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Original poster

Gas and air = hallucinations?

29 replies

kattekitt · 04/01/2018 18:35

Hi All,

I had a procedure in hospital earlier this week, there was a choice of sedation or gas and air. With the sedation you'd have to stay in hospital for a while to allow it to wear off and then also be looked after for 12 hours afterwards. I decided that I'd try with the gas and air and I could ask to be sedated at any time.

I was extremely well looked after, was rather nervous about the procedure but I'm sure that's only normal.

Anyway my question......... has anyone had any weird experiences on gas and air?

I also wear a morphine patch for a chronic pain condition so not sure if it was the combo of the two, but I had a really weird experience, I was convinced I was dying and someone that had died that I was very close to years before was in the room with me.

Thanks in advance, would be good to know if others have experienced similar

OP posts:
userabcname · 04/01/2018 18:39

I had gas and air and pethidine during labour and thought my recently deceased grandmother was in the room. I also could 'hear' the liquid in the drip I had (being induced) going into me. I put it down to the pethidine though but again maybe it was the mix of drugs.

Bendyandtheinkmachine · 04/01/2018 18:42

Yes I was hallucinating with gas and air whilst in labour. I distinctly remember my husband holding me steady on the edge of the bed (the dr was trying to give me an epidural) and I could see my childhood kitchen over DH shoulder. I thought I was back at home. It was surreal!

Kidsarekarma · 04/01/2018 18:43

I had only gas and air during my third labour and had a weird experience too.

I also believed I was dying and felt as though I was outside my body for a while.

Then I heard a deep voice talking to me - it was inside my head but I was convinced it was the voice of God (and I'm not at all religious)

Sounds very strange but oddly I didn't really think much of it at the time and the bloody gas and air didn't even help the pain!!

Whatsinanameanyway201 · 04/01/2018 18:47

Absolutely, hallucinated whilst in labour that I was at a music concert. All the lights, noise and crowd were there. It was fabulous. If the NHS sold the stuff they'd make a fortune, I'd imagine

YNK · 04/01/2018 18:48

Nitrous oxide can be dangerous to anyone with an undiagnosed/untreated B12 deficiency (pernicious anaemia) because in oxidises any remaining B12 and renders it inactive. This can lead to permanent brain and spinal cord injury unless the B12 is replaced by injection.
Get tested for B12 deficiency if you had an unusual reaction to nitrous oxide.
www.b12deficiency.info/b12-testing/

GreyMorning · 04/01/2018 18:49

Yes, gas and air made time go in slow motion, including everyone's voices!

Nctothisfornow · 04/01/2018 18:52

I hallucinated with gas and air. Convinced someone was constantly knocking on the window when we were 3 storeys up.
I was also telling the nurses that the bearwolves were outside of the door waiting to get in.
Bearwolves as well, not warewolves lol

VLCos · 04/01/2018 19:05

I had gas and air for a colonoscopy and had a strange experience had it previous with no problems . I felt like I was in a nightclub and the beepings of the machine were the music . Then I felt like it was the end and I was going into the light . I heard my name being called and snapped out of it when I realised it was the nurse asking if I was ok !!

mixertap · 04/01/2018 21:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

demirose87 · 04/01/2018 21:38

I could feel someone stroking my hair and saw my dead cousin. Also Eastenders was on the tv and I just accepted that Dot Cotton was in the room with me..

Original poster
kattekitt · 05/01/2018 11:04

I'm so so so relieved it's not just me!

Thank you all so much, it really shock me up even more than the procedure...... when I came out to DH I just burst into tears, he then got really worried, I explained that I'd got the all clear as quick as I could but started crying again when talking about my funny turn!

Thanks all x

OP posts:
MissTulipan · 05/01/2018 17:30

I had gas and air for first baby and it made me very very paranoid and I thought there was a conspiracy against me having an epidural. I even thought my own mother was in on it plotting with nurses that I wasn’t allowed one...I got one in the end, I was just in a long queue in a busy hospital during a shift change over.

afrikat · 05/01/2018 17:32

I basically had a flash back to a party I went to when I was 14 where I was really stoned. I thought I was back there and couldn't work out why I was having a baby. My husband was rather worried about me telling the midwife all this! It was like a really bad trip, so odd. Plus 10 minutes felt like 3 hours

Nctothisfornow · 05/01/2018 17:59

Gas and air with my 2nd i spent my time giving birth explaining to the midwife how gas and air worked. I was determined to figure it out.
I was obsessed with the clock and fully focused. My understanding of it was that it doesnt take the pain away, it just makes you so high you forget the pain was happening even though you fully feel the pain when it is happening, just 2 seconds later the gas and air has distracted you.

I felt like a genius. It also made giving birth feel extremely easy as my main job at that time was figuring out gas and air.

