Did Everyone get a saddle block with surgery?

debking811 · June 17, 2009

I'm having VSG surgery tomorrow and was told there was less pain to have saddle block with anesthesia...I'd like to get feedback...I had epidural with last pregnancy and did not like feeling of it at all..just wondering????

Malaika · June 17, 2009

I'm having VSG surgery tomorrow and was told there was less pain to have saddle block with anesthesia...I'd like to get feedback...I had epidural with last pregnancy and did not like feeling of it at all..just wondering????

I had an epidura with my first pregnancy and I didn't like it either. I did have a spinal with the sleeve and I was able to move my legs in recovery with no problem and didn't even realize I'd had the spinal. The only side effect I had is that I itched - not bad and not all the time, just in spots and just now and again. Nothing like having poison ivy. I mentioned it to Dr. Aceves, because I thought it was because of the pink "stuff" I was covered with front and back boobs to butt ... he said it wasn't from the "pink stuff" at all, it was from the morphine in the spinal. It's my understanding that if they give you a spinal, they don't have to put you under as deep and you wake up faster in recovery. According to my fiance, my surgery lasted 1 hr and 7 minutes and I was in recovery for 2 hours - when I came back to the room, I felt awake and pain free - except for the pain in my left shoulder blade which I figured was from the CO2 gas.

I have a fear of being put under and not coming out of it - as both my parents have that tendency, so anything they could use to keep me from having to be put under as deep was okay with me. I don't even remember them doing the spinal or even asking me to turn over so they could do it ... heck, I don't even remember being taken to the OR after the happy pill they gave me that morning.

I'd say go for it - but everyone is different.

Tiffykins · June 17, 2009

I did not get a spinal block for my VSG surgery, it wasn't even an option offered.

Elisabethsew · June 17, 2009

VSG requires general anesthesia. Some surgeons, like Dr. Aceves, use spinal anesthesia in addition to spinal anesthesia for the purpose of decreasing the amount of general a person gets. The person to discuss this with is the anesthesiologist.