Anesthesia awareness

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I found out about this recently, I'm very glad I did so after I went in for surgery.

Anesthesia awareness is when you go under anesthetic and become paralysed but continue to be conscious, so you can still hear, see, and feel everything.

It apparently happens to 20,000-40,000 patients every year in the US, usually caused by the patient not being given enough anesthesia to completely go asleep.

Scary stuff. Imagine being awake but paralysed, not able to call for help, while a painful operation is carried out on you...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anesthesia_awareness

It was a problem in the past, but in the US most anesthesiologists are using EEG devices and other techniques to tell that you are really asleep. It doesn't happen so much any more. It was really bad when it did happen because even though you are paralyzed, you still feel all the cutting and pain. Not a pleasant thought.

I'm terrified of general anesthesia, and there's something in my family bloodline which poses an abnormally high risk of spontaneous death while under anesthesia. I have always refused it, and gone with local anesthetic for various surgeries I've needed. I worry sometimes about what might happen if I'm in an accident or something, and they give me general anesthetic and I die. I'm hypersensitive to any kinds of drugs, and in fact, when I get Novocaine at the dentist, it's 3 or 4 days before it wears off. Other people say it's in a few hours. I broke my finger when I was 19 or 20, and they numbed part of my hand, and said it would be numb for a couple hours. It was over a month before the feeling was all the way back.

I'm so afraid, that I have conditioned myself to be prepared for taking some pain, in the event that I need surgery. I've had a piece of metal removed from my leg, without any anesthesia at all, and I was able to take the physical pain of the scalpel and stitches easier than the fear of the anesthetic.

Charles

Weird... I'm hypersensitive to any kind of drug EXCEPT novocaine. I usually need about twice as much as normal folk just to get numb and it wears off earlier than it should, which has resulted in some really severe pain before I knew why it was happening, but I can't so much as take a single ibuprofen without it upsetting my body somehow. I wonder how much (if any) of that is related to AS.

This has happened to me more than once.

I have to have the max allowed.

I don't feel pain though, I just wake up.

I was sedated, numbed, and given laughing gas when I had oral surgery. I remember waking up for moments when they were pulling teeth out. But don't worry! Something they gave me actually made me feel pretty good. Even though I was zoned out and half asleep. It's 2 hours seemed like 5 minutes. I actually remember hearing them pull a tooth out. I even saw it. I thought it was neat!! I wasn't able to move or anything, and I felt no pain. I heard music (which was really playing) and I felt like I was floating. I must have been so messed up.