Fear of general anesthetic?

[Maria971]

I'm posting in AIBU for more traffic...

I've never had any form of anesthetic before, and I'm really scared of it. I know it's very safe, especially for a young, fit person (I'm 30), but I'm just so terrified of that tiny possibility that I might not wake up!

Could anyone share their experiences with being put under/how afraid or not they were etc.

I completely sympathise with you as I was terrified about going under a couple of years ago for a lap and dye, I met with the surgeon and told him ‘I’m genuinely scared I’m going to die’ he was taken aback and reassured me that I was in really safe hands. You literally have an anaesthetist whose sole purpose is to monitor you for every second of the surgery and they are top at their job. Honestly, you feel sleepy and then you wake up. You’ll be fine xx

GA is like time travel. You blink and wake up hours later.
You are likely to wake up in the mood you went under in. The staff should put you at ease... talk about things that relax you or make you smile, so you wake up feeling relaxed, and probably asking if your op had actually been done because it can feel like nothing happened at all.

I had one last year when I had my hysterectomy and was actually looking forward to the GA.
They make you really comfy all tucked in the bed then the anaesthetist tells you to talk about something really nice then it goes all fuzzy and then your asleep. Then I remember waking up in recovery with a nice nurse by my side. I would love to have them regularly as they feel so nice

I've had one every six months for the past four years now. I was terrified for the first one because of all the propaganda about it. Not terrified any more.

I genuinely don't understand this fear. Even in the vanishingly unlikely event that you "don't wake up", you'll know nothing about it = nothing to be scared of (I mean, if I'm going to kick the bucket, I'd absolutely want to do it under GA.... painless and straightforward).
The reality is that you have the best sleep of your life, and then you wake up..... it's brilliant!

I had a terrible fear of anaesthesia, which got worse as I got older and faced two surgeries. I had hypnosis which was a great help, and was discussing it with the anaesthetist. He said if you weren't nervous about it I'd think it more odd than you being fearful. Not sure who all the people voting YABU are, but usually if you ask if YABU on here, people are only too pleased to tell you yes, you are.

Anyway back to the discussion with the anaesthetist. We agreed there are two types of fear; irrational, where you feel what you feel and usually no amount of reassurance will help (that's where the hypnosis comes in if you fancy giving it go), and reasonable fear - worry about the outcome, could something possibly go wrong etc. And as I say, he felt it was entirely normal to be worried but that complications are rare. Hope that helps in some way. YANBU at all.

The first GA I had was an emergency one so I didn't really know or care what was going on. The rest (6 in total over the last 2 years) have been planned and I loved them, bit weird when you feel it going into your system but yes, you get an amazing sleep 🙃

Just don't shout at the theatre staff when you wake up and tell them to evacuate because there's a fire in the operating theatre 🫣😵🤣

I am one of those rare people that has real problems with GA. I mean those less than 0.5%.
I am hard to put under, keep under, and have monumentally bad reactions. I have been so sick afterwards that they could not move me out of the recovery area until late at night at the staff was stuck there well past the end of their shift.

not once, no matter how awful I have felt, have I worried for my life. I have never seen anything in my charts to indicate concern and I read everything.

over the years, the doctor’s have collected data from my various surgeries and gotten better at my GA. We still avoid it when possible and I get all sorts of custom plans, but the doctors make it work when GA is a must.

I had a similar experience. Don’t remember even being given it, just a feeling of incredible comfort, like you feel when you’re settled down to the best sleep you’ve ever had. I too was incredibly nervous about it beforehand, but honestly I wish I could have bottled the amazing feeling. I still think of it! Good luck OP, it will be absolutely fine

I’ve had multiple procedures over the past few years with general anaesthetic (endometriosis).

I promise you will be absolutely fine, and you will wake up!

You will feel very groggy afterwards and may have a sore throat. So take some throat lozenges to hospital with you for when you wake up.

I’ve had 5 GAs. I’m nearly 60 and in reasonable health. I’m overweight but aside from a touch of OA in my knees and an under active thyroid no major health issues (no diabetes, BP etc).

personally I love GAs! I love the sensation of going under….on one GA I had fentanyl as a pre med and last think I remember saying was ‘wow, no wonder the junkies like this!’ I could feel it going round my body a bit like you can feel a glass of wine going round. Then the next thing you know you’re in recovery coming round. I have no fear of them at all.

Oh and don’t worry about saying stupid things in recovery when you’re coming round. The doctors and nurses are used to patients saying weird things post anaesthesia. They’ve probably had loads of proposals of marriage!

That’s how I feel about sedation, I had it for an eye surgery where I had to be awake and able to answer questions. I was completely alert, able to hold a conversation normally I just didn’t shave a care in the world, I felt completely blissfully calm. There was a drape over half my face, I had a stranger cutting 3 holes in my eyeball and rooting around in there, a whole team of people talking medical talk. I should have been nervous or stressed but I was happily chatting away and feeling great. I think it’s probably a good think they didn’t tell me what drug it was and I’ve never tried to find out because if it was something I could get hold of then I’m not sure I could resist it.

