I had a brain tumor removed in 1990 (epilepsy sucks). I was awake for the entire procedure (12hrs). And spoke with the doctor and nursing staff while it was going on.
My only regret was not asking for a mirror so that I could watch.
Many years ago TLC (before it degraded into trash) had an excellent show called "The Operation" where it would show EVERYTHING that happened during a medical procedure. (From a teaching hospital) It was incredible to watch and very educational.
>Many years ago TLC (before it degraded into trash) ...
That's an understatement. In fact, the comparison is actually unfair to trash.
>... an excellent show called "The Operation" where it would show EVERYTHING that happened during a medical procedure ...
I don't see why TLC couldn't air a similar show today. They could just focus on the human element, which is to say drama that's either completely scripted and/or manufactured via editing in post.
Gore would be completely off the table though. The average viewer just wouldn't be able to enjoy their super-sized soft drink watching that.
>It was incredible to watch and very educational.
Network executives at Discovery have most likely since instituted an organization-wide ban of the word "educational" on general principle.
I feel like complaints about certain shows going away are under-appreciating how much youtube and podcasts have changed the demand side. You can watch all the surgeries you want on youtube without waiting for it to show up on the TLC broadcast schedule. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t15SOrkc7E
I find podcasts today to be way better today than any "educational" tv shows ever were.
It's worth noting however that reality television predates YouTube. That's not to say there weren't still alternatives back then, but when comparing the two mediums I think it at least constitutes a small dark age of sorts.
It is, in context of the average TLC viewer. TLC is the same network that aired Here Comes Honey Boo Boo for four seasons. Something had to drive those ratings.
Granted, I loathe executives that peddle the trash far more. There's something morally bankrupt about it, especially considering viewership can be in the millions. It's analogous to a software company with zero regard for craftsmanship; kicking garbage out the door because they know it'll sell.
Being awake while operated upon is the worst horror scenario I can imagine.
I mean, I drive an hour and a half to a dentist that will knock me out during the procedure and I'm agoraphobic; I'm more afraid of the drive there than the actual procedure. No way I'm going to have anything even more serious done to me while I'm fully aware of what is happening.
Being awake while operated upon is the worst horror scenario I can imagine.
It's not worse than medical bankruptcy, or thousands in bizarre and excess medical bills. I was awake for a very minor operation due to financial fear.
The healthcare system is bizarre. I literally could not get upfront fee quotes from doctors (or anyone else) for the procedure. It was maddening and made me wish for mandated price transparency: https://www.aei.org/publication/an-antidote-for-obamacare-ca...
I'm more terrified of being put to sleep than I am of the operation or the post-op pain. What if you never wake up? Who knows what they're doing to you while you're asleep? shudder
You'll likely never know. You'll either wake up in your afterlife paradise, which doesn't seem so bad, or you'll find out the hard way that that there is no afterlife. In which case, the lights never come back on.
Who knows what they're doing to you while you're asleep?
Given that there's a room full of people, at least one of which you can count to have some ethics, I imagine they'll just cut you open and fix your problem.
What you really need to worry about is them taking off the correct limb.
>> Who knows what they're doing to you while you're asleep
Huh? I don't think you really know that the surgery prescription was correct, in that case? Or can you really do anything about an unethical surgeon while awake, but your gut or something wide open?
I was talking to a co-worker recently about dental work and he shared a story with me about having his wisdom teeth removed with nothing but some local anesthetic. It wasn't until after, what he described as, the worst experience of his life he learned that general anesthesia is common for the procedure.
When I had my wisdom teeth extracted the oral surgeon loaded me up with a lot of local anesthetic. So while it was an unpleasant experience the pain was bearable.
When he described the dentist climbing on top of him to get more leverage, then having to take a break to regain his strength, I think I'd have preferred to not be awake for that.
I had to take 3 of my wisdom tooth out in 2 sittings. For the last one the junior dentist couldn't get the tooth and the senior one came in gave it a couple of hefty twist/pull before raising the chair and completely leaning on me and finally managing to pull it out. It was more painful that time, swelling took a weak to get down. But it still wasn't terribly painful with a single injection of local anesthetic on the gum. All my teeth's were like 45 degree angle and pressing against the molar which caused the pain. I have to wonder what kind of pain or condition would require a general anesthetic.
I had mine taken out under general anesthesia. My two bottom teeth were at a 90-degree angle. They drilled them apart into pieces so they could remove them.
Also, what's with all these people saying they had a dentist remove their wisdom teeth? I didn't; I had to go to an oral surgeon.
Even with impacted wisdom teeth and local anesthetic, I would only call the procedure mildly unpleasant. It was over in 30 minutes for all 4 teeth and there was almost no pain (but lots of pressure on the jaw). Yes, they drilled them in half to take them out as well.
Local anesthetic is frigging amazing.
The recovery period, in comparison, was hell.
