General Anesthesia

[Turbinator]

I had GA during an abdominal surgery, and the only effect I experienced waking up from the anaesthesia is being sleepy, very sleepy. Including the whole not remembering anything shortly after getting an injection. And only remembering some parts after waking up, in the recovery, like episodes. However, I was in full control of my intelligence at all times. What do the dentists give to the patients, that differs from what you would get during a normal hospital surgery?

It goes something like this. After you get ready, and take off all of your clothes, and donning on the overalls, you sit and wait in the prep area, where you drink some anti-inflammatory pills and generally wait for what feels like forever. Contemplating what is about to happen over, and over, and over again. Oh and you freeze and shiver, as you are only wearing overalls. Then finally one of the OR nurses come in, ask you a bunch of basic health question, including what the surgery is for (they all ready know, but ask you as a safety check), then you walk with them in to the OR. Once i finally walked in it really hit me, I am getting a surgery, and that's the table. Then you partly take of the overall, get on the table, then they place these warm comfy blankets on you, hook you up to a lot of machines, insert an IV, give you an injection, give you oxygen and 30 seconds later you wake up in a bed, in a room, thinking it is your bedroom, windering what day it is, realising you are in a hospital, going oh yeah I think I had surgery, then falling asleep and waking up again, and some random memory of being wheeled down a hallway, then waking up again in a different room, with more beds, then falling asleep again, and waking up later and knowing exactly where you are and what happened.



Related video (the dentist variety):

 

[Izack]

Er...I'd say someone replaced the GA with LSD for that video.

I've been sedated with it at the hospital for a back injury, but I only conked out and woke up sleepy and slow-witted. :shrug:

 

[Suzy]

I've been under GA twice in the last 2 years - going under was pleasant (just fading out), waking up wasn't! The weird thing is having a gap in my memory - unlike sleeping, where I could remember being asleep, there is nothing for GA, like I didn't exist for a time.

 

[Turbinator]

like I didn't exist for a time.

That describes the experience perfectly.

It's like you push a button and it is now instantly 3 hours later, with nothing in-between. For those that never experienced it, imagine you, where you are right now, and then an eye blink later waking up in some bed. Same feeling. You totally loose that passage of time feeling that you have when you sleep.







.

 

[Izack]

That describes the experience perfectly.

It's like you push a button and it is now instantly 3 hours later, with nothing in-between. For those that never experienced it, imagine you, where you are right now, and then an eye blink later waking up in some bed. Same feeling. You totally loose that passage of time feeling that you have when you sleep.

Yes, my previous description of having 'conked out' really didn't do it justice. There's simply no sense of time having passed.

 

[Sar]

I've been under twice in my life. Last time was when my appendix got removed few years back. The weird thing is I have no recollection of waking up, even though I'm pretty sure I did Can't really explain it, but I'll try anyway. They woke me up some time in the night and told me that I'd be taken in the OR, once there I got into the operating table and they put something on the IV and the next half a second was the most awesome time in the world, it was like getting instantly trashed and just as I realised the feeling I was out. The next thing I remember is being awake in the hospital room...

it's a bit weird since first time I was under I remember waking up in the recovery room and being taken back to the hospital room.

 

[Urwumpe]

Yes, my previous description of having 'conked out' really didn't do it justice. There's simply no sense of time having passed.

Sounds like the bike accident I had as teen. The generator got loose and rotated between the spurs of the front wheel at high speed on the way to school. The last I saw was the steering handle pass below me and how lucky I would be since I fly towards grass. It was black for a short moment, then I woke up below my damaged bike. I fixed the damage by removing the generator and bending the spurs back, and drove the last kilometers to school... and then realized I was all together 40 minutes late, instead of 15 minutes too early as planned.

 

[N_Molson]

I've been under GA once in my life, to remove misplaced wisdom teeth... I felt the needle enter my arm skin, then I felt something extremely cold making it's way to my heart. Once it was there, boom ! Jump forward in time, in the wakeup room, with the feeling I had the worst hangover in my life !

 

[Pyromaniac605]

I was under GA once during surgery to remove some teeth (yeah it was that bad) and I agree with the others it's like you didn't exist for a period of time, then snap, just like that you exist again.

