Question:
Uterus cleaning general anesthesia on superobese person?????

I'm close to 400 lbs. My wls is scheduled for August 5th, and of course something has to come up to complicate things. My OBGYN wants to do a uterus cleaning due to heavy bleeding and huge blood clots. I think the procedure is also called a D&C??? Anyway, due to my weight I'm really scared about the general anesthesia. Should I be? Has anyone here had this done while weighing the same as me and had any complications? WLS was freaking me out enough, but this has rattled me to the core....... Help! Cheers, Lorraine    — Lorraine Wentz (posted on May 25, 2005)

May 25, 2005
Hi, I have had three recent (since 2000) surgeries with general anesthesia... for each surgery i weighed aprox 315, 295, and 295. I also had a colonoscopy with conscious sedation at 275. I had no problems with any of it except that due to a opoid tolerance, the conscious sedation was not as effective as it should have been. See if you can make an appointment to see your anesthesiologist *before* your surgery to discuss your concerns (I always end up seeing them 15 minutes before the procedure. doh). Also, you may be able to have the d&c done while under a different type of anesthesia.. posibly even an epidural. An epidural may be difficult to do, however, because in us bigger folks, its hard to find landmarks on the spine as it tends to be "buried deep." Good luck to you, Sid
   — mrsidknee

May 26, 2005
The main problem with the D&C procedure for me was my breathing problems. I had one done about 5 years ago. At that time I wasn't on oxygen, as I am now, so they weren't aware of my oxygen desaturation problem (which the oxygen in your blood goes down -- most 'healthy' people have blood oxygen levels at 94-99%; w/o the oxygen I am down to 73%). The anesthesiologist, had a hard time keeping me stable with this problem. I would just make sure they realize that when we are heavy, that we may need more oxygen in the blood, while we are laying on our backs, legs up, pushing even more on our abdomen and lungs, making it more difficult to breathe, that they would need to compensate for that extra pressure of your weight. But other than that ... it went very well for me. Hugs, Tracey
   — TraceyB-LV