Posts by Scott Allen10

urbanscout50 said:.... they call it "monitoring by screaming"😱. while ....

😂...

Brenda Sanders46 said:What actually causes that nausea you get when waking up from anesthesia? I've been under general anesthesia three times now—two of those were totally fine, but that one other time was just awful, with constant nausea and feeling like I was going to throw up...

The simplest way to look at it is that even when you feel pretty much awake and your breathing is steady, there’s still a good amount of anesthetic and all those other drugs used during the procedure circulating through your system. Until your body fully flushes everything out—which can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two—those lingering meds can mess with your brain and trigger that exact nausea you're talking about.

No way!...This kind of drug-related gossip just doesn't belong here on HealthLine!...Consider this a heads-up for Denisu29...

Look, addiction recovery...that's a conversation we can have here...But these kinds of drugstore rumors? Not so much. Honestly, please don't start threads like this on HealthLine moving forward. If you want to swap stories like this, go find an online community specifically for users and talk about it there.

Nah, that’s definitely not going to work. Just a heads up, if you're looking to chat about lab results, there's actually a pinned megathread right at the top of the PDF... but for what you're dealing with, your best bet is probably just digging through the existing threads to see if someone else already tackled it. That's my two cents.

The surgery involved a colon resection where they had to create a temporary or permanent ostomy because of how things looked on the operating table. Honestly, peritonitis is a brutal situation that’s going to toxify your whole system to some degree, no matter what. You've got the surgical intervention, then the antibiotics and getting those fluids back up to par—those are basically the ground rules for treatment. But man, there are so many tiny clinical details you could write an entire book about...
But...there's one big thing missing here. I mean, what exactly do you mean by "thickening"? That's such a vague way to put it and doesn't really mean anything specific...it just makes me think, heaven help me, of a colon tumor that ended up perforating...

If you start throwing up, you really ought to head straight to the ER... otherwise, there isn't much else you can do about it...

Look, there’s basically zero tolerance for smoking talk around here... sorry, but it just isn't happening. We aren't looking for any debates about smoking unless you're heading over to that specific thread pinned at the top of the PDF

silverridge36 said:The patient undergoing surgery really needs to take all these precautions seriously, especially if they're looking at neck vessel surgery. When my dad went in for his procedure, he didn't meet most of the criteria mentioned by urbanscout50, though he did manage to stay away from alcohol and cigarettes. I'm obviously no medical expert, but I knew his body was basically running on empty at the time. Honestly, you should do some digging online before the big day instead of just blindly following whatever the doctor tells you.

Silverridge36, you're kind of contradicting yourself there. You start off by correctly pointing out how vital it is to follow those pre-op guidelines... but then you wrap things up by saying we should be scouring the internet rather than just listening to the doctor.😕...
...how does that work?🤷...is some random bit of info pulled from a Google search really going to be more relevant than professional advice from someone like urbanscout50? Let's try to stay on track here and not let the discussion drift into a total mess... that last part about not trusting doctors sounds way too much like the stuff those fringe alternative medicine types say, and honestly, it makes my skin crawl.🙂

stormymaker24 said:Since local anesthesia during a D&C feels like you just knocked back a shot of cheap whiskey—at least according to what everyone on the forums is saying—why on earth is it even allowed to do them that way?
What’s even the point?
Isn't there some kind of standard recommendation? Like, when you're scraping out someone's insides, shouldn't we make sure they aren't in agony, or does every doctor just get to decide their own rules? 😕
It honestly makes me a little mad... just a bit...

The truth is, it almost always comes down to how the hospital staff manages things. Usually, a D&C is treated as this super quick procedure...in and out in a minute and you're done... but on the flip side, if you want actual anesthesia (which should be an option for any woman who wants it and doesn't have medical reasons not to), you suddenly need a full anesthesia team—like an anesthesiologist and a tech. The prep takes way longer, you have to monitor vitals like breathing and blood pressure afterward... basically, it requires a lot more time and effort for just one patient.
Sadly, inside most hospital systems, there just isn't enough staff. You'll often find gynecologists who don't want the "hassle" of coordinating with anesthesia because it eats up their schedule... which leads to the current mess where short general anesthesia for a D&C is technically possible, but only if you or someone close to you can talk the gynecologist into agreeing to it. And then, you have to try and coordinate between the patient, the OB, and the anesthesiologist amidst all the daily chaos of a busy hospital schedule.

Sedation, or what people call locally enhanced anesthesia, is when they perform the procedure with local numbing but add a little something to the IV to help the patient relax and take the edge off the pain... just enough to take the sting out without totally knocking them out or messing with their breathing.

Alexander Lewis said:Honestly, it’s kind of wild how much people on this thread are getting things mixed up; it's honestly pretty painful to watch.