[obvioussarcasm]Anybody who hasn't experienced it should injure themselves so they need surgery, just for the experience.[/obvioussarcasm]

Darren

 

[jedidia]

and then realized I was all together 40 minutes late, instead of 15 minutes too early as planned.

Must be one hell of a lonely school way if noone spots a child lying unconcious under his bike for over half an hour! :blink:

Anyways, general anesthasia... had it only once in my life, when I had to set a broken arm (which they more or less had to completely break before being able to reset it), and I could choose between GA or local electroshock anesthesia. Since "local electroshocks" didn't sound quite so apealing and I'd rather sleep the whole thing through and be done with it, I chose GA, and was glad for it. The only uncomfortable thing I can remember is having a totally dry throat and not being able to speek on waking up. They put a hose down your throat while you're under to insure that nothing goes wrong with the breathing back in the time.

 

[Artlav]

Had it once as well.
There were no discontinuity or a feeling of time skip.
The doctor placed the mask on my face, the table bent, i started to slid off it, grasping for the side, then fell down onto something soft, tried to get up and realized that this was the post-op bed. All in one continuous segment, without any breaks in it.

and then realized I was all together 40 minutes late, instead of 15 minutes too early as planned.

Sounds alarming. If you're knocked out for more than a few minutes it's usually a sign of severe brain damage, or so i heard.

 

[jedidia]

If you're knocked out for more than a few minutes it's usually a sign of severe brain damage, or so i heard.

Not if you keep on breathing. The body actually has several emergancy shutdowns to take the main processing unit out of the loop in extreme circumstances.

Excrutiating pain is one of them for example. The threshold for it is variable from person to person, my wife used to pass out frequently because of severe menstruational pains.

If you pass out because of lack of oxygen, the unconciousness indeed should not last longer than a few seconds. I had this once in ski-accident, where I somehow fell on my stomach so hard that there was no air left in me. I was out for about twenty seconds according to eyewittnesses, although I wasn't out completely. Although I had no connection to the outside world anymore whatsoever, I still remember quite vividly a very weird dream I had during that time (AC/DC on stage playing jingle bells... wtf?).

Another reason can be concussion, and if that puts you out for a longer period of time it is usually a sign that the brain has been knocked too hard and that there's probably some damage, which is probably what you're refering to.

And then there's the classical example of people passing out when they witness something especially sickening or disturbing, which is another trigger of the emergency shutdown procedure above.

 

[Jarvitä]

I've only been under general anesthesia once, for head surgery (skin grafting due to light burn damage). I've been on strong painkillers before and after the surgery, so I don't remember much.

 

[N_Molson]

(AC/DC on stage playing jingle bells... wtf?)

:rofl:

 

[TMac3000]

I've never been under GA, but I passed out in the bathroom once (got out of the tub too fast:blink. I remember getting real dizzy, and thinking, man, I've gotten dizzy before after standing up, but never this bad. And suddenly I was laying with with my face practically in the toilet, and realized I had been out for maybe a couple of minutes.

It was the weirdest thing, almost like I hadn't been paying attention or something.

 

[computerex]

Not if you keep on breathing. The body actually has several emergancy shutdowns to take the main processing unit out of the loop in extreme circumstances.

No, artlav is right. A traumatic episode followed by syncope is an indicator for brain injury. Typically the injury is proportional to the amount of time you were out for.

 

[jedidia]

If the unconsiousness is due to concussion, yes. But as I said, the unconsiousness can be caused by something else than a hard hit to the head. If being unconciouss for fifteen minutes to half an hour would be that dangerous to the brain, my wife would be debile by now, as she had such episodes numerous times. But her brain was never any part of the cause, her system shut down for other reasons.

 

[Linguofreak]

I've been under general anaesthesia twice. I can't say I had any less sense of the passage of time than when normally asleep. The second time was for my wisdom teeth, and I was actually (barely) conscious.

 

[DanM]

Lol, I remember my wisdom tooth extraction in August. I remember walking out, basically high saying "I feel awesome!" Nitrous Oxide is wwweeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrdddddddddddd.

 

[n72.75]

My recommendation, speaking from experience, is that it's best to avoid Orbiter before having general anesthesia.

Not that I minded the hallucinations upon waking, it's just that it tends to lead one's family and doctors to believe that one is insane.


Why would one hail Luna 3, and you can imagine my attempt at explaining in my incoherency.