MY FIRST EXPERIENCE GOING THROUGH GENERAL ANAESTHESIA

 Another agenda to tick off my bucket list during the jolly days of COVID. 

I have never been under General Anaesthesia, I am the type of person who'd like to stay awake through the drilling, sawing, cracking and wisdom teeth pulling... AKA wisdom teeth removal. 

It was a scary through "going under"... getting "fully knocked out". My mum went through several surgeries and she happily announced that she had never failed to experience the terrible nauseating sensation followed by a woeful vomit - all in order to "wake up fully".

THE INJECTION

I was pushed into a docking station where my Anaesthetist greeted me and asked where to send the invoice. Lovely. The Anaesthetist tapped and tapped away at my veins, finally one popped. A beautiful vein is what he called it. I looked down, wow, it looked like worm. He inserted the cannula... man, I'd say that it's equivalent of shoving half a toothpick into your arm. After the insertion, he realised that it was in the wrong position and proceeded to insert a second cannula. I have a high pain tolerance but MAN I was a little squirmish watching him shove a second toothpick further up my arm.

Here's a picture of a cannula in case you have not seen one. The silver bits goes all the way in, just don't look and it will be over in a jiffy. I made the mistake of watching the Anaesthetist stick it in my vein. 

INJECTED and KNOCKED OUT

Once the cannula was in and taped down, he injected the anaesthesia into my vein, apparently it will make me nice and relaxed. They proceeded to push me into a room which I assumed was the surgical theatre? I wasn't sure, 10 seconds in images were a little staggered, as if I was a drunk without the drunk sensation. They docked me next to the surgical bed and asked me to transfer. I remember transferring onto the bed and I have no memory of anything else until I woke up. 

I didn't dream

I don't remember the surgery

It's as if time had escaped me. Now I understand what it's like when people get drugged. It's a scary thought. 

THE WAKE UP

My surgery was scheduled for 11:00am, I was knocked out 20 seconds after the injection and woke up at 11:45am. I believe I woke up in the pre-recovery room with nurses walking around, as soon as they saw me waking up one nurse came and asked for my name/date of birth. Everything looked fuzzy at this point, I answered her question with a slur. I was pretty much in and out of consciousness. By 12noon, I was wheeled into recovery and more or less awake. One of the Asian nurses told me usually Asian females often feeling a little dizzy or nausea when they wake up. 

I was docked in recovery, I was given the choice of egg sandwhich or ham + cheese. I asked for egg. Shortly food came. The nurse advised that I will need to eat and pass urine before I can be discharged. I was STARVING, it was lunch time and I have no had anything to eat since 7ish the night before. I gobbled up my egg sandwhich, water, coffee, apple juice and biscuits in 10 mins. The nurse came back shocked that I had chucked all that food into my belly. The next step was to pass urine. I got up, walked to the bathroom to pass urine. Things were a tiny bit fuzzy but almost normal by this point. I went back to my bed and started to get changed. By 12:15 I was sitting on by bed texting my husband and waiting for the Surgeon to come and speak to me. 

No dizziness.

No Nausea

No Vomiting

No groggy feeling

Nothing. It was just like waking up but the visuals were slightly fuzzy. 

By 12:30PM, my Surgeon came and had a quick chat with me and I was discharged. Hoooorayy. 

THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

The beds were separated by a curtain, I was able to hear some first hand experience of the girl curtained off next to me. Unfortunately, her experience wasn't as pleasant as mine. The had a lot of trouble staying awake/waking up in general. I heard her talking about feeling dizzy and unable to eat. The nurses were lovely, they went to her and told her to try and stay away and have a little bite of the sandwhich. 

We were wheeled into recovery at roughly the same time. By the time I was discharged she was still trying to wake up. 

THE AFTERMATH

The Anaestheisa wore off completely, I didn't experience any pain, I didn't feel tired or the need to nap. It was pretty much business as usual. I was hoping to see some lotto numbers, have some sort of mind blowing out of body experience. Ha, i guess not. Anaesthesia really affects people in different ways.