When you're dealing with major surgeries—the kind where they really need to knock someone out so there's zero movement—you're looking at full general anesthesia. It’s basically a cocktail of sedatives mixed with muscle relaxants, like those old movies where the warriors use blowguns to paralyze their targets, plus heavy-duty painkillers. If an anesthesiologist slips up, things get terrifyingly real; there's that nightmare scenario where a patient can actually feel everything happening but is completely paralyzed and unable to scream or even twitch. Plus, with total anesthesia, you have to rely on a ventilator to do all the breathing for you, which means sliding a tube down the throat—and honestly, there's always that nagging worry about accidental dental damage during the process.

So, you’ve got local anesthesia, which can be paired up with some light "twilight" sedation—basically using different sedatives to knock a patient out for a bit. We only ever go that route if there's zero risk of them vomiting, because if they do, all that stomach acid ending up in the lungs is a total nightmare and can actually be fatal. You can mix this kind of sedation with things like spinal anesthesia, which is honestly a whole story on its own, but we don't really consider it for major surgeries; it's mostly just something used for procedures on the lower extremities.

So, you’ve got spinal anesthesia, which basically means we're doing a block in the lower part of the spine. It’s a pretty straightforward procedure that knocks out all sensation from, say, the belly button down. The patient stays wide awake through the whole thing, so if they're feeling a bit jittery, I usually toss in some sedative to help them chill out.

So, think of an epidural as being pretty much the same technique as a spinal, just with a smaller dose involved. It’s not really full-blown anesthesia so much as it is analgesia—basically, it just takes the edge off the pain instead of knocking you out completely. If you crank up the concentration, though, you're essentially turning it into a spinal. You see it used all the time for labor and delivery, or just to help people manage pain after surgery.

I honestly think you might be getting a few of these terms mixed up...

Honestly, epidurals and spinals aren't even in the same league when it comes to technique—I'm not sure where you even got that idea from. They're only similar because they both work by blocking those pain signals before they ever reach the brain, but beyond that, they're totally different beasts.
Look, let's be clear about this: just because you crank up the concentration of the anesthetic doesn't mean an epidural suddenly transforms into a spinal. It just becomes a really solid epidural that lets you comfortably handle surgical procedures without any issues. Plus, you can't forget that the actual epidural catheter used during those procedures isn't even part of the setup for spinal anesthesia, so they're fundamentally different animals.And, most importantly, the whole "target point" we're aiming for is that epidural space where the catheter needs to be perfectly seated....

Honestly, you couldn't even dream of administering spinal anesthesia into the "lower part of the spinal cord"—that’s just not how it works. The spinal cord actually wraps up much higher up than people realize. You just take the Chirocaine and inject it through a single puncture to get the job done. So, you're talking about injecting directly into the spinal space—right into the CSF. Honestly, we're talking about a much lower level here where there’s really zero chance of accidentally hitting a nerve or anything like that. It’s all totally separate from the epidural space where you’d be working with an epidural catheter anyway...

What exactly does anyone mean when they say "minor surgery" anyway? I mean, if you’re talking about orthopedic procedures like hip or knee replacements—where they’re basically sawing, cutting, and hammering away at your bones—and almost everyone is under spinal anesthesia, those definitely aren't "minor" in my book.

Honestly, I feel like terms like "general anesthesia" and "total anesthesia" are super vague, and if you ask me, we should probably just stop using them altogether.

When you're doing general anesthesia with muscle relaxants, you’re actually setting an endotracheal tube rather than just a "tube" or "probe." I'm pretty sure that's what you meant, but I figured I should clear that up because in our world, calling it a probe makes people think of a nasogastric tube going straight into the stomach! And yeah, you're totally right about one thing—once those relaxants are in play, you absolutely have to be hooked up to the anesthesia machine.

You know, you can actually pull off real general anesthesia without even touching muscle relaxants, let alone an ET tube... I’ve seen it done just using IV anesthetics, maybe a laryngeal mask, or even the old-school way with a little oxygen through a mask. You don't even strictly need a full anesthesia machine right there, though honestly, it's always a relief to have one within arm's reach just in case things get hairy.

But hey, we've got urbanscout50 hanging out here, so I'm sure he'll weigh in with his take on this too...

"If you don't wake up, then it's game over."😁...I mean, honestly, it’s kind of hilarious, isn't it? Just a little bit Monty Python style...

redbear662 said:Honestly, I didn't even need any sedation for my spinal; once that shooting pain in my leg finally let up, I just drifted right off into the best sleep of my life. 😉

Haha, honestly, I’ve got a feeling you just drifted off because they slipped a little something into your IV to help you relax...😁

urbanscout50 said:If you actually wake up, at least you'll have a clue about what's going on, what everyone is doing around you, and how you should act. If you don't wake up, then well, nothing happens.

😂...🤣...

