To want to experience a general anaesthetic again?

[slightlyovertiredalways]

Or something like it?!

I had a general anaesthetic for the first time a few months ago, and as someone who struggles with sleeping the feeling was unreal. One second I felt a bit drunk, the next I was waking up from the deepest sleep of my life with a warm blanket on me and someone bringing me tea and toast 😂 some nights when I’m extra tired and struggling to sleep I think about that feeling and crave it in a weird way.

Is there anything I can do to help me sleep in that way?!

My GP would give me a Z drug for permanent use if I asked her, (and i was on one for a few years not long ago), and after that, we added a low dose nightly Amitrypt. at one point last year. I cut that one off.

It’s only my reluctance to be on more than my two other meds, for pain, which made me actually refuse extra drugs from her!
She has a very odd (liberal) attitude to most meds, though my advanced age might be a factor, as I doubt she suspects my insatiable appetite for drugs in my 20s and early 30s, and I have never considered confession of course.

But all that, along with my literally lifelong and very obdurate insomnia, has resulted in an awfully high tolerance for prescribed medication, unfortunately. Takes a lot to knock me out at the best of times.
I was on Rohypnol for many years, maybe 15 I guess, but that excellent drug was withdrawn in favour of Zopicline and olpidem, a very poor substitution indeed.
For that reason, I found Z drugs inappropriate for me, as they were never powerful enough to whack me out and risky half-awake topups would ensue, among other shenanigans! ☹️

I love your knowledge and thank you!

So what do you do now then, for sleep?

I have to be honest, I am absolutely shitting myself that my GP wants to stop my zopiclone. Seriously, terrified.

OP, about your wanting that delicious narcotic rush before sleep: if you haven't access to prescribed morphine (and we hope you’ve no need!) a hypnotic sleeping pill is the closest approximation.
Don't know where you are and whether you’ve the prescribing restrictions obtaining where I am, but Rohypnol performs its sleep-guaranteeing job with that initial warm bath feeling.
You'd get a lighter version of that from Zolpidem or Zopiclone, if your GP will give you some.

The GP (now retired) who gave me Rohypnol for many years used to say of chronic insomnia and sleeping pills that we’d never deny a diabetic her insulin, and no more ought we to deny the likes of us these meds to get us sleeping. Great woman, that!

Heroin might get you close

Could I test everyone’s patience and add one more thing here, about a problem with opiates?

Many people experience frightful pain near the liver immediately after a dose of an opiate medication. Codeine and morphine, most often.
This is a weird spasming thing in the bile duct for some reason, which can be truly agonising, and they will therefore often refuse very necessary pain relief.

But all that is needed is a hefty dose of magnesium along with the opiate, and the magnesium instantly relaxes the muscle there, and you’re grand.
It really works.

I’m thinking this might be the only answer to my problems.

Sleep becomes more like this for me when I am exercising like a beast. Physically exhausted rather than just mentally.

I dream of GA oblivion. Had it three times and bloody loved it.

Diazepam is my best friend but sadly you pretty much can't get it now. Oh how I wish Dr Mackay hadn't retired. Old school shirt and tie, absolute straight talker. Seen it all. He once handed me a prescription for 48 diazepam and said 'happy christmas'!

They don't make 'em like that anymore.

I’ve had 5 GAs and am up for more! I love them! Especially if you’re given fentanyl as a premed. The feeling as it’s going through your veins is lovely. Last time I had one I said to the anaesthetist I’m not surprised people get addicted to it!

I got some diazepam off the internet but I got the fear about taking it so its just sitting in a drawer.

10mg melatonin, will do the trick for me as does 25mg Promethazine

Totally normal. They always have to get me under the heated air blanket before I shake myself off the bed!

Then I get boiling hot.

I've had a few GA's and have never got this feeling! I always feel like no time has passed at all. I remember the counting down, then someone is waking me up, theres no peaceful sleep inbetween. I'm often sick too and need an anti vomit injection.
I once ranted at my dentist that he was supposed to be taking my tooth out, and when he explained that he had- I argued that he simply haddn't had time!

