Anaesthetic toxicity?

[Titsywoo]

I had a minor op about 18 months ago. Straight afterwards my eyesight was blurry for a couple of hours and I had a metallic taste in my mouth. Nurses seemed a bit confused by it and since it went after a few hours they sent me home that day and all was fine. Post op notes said no complications. However I was talking to a friend last night who is a nurse and it came up in conversation. She said oh that means you got too much anaesthetic. I looked it up and metallic taste is a fairly big anaesthetic 'overdose'. I feel a bit anxious about it now. I need to have another op in the next year (a much more major one) and I was already worried about it. I'm obese anyway (bmi 35) so I worry about the extra risks.

Passing anaesthetist here. A minor op would be extremely unlikely to give any kind of toxicity this scenario only really happens with days of IV anaesthetic used for sedation on ICU. If you had lots of local anaesthetic to a wound for example that can give some side effects but those would also wear off relatively quickly.

If you are having the repeat operation in the same hospital then the anaesthetist will be able to look at your old chart and see what you had last time.

Discuss it with your anaesthetist.

you will talk to the anaethetist before the op. mention everything you mentioned here, they will explain what they are going to do and will adjust the usual medication according to your needs.

Unfortunately it will be at a different hospital so not sure if notes will be available. So in your opinion those symptoms could have been from just normal amounts of anaesthetic? Thanks for replying :)

I have had a lot of anesthetic in my life and always have had a metalic taste afterwards its rank it takes a while for anesthetic to leave your system you really need to speak to the Anethatist about your concerns

titsy yes
Commonest causes of metallic tastes would be a bit of blood in your mouth or the actual drugs themselves can cause a chemical/metallic taste which gradually decreases as the anaesthetic is metabolised by the body.
As anaesthetic builds up in fat, patients who are more overweight this process can take a bit longer, but after a quick operation this wouldn't really be an issue.

Thanks gasbird that's very helpful :) Good name by the way!