Feeling so embarrassed after anaesthesia. Please tell me this has happened to others?

[ShortFlighted]

A week ago, I had a surgery. I was extremely nervous before being put to sleep.

When I came round, I was in a lot of pain but my throat was so dry I couldn’t say “hey, I’m in pain” , so I just started whining “ouch “ “ouch “.

Then I kept taking off the oxygen mask because it was annoying me. I also asked multiple times where my car was and had to be reminded I was in hospital at least twice. I also kept waving to thin air. The nurse was nice enough but I could tell I wasn’t her favourite patient 😳.

Now I remember it, I’m so embarrassed and feel like I was probably a real pain in the arse. Coincidentally, I had to be kept in post op because I was groggier and woozier than expected.

Reassure me please!

Oh god here's me sat thinking I don't have anything particularly amusing to add because I genuinely seem to shrug off GA to a startling degree and usually have to argue with nurses that I really am hungry and really won't vomit a little bit of toast.

Then I remembered. My first c-section. Wasn't given a GA but it had been 33 hours of active labour before the EMCS, baby had been taken straight to NICU so I hadn't seen him and obviously I was on a LOT of very strong painkillers. Again, normally I can ride the opiate wave pretty well but hormones, emotions and unbelievable tiredness meant that I suddenly remembered about 2 hours after giving birth that you were supposed to inform your employer.

So I did. In every single gory excruciating no holds barred detail. With senior management team copied in for good measure. My employer was a very prim and proper woman who couldn't even bring herself to use the word 'pregnant' in discussions around my maternity leave. Excellent

Some of these are hilarious, and hats off to the staff who deal with these situations without batting an eyelid. I hope your worries have been alleviated, OP.

My story is that I woke up during the night after being given strong pain relief in hospital quite recently, buzzed for a nurse then proceeded to tell her I had to get to London asap because I needed to report Bruno Tonioli to the police for messing up some spreadsheets I'd been working on and I was going to miss a work deadline.

The nurse very calmly said that it was 4am and there were no trains to London for a few hours so I may as well go back to sleep.

My daughter jumped up, tried to get off the trolley, fell against the corner of a table and broke her nose….

I was visiting my parents in my mid-30s when I suddenly needed emergency dental surgery.under a GA. I woke up the next morning in bed fully- clothed with my shoes and socks on. I could remember nothing but apparently I attacked the Dentist, had to be manhandled into my father's car and went ballistic when I got home, refused to get into bed unless my clothes remained on and gave my poor mother (I thought she was a prison warder) some nasty scratches and bruises when she tried to encourage me to undress. Awkward!

After over a week lying flat on my back I was allowed to stand and walk myself to the loo. Upon returning to my bed, I screamed out in agony and nurses came running. They were trying to help me but making it harder, and I just said "No, just leave me alone" - albeit that I probably spat the words out as I tried to breathe through the pain and ease myself back into bed. On my notes that day they wrote that I was "extremely difficult", which I thought was unreasonable in the circumstances. They must see this stuff all the time, and I've certainly seen a multitude of clips where people say and do all sorts while under the influence. I wouldn't give it another thought.

As for who they 'like', the staff apparently favoured me (though maybe not that day LOL), and were pretty ghastly to a lovely young woman stationed outside their area, for no apparent reason. If they'd treated me the way they did her they'd not have got away with it, but she was an absolute sweetie.

I demanded to know “Which one of you bitches stole my lion cubs?”
I must have been having a lovely dream. Meanwhile, I wasn’t remotely interested in the twins that had been removed from my belly under GA until quite a bit later. (Ironically, they’re Leos, but I really was adamant that I actually had lion cubs somewhere.)

This thread is golden.

Coming round from my oophorectomy I insisted I wanted to see what my ovaries looked like. I was obsessed with this & clearly would not stop talking about it in the most strident of terms. To shut me up - and fair play to them - a medic went & got an iPad & showed me the pictures.

Obviously I still have no fucking idea what my ovaries looked like.