As a fellow insomnia sufferer (and close relative of an academic who has an interest in this area) these are the best tips I can give you:

• The bedroom is for sex and sleeping. Nothing else. Not reading or studying or watching TV or making phonecalls or getting dressed or meditating or anything else except sex and sleeping.

• Wake up at the same time every morning, no lie ins, no exceptions. The time you wake up sets your circadian rhythm. If you need to be up at six thirty for work then you need to get up at six thirty every day.

• Most people hate this one at first but it's extremely effective. You must not go to bed more than half an hour before you usually fall asleep. If you usually fall asleep at 2am then don't go to bed until 1:30am.

If you can do these three things religiously for a month they should really help your sleep. Regarding the last one, once you're going to bed at 1:30am every night you'll probably start regularly falling asleep at 1:45am instead of 2am. Then you can start going to bed at 1:15am and so on, gradually making your bedtime earlier (over a period of weeks or months). The idea is to eliminate the long hours lying in bed not sleeping.

Once you're sleeping better you might find you can relax the first two "rules" but I'd give it a solid four weeks first. If you start now you could see how your sleep is in the new year?

My sympathies to you, insomnia is bloody awful. But I would really recommend the above to see if you can improve your sleep - mine is completely different to how if used to be, thank goodness!

Not sure whether to say YABU or YANBU, but in my experience a GA doesn't give you sleep, it just deactivates your body. I had one earlier this year (my first time) and I came round feeling drunk and then sickness hit me harder than ever, the recovery was pretty brutal but then I was trying to come home the same night rather than staying. The best way I've ever got a decent night's sleep is if I have a nasty headache right before bed and take a couple of codeine tablets. I have a history of sciatica, so the pharmacist doesn't mind giving them to me. The sleep from that is heavenly. My DH on the other hand has no such experience when he takes them, so everyone is different.

Nothing really touches me. I work on oramorph and dihydrocodeine
the poor dentist despairs at how much local I need and how fast it wears off
yes I’m a redhead!

Haven’t rtft, but in case none of the other regular anaesthetists have commented….GA isn’t sleep - it’s profound unconsciousness with markedly different physiology to sleep. GA drugs also interfere with airway reflexes, respiratory effort and how your heart works so need an anaesthetist to manage those (that’s where it all went wrong for MJ). Best off sticking to less invasive methods of getting a night’s sleep!

As well as the anaesthetic, most people will have a dollop of opioid and steroid intraoperatively even for minor procedures, both of which can also make you feel pretty funky.

I've had a few GAs , I only want one again so I can lay in a hospital bed with everyone (friends and family) running around after ME for a change, worrying about ME, making sure I am OK and I have everything I need

<laughs bitterly in 5.25am when I'm up for work at 5.45>

I last had a GA when I was 4, and I remember the going to sleep much better than the coming round! Much more recently I had a spinal block (like an epidural) to deliver my twins. Afterwards they had to go straight to NICU (they were and are fine!) so I didn’t have them with me. I was exhausted and in shock and staff were doing such a good job of reassuring me that I just felt totally calm. Now I think: why wasn’t I worried about my babies?! But I slept SO well Maybe one day I will again 😁

I woke after an Op in recovery room next to me was an old man. I thought God I don't remember going to bed with him

It's not sleeping. You're drugged unconscious basically.

Phenergan is pretty good for helping you to have a deep sleep but it’s to be used sparingly and can be bought online for night time allergies. I use 4-6 over a month and it really helps. Regular usage can cause brain zaps though so don’t do more than 1-2 a week. I take it with a sleep hypnosis track and also love my electric blanket at the same time.

Yeah but it’s so restorative it’s something I long to feel again

I know what you mean, I recently had a colonoscopy and was given a sedative beforehand.

after they let me sleep for two hours and it was blissful