Waking up during surgey

[NM Sunshine 1]

I woke up briefly during my band surgery. I could feel nothing, I remember seeing a doc on my left side. I heard a remark about my liver and fell into a dream about me having this horrendously big liver that started getting bigger and bigger.

After surgery my doctor was amazed at how small & healthy my liver was. He said it looked like a 15year olds. And the person I saw on left side was the anesthesialogist.

[tlambright1986 0]

did anyone wake up and start talking crazy stuff? i woke up and started talking non sense... the i started cussing and then i started crying for my mom???lol

[Alfie 58]

Hi MizPeppy,

Oh wow I feel so bad for you. I had my gall bladder out on Wednesday and when I woke up I felt kind of crummy. I didn't feel any pain but just that I felt so venerable I can't imagine what you went through waking up during your surgery. So sorry. Glad it's in your past!

[beckers61 0]

Um that sounds horrendous!! I have had 3 surgeries so far and was under general anathesia for 2 of them. I didnt wake up during either procedure. But when they removed my infected port, I was put under regional anathesia and I woke up a couple times during that because I could feel pain. I went right back under after they shot some more drugs in me. But I cant imagine they would have you on regional anathesia for the initial banding. Scary.

how did you know your port was infected??? what problems were you having

[Mrs Husker 3]

I have this problem. I have been awake during oral surgery, having my finger re-attached, a colonoscopy (sp) and my c-section. I talked to the anesthesialogist before surgery and explained my fears and they took great care of me.

[KarenG. 0]

I have this problem. I have been awake during oral surgery, having my finger re-attached, a colonoscopy (sp) and my c-section. I talked to the anesthesialogist before surgery and explained my fears and they took great care of me.

I think you are supposed to be awake during oral surgery, colonoscopy and c-section - dont they call that "twilight" anesthesia?

[lljpaisley 0]

You say it is rare but listen to how many people on this site alone have experienced it. I did also but to a much lesser degree. I had surgery on my ear and i woke up when they were bandaging my head. They kept picking it up and putting it down as they were putting the bandage around my head! Luckily nothing hurt and i went right back to sleep. As someone said before, they do give you meds to wake you up near the end of surgery so maybe they just gave them a little too early or some people are very responsive to certain meds.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

Honestly, it sounds like a false memory and that is VERY common with anesthesia. My friend swears she heard them say, "Let's extubate her now." She swore it happened, was angry that she was awake, etc. Well, she was never INTUBATED. She had a LMA, not intubation. She remembers all kinds of things that never happened. It seems SO real and people swear up and down it happened but usually if you ask them their biggest fears before surgery, that is exactly what they remember happening during surgery. Thing is, it never happened.

She swears she felt them sewing her up, the works. It never happened, all false memories and all exactly the same things she feared before having surgery.

It seems so real it is hard to believe it didn't happen but the drugs do really weird things to us.

I used to do a lot of OR work and when people wake up in recovery they explain conversations they heard... well, I was there and that topic was never discussed during surgery.

It's really common.

[WASaBubbleButt 41]

I think you are supposed to be awake during oral surgery, colonoscopy and c-section - dont they call that "twilight" anesthesia?

Bingo.

Another issue is that people DO wake up after surgery but they are supposed to. Due to draping they can't really see the area that was being worked on. They might feel someone tugging and pulling but that is the area being cleaned up and bandaged.

This is really verrrry common but in 23 years I've yet to have a patient that really was awake and able to tell us something that really did happen. But a good number swear they were awake. They recite conversations that never happened, the works.

Anesthesia is very weird.

[Titslereaux 1]

Waking up unable to move or speak while under anesthesia is actually not as rare as you think. It happened to my sister during an appendectomy, and her docs tried to tell her she was dreaming until she repeated medical terminology word-for-word, names of instruments, people in the room, etc. There was a huge news story about this somewhat common occurrence just last week with people awake trying to get the surgeon's attention but unable to scream. Seeing my sister like that was a nightmare for me, let alone you (or her) going through it. The good news is she never had recurring nightmares! I hope it fades to a distant memory soon.

