re: This is what it’s like to wake up during surgery

If this is what it's like to wake up during surgery....





Then I think you died....that's some outta body shite right there

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Propofol is also a wonder drug. Last time I had it, I was on the exam table, the anesthetist said, "Okay, the doctor's ready to start. Time to Neuralize you." and pushed it. I don't remember a goddamned thing after that.

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The two drugs are often used together. No paralytic for Mac cases. So that’s how I can tell the propofol is working - if the patient felt anything there’s nothing paralyzing them to keep them from reacting to pain. Nothing. And they don’t react. At all. Stuff works.

My bf went through this during cancer surgery, I cannot imagine.

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Can they be a little more specific on how it failed? Was the gas not turned on? If a patient is paralyzed and can’t move there are other ways to determine if a patient is in pain during surgery. Such has the heart rate increasing or Blood pressure increasing. If either happens more narcotics are given and the gas is increased before a beta blocker is given.

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We don't even understand why anesthetics work

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had an old roommate that had to have surgeries on both knees, he insisted on a local so that he would be awake in case there might be any decisions to be made

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He didn’t have local on b/l knees. Spinal maybe, but not local. And the poster I was referring to said he “woke up” which means not a spinal. But if he was “talking” then he didn’t have general either. And likely wasn’t prone (which is how anyone who does achilles repairs regularly would position the patient).

My point is that there is a lot of stupid shite being tossed around in this thread.

I almost had to have Tommy John surgery at 13 but that’s the closest mane

I've been in practice for 21 years plus 4 years of residency, have done in the thousands of general anesthesia cases as a primary surgeon and have never had this complaint from a patient, but if I did I would certainly take it seriously and try to figure out what happened. As long as I can remember, the anesthesia departments where I have been have used BIS monitors (it is a representation of EEG activity using a numerical scale to gauge wakefulness) to monitor cortical suppression. One would also expect to see some change in the numerous vital signs that are monitored that would be expected to go along with a scenario of wakefulness.

I would hate if something like this happened to a patient under my watch, but I would imagine that most cases it would be hard to prove whether or not it was an actual experience or perhaps some type of vivid dream, in which case I would expect it would seem no less real to the patient. If there was corroboration to what patient was hearing in the room, that would certainly lend credence to the claims of an awake event. Also what I'm telling you is completely anecdotal, and I have no compilation of any data in this regard.

Of note, modern anesthesia care uses not only agents to induce anesthesia, but also agents for analgesia even while the patient is asleep, so one would hope that even if there is some wakefulness (but paralysis) that the pain would be ameliorated at least to a certain degree.

These experiences are a totally different ballgame from some of the experiences I'm seeing described here where people remember events from MAC cases (such as local with conscious sedation) as opposed to general anesthesia.

Yeah, while I have not been in practice as long, ive scrubbed thousands of cases and have yet to have a patient tell me in a post-op visit that they remember anything during the case itself.

Hell, my reductions in the ED with conscious sedation don’t even remember the reduction 98% of the time. And the ones that do are fuzzy on the details at best and didn’t experience any significant pain.

In 18 years of practice, probably 10,000 cases, I had one. It was exactly like their article described. We did an extensive review of the record. Not one blip in heart rate or blood pressure. Not one mention of it post op until 2 weeks later on her first clinic visit. We had two independent reviews of the Anaesthesia record because she was so insistent. We finally concluded that there was a psych issue and that was supported by a few other things in her history. But we did take it seriously.

I had a nerve block and anesthesia but I woke up 2-3x and tried to look at what the surgeon was doing. When I tried to look the nurse just blocked my view with a sheet. I made a few jokes and went back to sleep each time. Experienced no pain at all.