Brenda Ramos2 said:Maybe you have a point there, but I honestly had no clue you could administer general anesthesia that way. The woman was actually having gallbladder surgery, and the anesthesiologist on site mentioned it was a newer technique, so... hey, I'm hardly an expert here.

Anyway, I just saw a patient lying right next to me with a nasal tube after she had her gallbladder out.

An epidural isn't actually general anesthesia; it's more of a type of regional anesthesia where they numb (and manage pain for) just a specific part of the body...
That lady definitely went under general anesthesia. There's no doubt about it. It’s much more likely they placed an epidural catheter specifically to help manage her pain once the surgery was over.

Whether or not she needs a tube is really up to the surgeon's call. So, even after gallbladder surgery, it's totally normal for a patient to wake up with a nasogastric tube if the doctors feel it's necessary.

"A tube keeps the head steady"—that's what some of those old-school surgeons used to say... and honestly, if you ask me, there's a whole lot of truth to that.

northernpanther12 said:Honestly, everything is fine by me—I don't mind dealing with nausea or throwing up, I just don't want to end up like that guy in the joke:

-Doctor, did the surgery go okay?
-I'm not a doctor, I'm Saint Peter.

When it comes to the actual risks of anesthesia, potential hiccups, complications, or even just what you should expect to feel once you're recovering, you really need to have a real heart-to-heart with your anesthesiologist. Surgeons tend to be pretty surface-level about all this stuff... they usually just give you the "here’s the plan, it might hurt a bit, you'll be home in a few days" routine and call it a day... but when you realize there's so much left unsaid that could actually matter... man, it's a real trip.☕

Brenda Ramos2 said:About a month ago, they popped this tube down my nose right into my stomach, so I didn't have to deal with throwing up at all. That thing is super uncomfortable, honestly, but I guess it beats being sick, since it just drains everything out of your stomach—though it left me feeling totally woozy and unable to even hold a conversation for the rest of the day.
..............
Anyway, while I was at the hospital, I saw them give this woman general anesthesia straight into her spine through a tube they left in, and then they used that same tube for her IV fluids later on. It sounded like some kind of brand-new technique. (Sorry if someone already mentioned this, I haven't caught up on every single post!) Maybe they’ll try that with me too, but I had to go under surgery so fast that there wasn't really time to mess around with experimental methods.

That stomach tube wasn't actually about the anesthesia or stopping you from vomiting; it was likely because of the surgery for your bowel obstruction (ileus), which is a total emergency and needs immediate surgical intervention. After a procedure like yours, your bowels basically go dormant for a bit, meaning nothing is moving through them. Meanwhile, your stomach keeps pumping out acid, and since things aren't moving along normally, that stuff has nowhere to go.
Once the surgery is done, everyone waits for things to start moving again. But until that happens, it's pretty standard for a patient to have a nasogastric tube to drain that stomach contents out. Also, while your gut is resting, you definitely can't eat or drink anything! If things don't kick back into gear on their own, besides maybe giving certain meds (usually neostigmine), doctors might resort to enemas or suppositories and other "fun" little tricks... but none of that has anything to do with the anesthesia itself.

"General anesthesia straight into the spine through a tube..." sounds like you're talking about an epidural, which is the exact same thing they use for things like pain-free childbirth. And honestly, that isn't some cutting-edge new thing; it's a standard procedure that American anesthesiologists have been using for decades.
There are specific times when you use an epidural and times when you absolutely shouldn't. Your situation definitely isn't one for an epidural, and even if an anesthesiologist wanted to help, they wouldn't be doing that for an ileus. Usually, it's reserved for surgeries on the legs or pelvic area... that's where an epidural is perfectly fine, both for the surgery itself and for managing pain afterward. When you say they were giving her "infusions through it," it sounds like they were just providing post-op pain management through an epidural catheter. It's not exactly like a regular IV drip because those doses have to be incredibly precise, but that's a whole different conversation...

☕.....hmm.....

I mean, deciding whether someone is actually fit for surgery isn't really up to the neurologist—they don't have much say in the actual risk assessment or how the procedure goes down. That’s really on the anesthesiologist. They run those pre-op exams to gauge the risks and walk you through everything, and if they decide on the day of the procedure that things just aren't looking safe, they have the final word to pull you from the schedule. A neurologist basically doesn't have a clue when it comes to those specific surgical risks...

urbanscout50 already did a deep dive on the different types of anesthesia, making the point that you can't just pick one without looking at a bunch of different factors. You can't just hop on a forum and give a simple "this is the best anesthesia for this condition" answer, even though I know that's probably the quick fix everyone is looking for.

Man, Jerry Fowler6... honestly, if you check out the top-tema forums, there's actually a whole section dedicated to anesthesiology where an actual anesthesiologist will jump in and answer all those kinds of questions when they get around to it anyway.

I don't even get why this thread exists... 🤷...it’s totally redundant... locking this down now.