I've had a couple of GAs. Genuinely wasn't worried about them. I know quite a few anaesthetists, and they're generally some of the calmest most capable people imaginable. I knew I was in safe hands.

@Ponderingwindow are you a redhead by any chance? Apparently we’re harder to anaesthetise because of genetics being stubborn fuckers 😁

@Maria971 i’m another one who quite enjoys a GA, the warm fuzzy feeling when they start putting you under is like sinking into a warm bath while getting deliciously tipsy. When you wake up, just be prepared to a) possibly feel a bit queasy and b) chat absolute shit to the nurses - I’m reliably informed that i asked my anaesthetist to marry me, and my FIL once came round from surgery earnestly asking the nurses to take care of the little dragons he could see flying round his room 😄

What did you have done, if you don't mind my asking? I'm hoping to get breast implants.

Ive had a breast uplift but I was advised at the time not to get implants as well. Mind you this was the 1990s they are better now. Im thinking of getting them after my facelift in may.

@FFSToEverythingSince2020 A breast augmentation...still not sure if over or under the muscle. So it's going to be mostly arm and chest pain..

As I recall it was painful. I forgot to ask for painkillers before I woke up on that occasion. Breast tissue is sensitive.

Ive also had GA and no problems at all. Was happily chatting to the chap one minute and waking up in recovery the next. Youll be fine, OP. I was super nervous too, i cried all the way to theatre x

I have a son who's an absolute pain and we've spent far too much time in hospitals and he's had so many GA's I couldn't count. In most settings I would say the anesthetist is the nicest part or the experience. They are very warm, caring & human unlike surgeons....most are weird .... they like chopping people up for fun 🤣

When I can’t get to sleep, I remember the delicious feeling of being woken up in recovery after a GA - totally rested and blissfully relaxed, not a care in the world ..
recalling that feeling helps me to get off to sleep straightaway…
I'm going to do that now.. as it’s daft o’clock!
Good luck 🤗

I've had two general anaesthetics. The first just felt like I'd had a lovely deep sleep. The second was for an emergency C section. Being pregnant raises the risk, and I'd eaten a few hours before, and I still woke up from it. My stomach was a lot smaller than when I went under in that case 😅

Got it! My surgery was also in my chest (though not my breasts) and yes, if you have surgery on the top half of you, you will experience some discomfort in your shoulders and upper chest, moreso from the “jostling around” than just the anesthesia and… it’s really the equivalent of wind trapped where no wind should be trapped, if you can imagine such a feeling. And as a result, people’s feelings differ about this as much as people’s feelings differ about trapped wind - some barely notice it and some feel like they have barbed wire in their insides. Honestly, think about when you’ve had trapped wind, and it will feel a lot like that. It essentially just has to dissipate (takes about 72 hours).

I've been under 3 times now, once in the 00's and twice in the past few years.
GA has come on a long way, when I went under in the 00's I was horrifically ill afterwards. I was so nervous for my next surgery a couple of years ago, it was on my neck (tumour removal) so a high risk site and I was so scared of throwing up afterwards from my previous experience as that could have caused a major bleed. But no, woke up and felt fine afterwards, fairly straight forward recovery.
The most recent op, definitely felt worse waking up, like I'd been hit by a truck but that's because they were very light on the pain management - they did warn me before hand, nature of a trauma injury recovery apparently.
I don't fully know the science behind it and what they do, but from chatting away with the anaesthetist, there's drugs that block the pain and drugs that knock you out. If they're worried about your vitals, they can increase pain blockers and "wake you up" - similar to surgeries that you are awake for, brain, c-section etc.
They're very skilled at what they do and they have one job in the theatre, and a team to do it.

As for discomfort, it will depend on your surgery but they're good at pain management in general. I personally experience acute, sharp pain at the incision site - have every time, but it's only when moving. The other pain, a little morphine and then paracetamol, Ibuprofen handled it to be comfortable when stationary.

Abdominal discomfort from GA will more be the painkillers, opioids cause constipation and so you need to be aware of that and make sure you're telling the nurses if you're not going (assuming you're not on full bed rest where they will know). To tell a cautionary tale about this, a family member has a major operation, on high dose of opioids and didn't pass a stool for over a week. When recovering at home, the blockage stopped them being able to pass urine for >24hrs and it became an emergency (risk of bladder rupture). Fortunately they only need an enema to fix it, albeit an uncomfortable and slightly embarrassing ordeal to go through. A simple laxative like Laxido (and sometimes a stimulant laxative too) reduces this risk significantly.

Finally, as others have mentioned, there's increase risk of blood clots, they often put you in stockings and also on blood thinners. It depends on how mobile you are post op and nature of surgery. I personally haven't been on blood thinners post op and both recent surgeries involved bed rest.

So, good questions to ask for recovery:

• What pain medications are available, what types are they, which ones can you take together and maximum doses can be asked for?
• Are they putting you on a blood thinner?
• What are the conditions to need to take a laxative?