Did you remember waking up?Breathing after surgery questions

I know EXACTLY what you are talking about. Any regular surgery I have had (one where I get knocked completely out) I come out of anesthesia feeling like I'm drowning and then I panic. I have since learned that I have a STRONG tendency to want to hold someone's hand or arm while I am coming out of all of this but usually he or she is desperately trying to do his/her job at the same time and wants nothing more than for me to let go. Obviously this creates more stress for me. And, of course, they are all yelling at me to breathe and open my eyes, etc...

I told my mom this the day before surgery for my DS and I was just contemplating how nice it would be if they just would "give" me someone's hand to hold as I came out as I thought that would make all the difference in the world for me and my transition. Well, when the Nurse Anesthetist came to consult, Mom pushed me to share my stuff with him. Well, this big, burly guy, he must have been 6'5" if he was a foot, made sure he was with me the whole time while I woke and that his hand was holding mine before I even began to struggle. It was the best experience I have ever had coming out of surgery.

Maybe you can think back to those bad experiences and see if there was anything that you tended to do or try to do even without planning it or knowing you were going to. Maybe that one thing might give you enough comfort that the process won't be as traumatic. It sure helped mine.

Letting the staff know and be able to prep for my "need" made all the difference for them and me.

Good luck and I'm sending lots of hugs!

(Edited for spelling and punctuation.)

The first thing I remembered was being wheeled into my room and asking for my husband. Then I went right back to sleep.

 

I remember being on oxygen when I woke up but it was just these 2 plugs in my nose, it was no big deal. Nothing down my throat. I didn't have problems breathing per se but they wanted me to take deep breaths and use this breathing toy thing where I had to try and get the blue ball up to the middle and I struggled with that a lot. Coughing was hard and painful but when I was lying down I was breathing just fine. It was mostly a blur since I was asleep a lot of the time. The first thing I remember is hearing my mothers voice calling my name when I was in recovery and thinking to myself wow, I'm alive. After that I kinda drifted in and out for the next few days. I wasnt in as much pain as I expected to be in. I barely used the morphine pump. I remember the warm sensation I got when I used the pump which was kind of nice. I remember being very thirsty and they wouldnt let me drink and I was really pissed off. I felt like I could drink normally but when they finally let me drink it was an itty bitty sip and I couldnt handle any more.

I generally do well with anesthesia.  I have many surgeries and have never had an issue.  However, when I had my port put in I am not sure if I had full anesthesia or just twilight sleep.  But when I woke from that I was in a bad way, I could not breath and I had a lot of chest pain.  I remember they kept giving me morphine and it was not killing the pain.  They called in a cardiologist because they thought I was having a heart attack.  What was suppose to be an outpatient procedure turned into an overnight stay in the CCU.  Looking back on it I wonder if it was a panic attack.   When I talked to the doc later he said that quite possible I was reacting to the fear I had experienced before the surgery.  It was like I was afraid going in -- and since I had no recollection of time passing I was just still in fear mode when I woke up.  Or something to that effect.  I had never had that reaction before nor have I had it since. 

In any case, I would try to make a pre-op appointment with the anesthesiologist to discuss this.  I would also get the surgical report from when you had the reaction to take with you to that appointment.  The surgical report will have the medications that were used listed and the anesthesiologist may be able to look over the list and have an a-ha moment or at least have a clue why you had the reaction.   In any case he/she should be able to reassure you.

Red

Waking up from my wisdom tooth removal, I don't remember anything until I was at home. My gallbladder was totally different. I woke up in alot of pain and having a panic attack and couldn't breathe. With both endoscopies, I woke up just normal, no pain of course because there was no incisions. With my DS, I don't remember waking up at all. I don't remember anything until I was laying in my hospital bed in my room, and then I remember pain, but not a ton of it because they had already given me pain meds by that time.