Swollen face, bleeding, subsisting on yogurt and milk for a week, unable to open mouth fully, opiates that made you drowsy/nauseous and didn't do much for the pain.
Going back for a checkup a week later, my surgeon tried to force my mouth open for inspection and I almost passed out from the pain.
It says in your link that it's equally likely in general and regional anesthesia. Moreover it says it's more likely in cardiac operations where blood flow into the brain is disturbed. I assume this is very rare then.
I'm extremely scared of general anesthesia ever since, as a kid, I woke up after a general anesthesia and couldn't breathe because I had a full blown asthma attack.
So, I've had my wisdom teeth removed under local anesthetic and I've had an endoscopy under local anesthetic. The wisdom teeth is not so bad, it's nowhere as bad as an endoscopy.
Sorry you had to go through that (the waking up unable to breath).
FWIW, my son has had to go under general anesthesia almost a dozen times now, and the protocols that the anesthesiologists use at our hospital use now require a respiratory therapist to be in the room when anesthesia is removed, and it is done in stages, so that it is made absolutely sure he is breathing on his own before the breathing tube is removed and he is fully awakened. I'm sure part of it was driven by the fact that what you went through is both awful, and should have been prevented.
I'm saying only to let you know that I really empathize with the anxiety it can cause, and that if you ever are in need of surgical care again, perhaps you should discuss it with your surgeon or care team before-hand..hopefully they have protocols in place where you won't have to go through that again.
On another note...holy crap on the endoscopy! I can't imagine how much local anesthesia that must have taken, or how odd that must have felt!
Thanks! Yes, if I ever really need general anesthesia, I would really discuss it with the care team and I would still be very anxious. I do think it was the clinic that didn't a good job then since they knew I had asthma and should have planned for it.
For endoscopy, yes it's the stuff of nightmares, being with a tube coming out of your mouth and completely helpless is a very weird feeling. They only spray the throat with a local anesthetic to numb it, it's not really painful but it's the helplessness that is disturbing...
I was put under general anaesthesia for wisdom teeth extraction. Was never given an option. The butcher who operated on me botched up and I've been having jaw problems ever since. No apology was ever issued either. Next surgery, I'd rather be awake but on something soothing.
I too have had mine removed under only local anesthesia, and fairly recently at that (in my early 30's). It's interesting to see some people say it was a horror show while others said "It wasn't so bad", since I've experienced both!
The reason why I finally had my wisdom teeth removed, was that I had one of them in my lower jaw, that was growing in almost sideways into the molar in front of it, causing a large abcess in the tooth. My dentist was surprised it had never caused me pain before this (I had spent a few years bouncing around, and hadn't gone to the dentist for years, so the fact it got so bad was likely entirely preventable...)
Anyways, because of the way it had grown pushing into the other tooth, the roots of the wisdom tooth were very curved (not quite fishhooks, but close!), so the procedure took a couple hours, while under only local anesthesia, where I could hear and fell him drilling, and chiseling, and digging in my jaw to remove the tooth in pieces. At one point in the middle of the procedure, he needed more images to see what was left, and left large metal pins in the holes from my roots as reference points of how far he had gone into my jaw so far. He gave me the warning "You really don't want to bite down while these x-rays are done", hah! Needless to say, when all was said and done, this was a pretty painful recovery, and still had bits of broken tooth root and bone pushing out of my gums for a few weeks after.
On the other hand, when I removed the wisdom tooth from the opposite side of my jaw, to keep things even, it had grown in straight, and was a very simple procedure where the tooth came out in one piece, and I had very little pain in recovering.
Everything had healed up beautifully now, and the dentist was able to save the abcessed molar, but man, I don't want to go through that again ever, and I can total understand why some people elect general anesthesia for such a procedure, since it really is a crap-shoot on how "simple" of a procedure it is. General may have its risks, but I'm sure people being scared to ever see their dentist again comes with risks as well!
Huh, strange. I had mine removed almost 10 years ago, and the idea of using general anaesthesia wasn't even mentioned. It was a bit uncomfortable, but I don't remember it being particularly painful, even days after.
That is weird, I had local anesthetic for my wisdom teeth removal. Granted they weren't that hard to remove, but I wouldn't want to be put under entirely for something so simple. Aside from being a bit pale, I could go home straight after and function close to 100%. Recovery from general anesthesia takes much longer from what I know, and there are more risks involved as well.
Only thing I found out is that paracetamol/acetaminophen doesn't do much for me, and that naproxen is a much more effective OTC painkiller.
I did that too, and my teeth were in bad shape (already falling apart) so it was a difficult procedure. Not painful, but very uncomfortable. The worst part, I think, was seeing my blood splattering on the dentist's faceshield. I don't remember much about the procedure (over 10 years ago), but I remember that.
Wisdom teeth removal is a very harsh procedure. You also don't want to be awake during hip or knee replacement where they use power tools and a lot of force.
