't operate on the mouth while theres a huge tube in the middle.
 
it's not bad. easy going under, coming out varies by person. I couldn't eat properly and of course, didn't listen to the nurse and promptly tossed out the soup I had :(

Of course, going under, I started feeling looping and hit on the gorgeous, big breasted red head nurse - I LOVE red heads so it was a no-brainer (no pun intended :)

The other related story which really isn't general A - it's related to IV. I had been in bed ALL day (hernia surgery) so when I want to pee that night....oh boy....did i let loose. I must have peed for 4 minutes straight which is a long, long time and after being in bed, my legs were very shaky. it was a good thing I was holding onto the IV pole b/c i'm sure I would have dropped. I had to call the nurse to help me back into bed (sadly, no, it wasn't the same red head nurse :)

you'll be fine.

cheers,
keebler

PS. if it were me, i'd be more worried about healing my knee afterwards
 
are you sure thats not a gastro tube? ive never seen someone be intubated through the nose, doesnt seem possible to me...
A gastric tube to decompress the stomach, if necessary, would usually go down through the mouth during general anesthesia. Intubating the airway through the nose is possible, but not optimal, and would only be done under certain relatively uncommon circumstances.
 
Im curious, what kind of circumstances warrant a nasal intubation? how can positive pressure be maintained in that situation? Clamp the nostrils and mouth?
 
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