Well, I'm a little disappointed! I had a surgery this morning with GA and then fentanyl upon waking and then another dose of a pain killer, don't know if it was more fentanyl or something else, an hr or two later. Once i woke up post op i was slow and slurry but otherwise with it. Nothing funny, no intense emotions, I've been very deeply restful but haven't even actually slept since the surgery.

Upon regaining consciousness post op i had the sense I'd been dreaming but instantly couldn't recall it whereas usually i can.

Pre my em c section- in theatre waiting whilst they prepped me. I asked the surgeon whether he had ever done this operation before. He told my he hadn’t. That he was on work experience and usually helped look after the hospital grounds🥴

Don't worry they see all sorts!

I had surgery 2 years ago, when I woke up from the anaesthesia the nurse said, "Oh Mike Tyson is awake" and I was confused why she said that but felt fine and like myself, so I was like what do you mean? Looked down and my right hand is strapped against the bed and we're still in the operating room!

She went on to explain how I have already been awake, and had grabbed her by the hair, when she has shouted another nurse I have proceeded to punch and kick them and actually got myself off the operating bed and tried leaving. Took 4 of them to grab me and pin me down. I had and still have absolutely NO recollection of this whatsoever😳moreover I am not a violent person AT ALL and hate confrontation.

The nurse asked me if I have ever been in the armed forces (which I haven't). I thought maybe I had said something when during this episode or impressed them with my fighting skills 😂but turns out there is a 'phenomenon' where few people get extremely angry after anaesthesia but it mostly only affects men who are veterans that have PTSD. I have a history of PTSD so that must be it I'm guessing.

Kind of freaks me out though that I absolutely do not remember that at all. Makes me wonder how many times people really wake up during anaesthesia and just don't remember. Plus I do wonder what they were doing that caused me to be so violent, I would only ever be violent if someone was really hurting me or if I was terrified for my life!

Had wisdom teeth out in my teens.

came around and was convinced the nurse was actually Tim Henman (tennis player).

I was so upset and got so worked up whenever she came near me (yes it was a she, not even a he!) that they had to get another nurse 🙈. Poor woman looked nothing like him either but there was no convincing me otherwise.

It is on my medial records to that I react badly to anesthesia.

My daughter at 4 had a thyroglossal cyst in her neck removed under GA.. when she woke up she screamed at the top of her voice repeatedly “put my nobbly bit back put it back”
in the end they had to sedate her!! She had no idea after!
When she had a broken tooth removed under GA she shouted HI HELLO ITS ME and waved at everyone
hilarious 😆

Had emergency section with DS1 under general anaesthetic as my epidural didn't work. Came round to find DH next to me trying to show me our beautiful new baby and I just kept telling him to "take that thing away, I've had surgery you know and I've got an open wound!" The surgeon and anaesthetist had to come in to convince me that they hadn't left me with an open wound! 😂

I only had an epidural for a csection, but apparently when they lifted my daughter over the curtain for me to see her I said “that’s not mine”! I have no memory of this - must have been a brain fart.

I'd be really surprised if you woke up and were punching people during surgery. I worked in theatres for years, and never saw that happen. Hope that reassures your a bit.

Maybe you had a nerve block and sedation, rather than a general anaesthetic? Or, most likely, this was after surgery and you awoke in theatre at the end of the procedure, and you were disorientated and became aggressive

Patients waking during surgery is very rare, and happens when patients are paralysed and anaesthetised, so they wouldn't be moving about or punching people. If a patient is anaesthetised but not paralysed, they might move very slightly, or maybe their heart rate would increase. Patients who do this would be given more anaesthetic so I can't envisage a scenario where anyone would try to get off the table during a procedure in either scenario.

I was given pethidine during a long Labour and lay conversing with the man in the moon who was peeping through the venetian blinds
My husband and the midwives were in stitches because I would pause every now and then as if I were listening to a response.

I love this, the thought of you grinning and waving and all the people in the cafe having a cuppa and waving back!

I woke up as the gauze was taken off my face and tubes removed. I remember feeling something in my mouth that they had forgotten to remove and clawing at it with both hands to get rid of it because I couldn't breathe. It was my tongue.

ppllkj

My apologies, MN Towers.
I suppose my post's gone now? I was trying to keep things as anonymous as I could...