Effects of a general anaesthetic

[AiredaleFan]

I found out today that the hospital procedure I'm having tomorrow (Wednesday) requires a general anaesthetic. I'd thought I would just be sedated and the doctor warned me that I'll feel crap, like having flu, the day after the GA (Thursday). That's fine, but I'm concerned about how I'll feel on Friday because I have a really important job interview first thing and really want to be on the top of my game.

I'm planning to warn the interviewers that I may need to postpone the interview because of the effects of the GA but wondering what others' experience of recovery is and how they felt 2 days later. I've never had GA before, am told I'll be under for about 30 mins.

[BIWI]

It took me 10 days to recover after my last GA, and I was only under, apparently, for 10 minutes.

It's a horrible toxin that your body will have to deal with. I'd seriously suggest that you try and rearrange your interview.

Some people are fine with it, but if you've never had one before, then you don't know how you're going to react.

[BIWI]

By the way, the effects were so bad I actually had to call the doctor out to see me - and she came really quickly because when I described how I was feeling, she thought I was having a brain haemorrhage!

[PerfectlyDone]

I always wake up from a GA wondering when they are going to start - only to be told that it's all done

No after-effects at all.

I suppose, it's very individual, will depend on how long you are under and what exact agents are being used (often 3 different meds: one to sedate you, one to achieve muscle relaxation and one for pain relief. Between them they also achieve amnesia - you cannot remember what happened to you).

I really like GAs....

[catandpanda]

I would rearrange and explain its a GA. Does vary by person. Tend to affect me quite a lot certainly for 48 hours.

[2good]

I've had about 5 in my life. Never had any after effects- wake up feeling like I've had a great sleep, that's it!

[KingIrving]

I had two in 20 days and no effects at all from the GA. I was however sore from the surgery.
For the second one, one of the painkillers given to me gave me hallucinations so stick to paracetamol if you can within the limit dose.
I was worried about having two surgeries one after the other, but really the GA was nice and smooth

[NT53NJT]

I had GA for an operation in march. Operation was about 45 minutes. I woke up and I couldn't stop shaking, I was freezing and it felt like my body was shutting down , I was terrified. Then the shaking stopped and I got taken back to my room where I drifted in and out of sleep for about 5 hours . It took me 3 hours to eat a sandwich . After my sandwich I was sick 3 or 4 times. Operation was at 9am and they expected me to be going home for 1pm the same day....I didn't end up getting home until 830pm! Quite a traumatic time for me

[esk1mo]

i had one in april, was under for 1.5-2 hours and woke up feeling great

depends what the reason for going under is, but i was given anti-sickness during, morphine afterwards and ephedrine aswell.

[esk1mo]

just to add like poster above me i was shivering when i woke up, but thats really common. they gave me an inflatable heated blanket thing and i felt great

[FaithEverPresent]

I work in Recovery and have had a few anaesthetics myself. The problem is there’s different types of anaesthetics, there’s different drugs given and there’s different individual reactions to both. You could be fine, but you could feel rough for a few days - I’m always shattered for 48 hours afterwards. I would contact them explaining the situation and ask to postpone if possible.

[overnightangel]

I’ve had a few over the years, completely disorientated on coming round, in and out of sleep for days, I’d most definitely recommend you explain youve only just found out you’re having GA and try to rearrange. If youve not had one before you so t know how your body will react.
Anyway, Good luck for the op and the job , OP!

[AiredaleFan]

Thanks everyone. It does sound as though reactions vary a lot.

I'll call them this morning and tell them I'm now having a GA and warn them I may have to postpone. Unfortunately because of the op today and the one physical recovery day I need (tomorrow) I've already had to turn down their first 2 interview times. I hope they liked my application enough to wait a bit longer if I react badly to the GA!

[swingofthings]

Not everyone is affected the same and you can react differently to one compared to another. My DD had an eye operation some years back right after another kid her age did. He came back from recovery all well, smiling and laughing and thought DD would be ok. She wasn't at all, miserable, sick and she ended up sleeping for over 18 hours when we came back home and still she wasn't well 48 hours later.

2 days later, you should expect to not feel great, but ok enough to get on with a couple of hours interview if you can then come home and crash but hard to predict.

Good luck today and most importantly, good luck on Friday!

[Walkingthroughawall]

We advise people not to drive for 48 hours after a GA or to sign important documents because of the historical 'hang-over'. In reality things are generally a bit better now. The anaesthetic drugs will be out of your body a few hours after they stop going in. Some people get a bit dopey with the pain relief that you take home. The whole package of an operation, physiological stress-response etc may make you feel grotty for a few days, but it's definitely not just the anaesthetic contributing to that. (DOI, am an anaesthetist).

[BeautifulSlang]

I had GA for my op back in April (3rd time). I came round as the nurse was calling my name and the first thing I said was, 'I was having a lovely dream then.' I had a high dosage of morphine afterwards and felt a bit groggy and sick for a day, but I put this down to the morphine and tramadol.

Good luck for your interview 🤞

[swingofthings]

walkingthrougawall, when I asked why DD was so poorly afterwards when the other boy was fine, I was told that it was because they had to give her a stronger dose than he would have received due to the type of surgery (or could it be because it lasted longer?). Is there any truth behind this, that the longer you are under anaesthetics the harder the recovery?

[FaithEverPresent]

Yes swing that’s a general rule of thumb. The longer you’re under, the longer to takes for the body to metabolise the anaesthetic. It also depends on the drugs you’re given while you’re under - if you have drugs like morphine, you’ll feel dopier than someone who had a minor procedure without painkillers.

[Walkingthroughawall]

@swingofthings. It can take a bit longer to wake if you've had a longer procedure (but the drugs still clear much quicker these days certainly than in the 80s-90s). As the length of surgery goes on though we're titrating how much anaesthetic is going in to try to avoid people accumulating enormous amounts.

Longer operations may mean it's a procedure that needed longer acting /stronger pain relief which can cause a hangover.

Different types of operations can make you feel better/worse & this may explain some of why your dd felt unwell after (sounds from what you've said like dd & t'other child had different procedures). Things like squint surgery can make you feel pretty rough until the body gets used to eyes pointing in the same direction. Other things like middle ear surgery/gynae surgery/long bowel ops are also slightly more likely to feel groggy afterwards. We can pre-empt that to an extent & try to prevent nausea, but if there's a mechanical stimulus (like the eyes having to adjust to seeing in a different way) then there's only so much the drugs will do.

So really how long the recovery takes is down to a combination of things like what the patients normal physiology is like, whether it's an emergency/planned procedure, what the actual operation is & a bit to do with the drugs. The fact that it's a combination of things that contribute to how people feel post-op means that it doesn't necessarily mean that one difficult experience means that it'll be the same every time so hopefully if your dd ever needs another operation she may be brighter quicker than the last time. Hope that makes sense.