They took it off me in the end. The bastards

WeAllHaveWings · 05/01/2018 18:27

I had gas and air while in labour and didn’t have any hallucinations, but I still don’t understand why the 3 men with the 3ft tall top hats 🎩 had to be in the room watching me?

letsblaze · 05/01/2018 19:24

Demirose87 how weird , when I was having my first I was also convinced that Dot Cotton was with me in the room 😂

TeaBelle · 05/01/2018 19:27

I was convinced I was an extra in downtown Abbey!! Dh and midwife were very amused

wtftodo · 06/01/2018 22:32

Yes I gave birth to an alien in my living room. Was quite surprised/relieved to discover it was in fact dd2. And I only had gas and air for the last few minutes..

MrsNacho · 06/01/2018 22:37

I could hear the ice cream van the whole time and was insisting someone go get me an ice cream.

MyBrilliantDisguise · 06/01/2018 22:39

I had it for a dislocated shoulder and I thought the guy dealing with me was absolutely gorgeous. To the extent I said it really loudly after the gas and air was dispensed. When he came back I didn't recognise him Grin

Scrumptiousbears · 06/01/2018 22:45

I had gas and air whilst being induced and I thought I was a bricklayer building a wall.

Still hurt like fuck though.

Teaandpeace · 04/04/2018 17:25

This is so reassuring, I had my first baby in January. I had a TERRIFYING hallucination on G&A. Time stopped, whilst I had a sound loop of an ambulance siren, clock ticking and what I thought was the 'flat line' monitor of my own death. I had a profound feeling that I had insight into creation ( im not religious at all) and I thought it a message/premonition of the eternal labour pain I would feel in hell. I was in the room on my own at the time and its been 10 weeks and I still havent got over it, unable to rationalise that it was an effect of the drug and not an insight to something terrible that awaits me. I havent met a medical professional who has heard of anything similar, its very reassuring im not the only one. I literally felt I would never be the same again. Horrible horrible start to being a mum - I hope i can one day let it go! Xx

FellOutOfBed2wice · 04/04/2018 17:35

Me too! With DD2 I thought that I had worked out how to stop time. I got “stuck” in this moment of her heartbeat on the monitor and thought the sound that was kind of in a loop was the heralding of the end of days. But I suddenly realised that I was in charge of it and actually that time was just stopped briefly, so in order to start it up again I had to tell time what to do so I was saying out loud “midwife, put down that sheet!” And “HusbandsName pick up that glass!” And doing a kind of “alacazam” motion.

I then later saw Elmo from Sesame Street come in and start mopping the floor using one of tote buckets and mops from Fantasia. Told DH with a straight face that Elmo had brought the epidural and he was going to mop it on my back with one of the Fantasia mops.

Tinysarah1985 · 04/04/2018 19:46

I had gas and air when having my daughter. I was convinced my grandad (who died 6 years ago) was outside as I could hear him and had an overwhelmig smell of handrolling tobacco (he used to smoke them)

DamyT · 22/10/2020 11:21

@Teaandpeace

This is so reassuring, I had my first baby in January. I had a TERRIFYING hallucination on G&A. Time stopped, whilst I had a sound loop of an ambulance siren, clock ticking and what I thought was the 'flat line' monitor of my own death. I had a profound feeling that I had insight into creation ( im not religious at all) and I thought it a message/premonition of the eternal labour pain I would feel in hell. I was in the room on my own at the time and its been 10 weeks and I still havent got over it, unable to rationalise that it was an effect of the drug and not an insight to something terrible that awaits me. I havent met a medical professional who has heard of anything similar, its very reassuring im not the only one. I literally felt I would never be the same again. Horrible horrible start to being a mum - I hope i can one day let it go! Xx
Gosh, I could have written this myself.... This is exactly what happened to me January 2019. I was screaming my employees names and my dad's name at the top of my lungs, to try and stop something bad happening, that I was being shown was happening, and being told I couldn't stop. I also thought I was going to die and was backed up against a wall telling my husband not to put a piece of paper down or I'd die, and he needed to trust me. I also 'experienced' being in a hospital room hugging my husband and hearing a flatline, but I couldn't see who was on the bed. I 'envisioned' insights in to why my mum had 'made certain decisions' in her life - and it was to save people - and I was going to be faced with the same dilemmas in my life. I was 'catapulted' through time to different scenarios, and I remember my head saying to myself - but I won't remember any of this - how will I know to make the right decision, and the 'voices' told me 'because the alternative will be so horrific'. I am now 4 months away from having my second child and am not really sure what to do about pain relief. I don't really want an epidural, but know I can't do it with nothing! But am so terrified of having gas and air again :( @Teaandpeace have you stopped flashing back to your hallucinations now? Hope you have managed to find a way to deal with it. Sending you love and good thoughts. x