But for other procedures I think being awake seems an interesting thing.
This is really a matter of taste. I was happy I declined general anesthesia when I had my wisdom teeth removed 3 years ago. I wouldn't say it was fun, but it was interesting, safer, and not painful. If I ever have a joint replacement and am offered the possibility of staying awake, I will take it.
Wisdom teeth removal can be very harsh. It depends greatly on how they've grown in. My wisdom teeth, for example, were a simple tooth extraction under local anesthetic.
When I got mine taken out I had two people hold my head while the dentist was trying to pull them out. I didn't mind too much but I wouldn't recommend this to sensitive people.
For a lengthy surgery, even though I'd be happy to watch, I think the surgeon needs to work fast. Not to worry about my feelings. The longer I'm open, the higher chance of infection. I'd hope the nurses would be able to speak up if doctor was an idiot.
On the other hand, when I had my wisdom teeth taken out, my friends suggested staying awake. If you're asleep the dentist is rougher and recovery is longer.
My dentist is my brother's friend. While he was taking one of the teeth out, I heard a large crack and he said "Awe fuck". Nothing serious, but my tooth cracked and it takes longer to finish. He'd prefer to pull out the tooth whole, root and all. Dentist knew I wouldn't care, but some people would be alarmed.
I really badly wanted to watch my unplanned but non-emergency C-section. I had a long, rough labor and being aware of everything going on was helping me process everything. Besides, it is standard for non-emergency C-sections to only require regional anesthesia so I didn't think it was a big deal.
Alas, I was instead treated to the sight of my anesthesiology resident trying to conceal her panic while she paged her attending because I started feeling the surgeon cut into me - not pressure or tugging, but a whole shitload of pain making me see stars. She had given me a max dose of anesthetic to achieve what she thought was an acceptable level of analgesia but apparently it wasn't good enough. I got treated to the ketamine trip of my life, and then thanked the stars for versed.
Would do this again though given the chance - even with this kind of horrific one-off experience and that I don't have much memory of the surgery otherwise, I am pretty satisfied with the entire situation and how it played out. I don't know that I'm pushing back against paternalism or suspicion, I just want to sate my curiosity, you know?
It would depend on the operation. Back in 1982, I had surgery to repair several ligaments in my knee. The plan was for me to be awake for the entire operation. (They gave me headphones and let me pick a radio station.) The neural block did not quite take, because I felt the incision -- not as if I had just been sliced by a scalpel; but, it was uncomfortable. They decided to knock me out and turned a valve on an IV and I was out. Unlike full-blown anesthesia, I was barely out and was awake about 10 minutes after they finished.
Two years ago, I had a vitrectomy and I was awake for that. For that, I would rather have been asleep. Even if you can't feel them poking your eye, it's a bit unsettling.
I had two toe nails removed with local anesthetic. For a pretty minor operation, it was already a little weird so I can't imagine getting a knee replacement (like the guy in the article). I watched a bit of my toe operation but started to get light headed when they were digging around in the toe. It's just really strange when you can feel the doctor pulling and cutting things without any associated pain. If anyone has surgery with local anesthetic, I would recommend not watching and distracting yourself with a podcast...
I had a minor operation and watched it. As you said, it's a really strange feeling. You can feel the tugs, but it's muted and there's no pain. I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
Then when I had a major operation I asked for local anaesthetic, but they tented things up and refused to let me watch. :(
I had this exact scenario a year ago. No big deal. I was having surgery to repair a nerve after a bad finger injury. The nerve block in the arm pit was the worst part of the whole process. At one point the anesthesiologist got tired of talking to me and he went to the prep room to get my phone so I could web surf because I was bored. I even stuck the phone over the curtain and took a picture, which the surgeon wasn't thrilled about.
It's really no big deal. Popped a bicep, so at Andrews they just did an arm block and sewed it back down. Will have another block done for a detached tendon on my ankle. Blocks are the way to go where appropriate. I can't stand being put out - time to clear the fog after waking up seems to get longer and longer as I get older.
time to clear the fog after waking up seems to get longer and longer as I get older.
As one who has been under general anesthesia on and off since 18 months old, I'll confirm your suspicions with anecdata. When I was a kid, and the anesthesia back then would make you way foggier than the modern stuff, I be back bouncing around in about 24 hours. The anesthetics have gotten better over the years, but the recovery times have gotten longer. As of about five years ago, it takes about a week for my head to clear up.
When they were putting pins into my broken ankle they asked if I wanted local or general anaesthetic. I chose local because I wanted to watch, but when they started the surgery they tented it and refused to let me watch.
My only regret was not asking for a mirror so that I could watch.
Many years ago TLC (before it degraded into trash) had an excellent show called "The Operation" where it would show EVERYTHING that happened during a medical procedure. (From a teaching hospital) It was incredible to watch and very educational.