As a compliment to the thread about near death experiences I’d really like hearing people’s experiences of losing consciousness under general anesthesia and what’s it like coming back.
Also interested of things anesthetists may have noticed about this during their career.
I broke my top jaw and needed surgery to put my front teeth back into place. I woke up in the middle of that one. I could see them operating in the little round mirror on the doctor’s forehead he used to direct light.
I was definitely still mostly drugged because it didn’t concern me at all and I felt nothing. The nurse and doctor, however, seemed concerned. Their eyes got HUGE. They said something to each other and I was out again. I remember that very vividly.
My girlfriend did that… Woke up in the middle of her shoulder surgery, as the doc was grinding bone away. She asked them to turn the monitor so she could watch. Doc did a double take, moved the monitor, and let her watch for a little bit… While motioning to the anesthesiologist. They must’ve bumped up the meds and knocked her out again, because she went back under.
Better too little, than too much.
Ah yes, I also remember having a sore throat after, but I don’t recall them telling me beforehand that they would intubate me.
Yeah that makes sense. It wasn’t something I had considered before the op.
I don’t know the answer to that.
I don’t remember a damn thing. One moment there was a mask over my face and I was being asked to count backwards from ten (I think I got to about 8?), the next I woke up very bleary with a sore throat.
For a long time I thought I woke in a large room with three rows of cots. It wasn’t until some years afterwards that I realised I never saw the room I awoke in.
I didn’t feel high at any point, but then I have ADHD and even being shot full of morphine by a paramedic (the previous week) didn’t get me high. I wuz robbed.
That has nothing to do with ADHD.
It varies depending on the drugs used, I’ve been under multiple times now, the big one being for an open heart bypass.
That one I saw nothing, felt nothing, but coming out of it I remember them pulling out the breathing tube and putting me on a bi-pap machine. I had to beg to be taken off of it because it was stopping me from exhaling. I could breathe in fine, but the back pressure wouldn’t let me breathe out.
Then the drugs, it was a combination of a bunch of things, propofol (the stuff that killed Michael Jackson), fentanyl (the stuff that killed Prince). Oxy, the works.
I was having weird hallucinations. If I closed my eyes, I could see a perfectly painted brick wall about a foot in front of my face. I could see the detail on the bricks and the mortar, the texture of the paint. Bonus - every time they put me in a different room, the wall would change color.
You pass out, and then you wake up with no memory of anything that happened in the meantime.
That is, unless they messed up the dosage and allowed you to regain consciousness. It happened to me once as a kid, I had to have a tooth removed but I was so scared that they had to put me under, but I woke up briefly during the operation and I remember the surgeon giving me nitrous oxide (I think that’s what it was, because it had this sweet smell and taste) with a mask and telling my mom (who was in the operating room), “let’s turn this down a little bit so we don’t pass out too”. Then I passed out again and woke up in the recovery unit.
Once for a colonoscopy. Was totally lucid talking to the doctor & nurse then next thing I know I’m in the recovery room. I get dressed & am taken out in a wheelchair. I remember part of the ride home but clearly blacked out in the car for a bit. Had one or two similar blackouts that day, then nothing more.
When I was little I had to get stitches in my ear so they had to put me under while they stitched the top of my ear back in place, all I remember is sitting down on the medical bed then all of a sudden it was done and we were leaving.
Got propofol for a colonoscopy and it was like taking an amazing nap. One moment I’m talking to the doctor, the next I’m waking up in recovery a little groggy but feeling refreshed.
Yes, a few times. Each time I went from feeling awake and alert to suddenly being somewhere else and feeling groggy and hungry. Nothing strange otherwise.
When I woke up I was like “oh I’m sorry, I must have fallen asleep.” The nurse just laughed then it hit me, I was supposed to fall asleep. Lol
Yeah exactly that. Anesthesiaologost said countdown from 10, got to seven both times them woke up hours later back in the ward.
I didn’t even began to count! I was asking what kind of drug they were using, I remember the nurse saying it was not opioid and then black! The strangest thing for me is that you fall asleep suddenly and abruptly so is different from a normal sleep
I remember being a cheeky kid at the time and asking “what if I hit zero?”, the anesthesiologist told me “okay, count from 100”… Yeah I didn’t make it past 97…
I remember laying down in a very cold operating room where I had very thin clothing. I asked one of the doctors that I don’t feel anything, she said “we haven’t put you under anesthesia yet” next thing I remember is waking up after the surgery.
I think anesthesia also messes with your memory, because I’m pretty sure that I was still awake after asking the doctor but have no recollection of what happened.
The surgery was for a ruptured ACL in my knee.
Before you are administered gas you will be on an IV drip of propofol and midazolam and they will inhibit conscious memory processes
A few times during my childhood. The thing I hated the most was the lingering smell of the gaseous anesthetic. In subsequent surgical procedures, I requested an ivy approach to the delivery of the anesthetic.
A couple of times. This last time, I swore that I was conscious during the procedure and tried explaining it to the doctor when I woke up. I told him that I was sort of dreaming, and my brain was converting pain/pressure into stuff happening in the dream.
They didn’t seem to believe me, and honestly I don’t think I do either. I was really out of it when I woke up.
There are forms of anesthesia which give you a sense of passing time and allow for dreaming. It is given for small operations or when you were nauseous from the other missing-time one.
I had the light one when I had a teeth operation. I dreamt about nokia phones, how strong they are and that you can feel its toughness in your jaw when putting it towards your ears. Your theory is correct. How did the dream end? I ended up selling the nokia because it was too strong for me :D
Mine was also dental, so that checks out. My dream ended with a volcano for some reason.
I went under for an appendectomy in 2004. I can remember the feeling of the anaesthetic moving up my arm (they put it in through a wrist cannula). It was weird. It felt like nothing. My hand just disappeared from my senses. I felt it moving up my arm and into my shoulder and into my neck and
I was kind of disappointed they didn’t make me count backwards like you see on TV. Just one minute I was laying on a table with a squishy pad under me, the next I was groggily waking up with an oxygen canula up my nose.
My experience fainting was much more interesting. Woke up in the early morning with my leg hurting. I had a roommate who heard me moving around and said that I probably had a charly horse. Her recommendation was to stand up and slowly press down on my leg until it released. I did. Then I slowly became aware that the light in the room had changed. Then that I was very cold. And then that I was laying down. Apparently I straight up passed out for ten minutes from the pain. Fortunately I didn’t hit my head on the way down but my roommate was very concerned and immediately gave me a glass of water because according to her, she’d only ever seen someone faint from heat exhaustion and they needed water.