[lljpaisley 0]

I know it isn't exactly the same but once i had laughing gas for dental surgery. Well when they were through i would have sworn that my chair spun throughout the whole thing with the dentist chasing me with a pair of pliers!

[LovingWhatIs 0]

Yeah, tell your Doctors during future surgery that you have a history of AA. Some places are now using a brain wave monitor to insure that this doesn't happen (They are only like 5 grand, so you think everyone would have had them by now). It probably has nothing to do with the kind of surgery you had, as others said.

You are so not crazy. It IS rare, but recognized now - and if you have a surgeon that doesn't know about it, I would have to question why. We know, and we aren't even doctors - (But I play one online. heh heh)

[StacyinDE 0]

I didn't wake up during my band surgery but I woke up with my second C-Section while under general anesthesia. It was when they were getting my son out of me that I woke up, couldn't breathe, move, scream, felt like I was suffocating - no pain, thankfully, but I could feel them tugging and pulling and my body being shaken. It was the most horrible feeling I have ever felt!! That's how I found out my son was in respiratory distress. He couldn't get enough oxygen to cry and I heard the doctors and nurses scrambling to get him help and I started freaking out and my pressure skyrocketed and they knocked me back out.

When I came to, they came in to tell me that my son was in the NICU on a ventilator and before they started talking I was asking where he was and was he breathing now. To say they were shocked is an understatement. I told them what happened, and repeated word for the word the doctors and nurses conversations, my son's Apgar scores and what the NICU doc had said. They couldn't apologize enough. Also, my OB is a doc that I used to work for.

I canceled previous WLS because I was terrified to do anesthesia again. But, before being banded I talked to Anesthesia at the hosipital I was getting banded in. The anesthesiologist explained to me that that is actually quite common in C-Sections under general because general affects the baby so they can't give the mom too much and many "moms" come awake and have a level of awareness though don't usually feel any pain.

She assured me they used the forehead monitors for all surgeries at this hospital, so they would know exactly how far under I was and would make sure I didn't wake up. I didn't, and being banded after the C-Section scare actually was a tremendous help to me. I am no longer terrified of going under again now that I understand what happened. I just wish the other hospital had explained what was going on and that it could happen before I had my section.

[CharBrue 0]

I've also experience anesthesia awareness during a tonsillectomy 2 years ago. I was completely aware of the removal of my right tonsil and the injection of the marcan into my throat. No mention of that drug before surgery. I felt the pain and tried everything to move a hand or foot or make a noise and nothing happened.

I was completely awake leaving the OR and only stayed in recovery for 30 minutes. When I was taken to a room for observation before same day discharge, I told the nurses what I experienced and they never recorded a thing on my chart.

I did some research and found a site about anesthesia awareness. I spoke to the anesthesiologist and he told me what I experienced was 'recall.' I'm sorry, but I felt the pain! When I repeated some of the conversation he still called it recall. I told the surgeon at my follow up visit and he just blew it off saying he'd never heard of it and it could not have happened because I didn't move or make a noise!

I've since had 2 additional surgeries -- carpal tunnel right/left -- and have not experienced the same awareness. Thankfully I had the same anesthesiologist for both surgeries (at a different hospital) and he said you should never remember leaving the OR.

I sure hope this doesn't happen to me during band surgery. :phanvan

[mumof2boys 71]

Fortunately this has not happened to me, but I have seen stories about it on 20/20 or 60 minutes. It seems terrible. I can say, however, that during my second c-section, towards the end, I could feel everything. I was awake during the entire thing, but the numbness wore off and as I was moaning the anesteologist asked me what was wrong and I told him that I could feel them putting me back together. He told me that they were almost done. It wasn't pleasant.

I'm really sorry to hear that you went through that.