Saturday, November 7, 2009

general anaesthetic?

Going in for surgery in a couple of weeks. Having gallbladder removed under general anaesthesia. I am not afraid at all of the surgery or the recovery, however, the last time I had surgery I awoke during the procedure and was completely terrified! I have since found out that Novocain does not work on me at all, where as Marcaine does. I know different drug families work in different ways, but which ones will work on me? Does anybody know what I should do? How do I make sure the anaesthetist understand this before surgery. I don't want to wake up again, it was the worst thing I have ever gone through!
Answer:
if you received local anesthetic (such as novocaine or marcaine), then you probably didn't receive a general anesthetic. you would have received IV sedation, and you fell asleep because the sedative made you sleepy, but that sleep is NOT the same as the sleep that would be induced with a general anesthetic. a general anesthetic is a state of unarousable sleep. the plane of sleep achieved by the sedation is a state of arousable sleep- meaning that loud noises might wake you up. in your case,it's likely that you were aroused from your sleep because the novocaine failed to keep you completely comfortable and the pain woke you up.definitely tell your anesthesiologist about that previous experience, but i can tell you right now that you need not be worried that it's going to happen again for this surgery. again, the type of anesthesia you will be receiving is totally different. also let your surgeon know that the marcaine worked better than the novocaine- surgeons frequently inject local anesthetics into the incisions to decrease post-op pain.
Anasthesiologists are specialized in finding just the right amount of paralytic and numbing drugs to keep patients asleep and not feeling a thing. Ask if you can speak to your anasthesiologist beforehand, and let him know what happened before, and what drugs do not work for you. This is most likely not going to happen again.
Good luck and get well!
Novocaine, marcaine, benzocaine, lidocaine, cocaine, and all of those other -caine drugs are local anesthetics, not general. Just make sure you tell the anesthesiologist any and all prescription drugs you are taking, because this may influence how much of the drug he needs to give you.
wow! * the same thing happened to my sister * the best thing i can tell you is to look it up on the internet and see which is best for you * my mom had to do the same thing for my sister because she had two knee surgerys and shes only 16 * when she woke up during the first surgery she was screaming and crying untill the rushed and gave her more sleeping stuff * good luck!
If, in fact, you woke up under general anesthesia, I would make sure that you take a copy of your operative records (including the anesthesia record) from that surgery with you when you meet with your anesthesia provider. (S)he can then review those records and avoid whatever medication didn't work well with you. I strongly suspect, however, that you were not under a general anesthesia when you woke up. You may have simply been sedated.
talk to your anesthesiologist about your previous experience...If you were under general the last time.. they will probably come up with a different plan..I have also had my gallbladder out...Did not wake during surgery.. and recovery was quick..
Good luck
Make sure you EMPHASISE the fact that you have woken up during surgury before and you are terrified it will happen again, have them go thru your medical records to see exactly what you were put under with at that time and what the circumstances were then so that it can be avoided this time around, anxiety about it won't help you either although it is totally understandable. As with all surguries you should have consults before the actual procedure with the vairious members of the team, the anethesesiologist included, just keep repeating the fact that you have woken up during surgury before and you want to be assured they take the proper precautions to prevent it this time.

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