anasthesia Waking up from Surgery. Any Tips?

[ellie123 374]

Hello All,

Surgery for me in 1 short week....dealing with a mixture of excited butterflys fluttering and heavy worrying rhinos thumping in my belly. The big thing is coming out of Surgery. I don't usually do too well with Anasthesia. I linger FOREVER between here and there, in pain, nausiated, trying to come out, suffering, ringing in my head, struggling, its AWFUL! I dread it, and it's keeping me up tonight...

Any tips for how to elegantly wake from Surgery? What helps you? Comforts you? Looking for anything to help me coup with what is ahead? Anything that helped you? Any thoughts, techniques or things you discussed with the Anesthesiologist?

Grasping at Straws here, trying to mentally prepare...

[GreenTealael 24,952]

9 minutes ago, ellie123 said:

Hello All,

Surgery for me in 1 short week....dealing with a mixture of excited butterflys fluttering and heavy worrying rhinos thumping in my belly. The big thing is coming out of Surgery. I don't usually do too well with Anasthesia. I linger FOREVER between here and there, in pain, nausiated, trying to come out, suffering, ringing in my head, struggling, its AWFUL! I dread it, and it's keeping me up tonight...

Any tips for how to elegantly wake from Surgery? What helps you? Comforts you? Looking for anything to help me coup with what is ahead? Anything that helped you? Any thoughts, techniques or things you discussed with the Anesthesiologist?

Grasping at Straws here, trying to mentally prepare...

I woke up how you described (my first time under) and I was just happy to make it, so I prayed to orient myself. Then back to the weird dream state. I just went with it. A couple hours later I was fully lucid.

[ellie123 374]

Thanks @GreenTealael. Indeed prayer is my big strategy now. So proud of all your weight loss though. WOW! Amazing! So glad this worked so well for you!

[GreenTealael 24,952]

10 minutes ago, ellie123 said:

Thanks @GreenTealael. Indeed prayer is my big strategy now. So proud of all your weight loss though. WOW! Amazing! So glad this worked so well for you!

Thanks!

[KCgirl061 1,530]

I told myself over and over again "You're going to wake up in pain, so don't be surprised and don't whine about it" I work as a surgical nurse and its not that I get irritated with people who wake up from their procedures and are complaining of the pain, I just didn't want to be that vulnerable of a person in front of MY coworkers.

Guess what happened? I whined. I maxed out on the pain meds he ordered and I remember hearing them ask for an additional order of toradol. I'm not sure yet how big of a butt head I was, Im almost afraid to ask. But no amount of mentally preparing seemed to do any good. I think GreenTealeal gave you the best advice.

Edited August 15, 2018 by KCgirl061

[3nuthut 32]

I just spent my first night in hospital recovering and I went through the same thing. I tried not to whine but the pain was so great and I just wanted them to stick to the pain med schedule until morning. Nope it didn’t happen and I felt like I had to constantly trying to justify for more pain meds. By this morning I was a wreck, with very little sleep and still in acute pain. I asked my morning nurse why it’s so hard to get my pain meds? She couldn’t believe they were lowering my dosage and gave me what the doctor prescribed. Thank God I was able to rest before hubby came to pick me up around 2pm.
I know everyone is on high alert with narcotics but this was absolutely unnecessary. I felt like I wasn’t believed as far as pain (and I have a high tolerance).
Very disappointed. I hope you are getting better with your pain...I think I am but it’s a slow go.

[ellie123 374]

Oh wow @KCgirl061 ! Thank you for the response. A surgical nurse! That’s awesome. I guess you kind of knew the best and worst of what to expect, but sounds like it was rough though. I do have a question though ... what’s a tornado? Something that takes you to Oz?

[ellie123 374]

Gosh @3nuthut I had no idea they were cutting back post surgically!! Goodness, if you can’t get them when you’ve been sliced and diced then when can you get them?? What facility was this at? Really hope the pain levels drop for you and that the rest of your healing is smooth. So sorry you had to go through that! Judy seems wrong...

[Letsgetgoing2018 448]

Your anesthesiologist should speak with you before the surgery. Talk about your concerns. He or she should alleviate your fears. You will do fine. Relax.

[KCgirl061 1,530]

5 hours ago, ellie123 said:

... what’s a tornado? Something that takes you to Oz?

Ah going to blame autocorrect on that one. I changed it back to the intended word: TORADOL. LOL

[Frustr8 7,886]

Easy way to distinguish,between the 2 @ K.C..Girl, A tornado does take you to Oz, Toradol takes you away from Painesville.

[Sosewsue61 3,185]

Ask what type of anesthetic they are using. I had hella pain after knee replacement, nausea etc. For VSG -they used propofol, it wears off quickly and they gave me scopolamine patch before surgery for nausea - I had NO nausea after this surgery. For pain ask for 1000mgr tylenol in IV form, I would NEVER consider tylenol to work that well but in an IV at that dose, it was great. if that doesn't take care of it all ask for some dilaudid to go with it.

Good luck.

Edited August 15, 2018 by Sosewsue61

[CrankyMagpie 509]

There was a study that found that people who used lavender aromatherapeutically (which just means "they smelled lavender," but that seemed like weird phrasing) after surgery were better able to tolerate pain. And, I mean, just generally it is also a nice scent and a calming, grounding herb. I'd recommend having a lavender sachet with you, or dropping a little lavender essential oil on a small piece of cloth, to have with you as soon as they'll let you (in the recovery room? I dunno, but certainly in your hospital room!). I plan to do that.

I'll be real: I am stressed about the pain. I deal OK with modern anesthesia, based on how my last two outpatient procedures (one of which was the endoscopy) went for me. But I've never noticed that pain meds actually dull any pain for me? They just force me to sleep, which is a way of escaping pain, but I already know my team is going to have me up and moving around, maybe as often as every hour, which means very little sleep-escape for me. I'm worried it will be nearly unbearable, and I am clinging to lavender and breathing exercises as two tools to help me get through it.

It's temporary. It might be awful, but we'll get through it, and we'll be better and healthier after the fact. We've got this. 👊

[ellie123 374]

@CrankyMagpie thanks for the tip! I e got a ton of lavender in all forms! I’m so taking it now that you said this!! Best of Luck to you dear, what is your date?

[CrankyMagpie 509]

Probably not until late November. I can't pin my surgeon down, to get a date. They keep moving the goalposts. ("Lose 15 pounds by September, and we'll schedule you." "Ah, you lost 6 pounds between June and July; lose 6 more by August, and we'll get you in for late September/early October." "Oh, no, actually, Dr. Eid wants you to lose 20 more pounds, so if you lose 8 between now and your September appointment, we'll put you on the schedule for, let's say, the week of Thanksgiving." Ugh. Anyway, I'm at 7 out of those "8 more pounds," a couple of weeks after that appointment*, and well on my way to the "20 more total," so I'm going to do my best to get them to put me on the schedule, for real this time, so I can know when my surgery date is.)

*I am cheating by doing a low-fat Keto diet. ~5 of those pounds were definitely Water weight from switching into ketosis, so as soon as I eat some fruit or something, they'll come back. Cheating or not, I'll meet their goals so that I can get in and get the surgery this semester. (I work at a college and take classes. My whole life is in semesters.)