Awakening {while under anesthesia}

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/awakening/309188/

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Linda Campbell was not quite 4 years old when her appendix burst, spilling its bacteria-rich contents throughout her abdomen. She was in severe pain, had a high fever, and wouldn’t stop crying. Her parents, in a state of panic, brought her to the emergency room in Atlanta, where they lived. Knowing that Campbell’s organs were beginning to fail and her heart was on the brink of shutting down, doctors rushed her into surgery.

Today, removing an appendix leaves only a few droplet-size scars. But back then, in the 1960s, the procedure was much more involved. As Campbell recalls, an anesthesiologist told her to count backward from 10 while he flooded her lungs with anesthetic ether gas, allowing a surgeon to slice into her torso, cut out her earthworm-size appendix, and drain her abdomen of infectious slop, leaving behind a lengthy, longitudinal scar.

The operation was successful, but not long after Campbell returned home, her mother sensed that something was wrong. The calm, precocious girl who went into the surgery was not the same one who emerged. Campbell began flinging food from her high chair. She suffered random episodes of uncontrollable vomiting. She threw violent temper tantrums during the day and had disturbing dreams at night. “They were about people being cut open, lots of blood, lots of violence,” Campbell remembers. She refused to be alone, but avoided anyone outside her immediate circle. Her parents took her to physicians and therapists. None could determine the cause of her distress. When she was in eighth grade, her parents pulled her from school for rehabilitation.

Over time, Campbell’s most severe symptoms subsided, and she learned how to cope with those that remained. She managed to move on, become an accountant, and start a family of her own, but she wasn’t cured. Her nightmares continued, and nearly anything could trigger a panic attack: car horns, sudden bright lights, wearing tight-fitting pants or snug collars, even lying flat in a bed. She explored the possibility of post-traumatic stress disorder with her therapists, but could not identify a triggering event. One clue that did eventually surface, though, hinted at a possibly traumatic experience. During a session with a hypnotherapist, Campbell remembered an image, accompanied by an acute feeling of fear, of a man looming over her.

[unblock]

1. this is one of the reasons anesthesiologists love versed.

versed is an amnesiac, it blocks transference from short- to long-term memory. so if you become aware of anything, you won't remember it 5 minutes later.

personally, i loathe versed, because i'm fascinated by that stuff (i wanted to be quincy, m.e. when i grew up) but i understand i'm wierd that way.

of course, their lawyers have even more reason to love versed, removing a hostile witness from the scene can be invaluable, which is on of the many reason i hate it....

[Daemonaquila]

2. How odd - I'm just the opposite.

Versed doesn't touch my memory. I'm totally conscious and my memory is normal, but I just have no capacity to worry. A few minutes after getting shot with the stuff, they could've told me the surgery center was in danger of blowing up, and I would've shrugged and asked what we're going to do about that.

[unblock]

3. apparently it does have sedative and anxiolytic effects, but given that for me it's just an amnesiac

i can't say as to what effects it has on me beyond that there's this period in which people tell me i'm awake and conscious but i have absolutely zero recollection of it. personally i find that incredibly disturbing. i have no idea what i've said or done, do i need to apologize to anyone? did i reveal my passwords? my atm pin?

i know i'm in the minority, but i'd much rather have full recollection of them snaking six feet of tubing up my colon than not know what i might have said or done during that time.

[gkhouston]

4. There's not much that happens, really, except it's uncomfortable.

I've had a couple of colonoscopies and always "wake up" in the middle. I've had the doctor come to me in recovery to share the results and laugh because I was reading a book he said I wouldn't remember later. I always remember the book, though, and I wonder why he bothers to discuss the results if I'm supposedly in a zone where I won't remember anything?

[unblock]

5. lol, his lawyer must love him

he's legally taking care of his duties while minimizing the chance of hostile testimony.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. I know they used 'something" in 1968 when I had my 2nd child.

because I have NO memory of entering the hospital, having the kid. None.
First kid 2 years earlier, I remember every single detail, before, during and after, was given no drugs. ( OWWWWWW)
2nd kid, different doc, different hospital.
8 years later, was hospitalized for a tubal ligation, remember everthing except the operation itself, remember every detail of waking up,
going home next day, etc.

Have no idea what happened in '68, or what they used, did not occur at the time to ask about it.