Thread: Going Under?

I'm having surgery on my nose in about a week and a half. I have a deviated septum, which is blocking the air passages and making it difficult for me to breathe through my nose. It's also making me restless at night. I wake up several times during the night and my doctor told me that wasn't normal and that it was due to my nose problems. Honestly, I had no idea what a "normal" nights sleep was. I thought everyone slept fitfully at night lol. I also have a sinus infection that hasn't gone away even with months of different antibiotics. The doctors are going to clear that out too.

I was a little freaked out when they told me what they were going to do (trim down parts of the bone and cartilage in my septum to straighten it out and stick a bunch of tubes up my nose to clear out my sinuses). I'm also a little nervous because I've never had a surgery where I've had to go "under" (local or general anesthetic).

Have any of you ever had to go under an anesthetic? Is it like being totally asleep or are you still able to hear sounds/are aware of what is going on? I couldn't stand being awake when they took my wisdom teeth out, and I don't want to be awake for such an internal surgery...well, the most internal surgery I've ever had lol.

You will go to sleep, fast, then wake and it will all be over - at least the surgery part.

I've had to go under general anesthetic only a year ago. It's quite a strange feeling, like you can hear the doctors or whatever. For me, I saw the color orange with many passing figures. You can't hear well, though, and you can't feel anything. Good luck with that (it sounds sarcastic, but I'm being genuine).

i've always just went straight unconscious. with no awareness whatsoever until waking.

When I had surgery I thought that after being given injected with general anesthesia I would fall asleep. I remember not feeling sleepy at all and wondering when the drug was going to kick in. They left me lying there alone. I was thinking, "It's not working, I'm not sleepy..." The next thing I knew, (like the next second), I was being wheeled down a brightly lit hallway and was told by the surgeon, "Your surgery is all over now, everything went well."
It was like lost time. I didn't feel like any time had passed from when I was lying there waiting for the anesthesia to kick in and the end of the surgery.

Now that was general anesthesia.

There is a difference when you're just "sedated" which is where you are not intubated and you have control of your own respirations. I had an outpatient procedure this time, and remember talking to the nurse, then my vision started to get flashy and I kept blinking uncontrollably. I did fall asleep, but I woke up during the procedure. I didn't feel pain, but I could hear the nurse and the doctor talking. I could understand what they were saying, but I felt so drugged I couldn't move or say anything. I wasn't suffering, so it didn't matter to me that I woke up in the middle of it (colonoscopy).

Jae D. thanks for the assurance. They might have to just "sedate" me if they can't afford the general anesthesia. They didn't put me under anesthesia when they pulled my wisdom teeth out, they just numbed the pain because general anesthesia was too expensive (what a crappy economy we have). It was still really freaky.

My experiences have been like Blood, dale, and Jae D.

Doctors of anesthesiology are very well paid. I think thy make a quarter million dollars or a half million dollars a year. I'm sure the insurance they carry and pay is quite expensive too. Anesthesiology is - or can be - very dangerous from my understanding and that is why doctors as well as nurses of anesthesiology are well compensated. Nurses of anesthesiology in the U.S. earn around $160,000 a year and that's more than some medical doctors make. A nurse of anesthesiology requires a master degree in nursing and advanced science courses. It's one of the nursing specialties that has a high representation of men in it. The benefits of this nursing field is that you have scientifically advanced trained nurses that cost a hospital (and possibly patient) less money than medical doctors of anesthesiology, and also that nurses with this specialty can service remote rural clinics with anesthesia where no doctor of anesthesiology may be accessible.

Some what similar to the specialty of nurse practitioner, which also requires an advanced degree. Nurse practitioners practice medicine more than nurse and they are better educated than physician assistants. My primary care physician at the VA Hospital is a female nurse practitioner with a PhD in cultural anthropology. Talk about big brain and human capital. She always gives me inspiration. She is also kind, not very judgmental, and just a very personable person.

You'll be alright going under. Of course, with any surgery there comes risks and the possibility something could go tragically wrong. But the overwhelming odds are you'll be okay. Crossing a busy street comes with risks too. You see where I'm going? I wouldn't worry much. You wouldn't be stupid to have a will written out already or have life insurance purchased. But just living day to day life is kind of good having those things anyways.




I believe it was actually a dentist that invented anesthesia. That has value to me because I'm very intrigued and awed by the field of maxillofacial surgery. A scientifically advanced field of dentistry that requires surgical residency and usually the obtaining of a medical degree. They work on neck, facial, and cranial problems.

I had my nose rebored a few years ago - When you wake, your first instinct is to breathe through your nose, when you can't you feel as if you are suffocating - Calm down and breath through your mouth. A few days later, a nurse will remove what appears to be an ox-liver from your sinuses - It makes removing a rabbit from a hat seem mundane, you won't believe just how much cotton wool they managed to get inside your head...

I also went in for surgery to correct a deviated septum. It's not anything to be afraid of. You will be unconscious before you realize it. And then, if yours is going to be like mine, you'll wake up with splints and gauze packed in your nose in a dark cozy room with mom or dad and your eyes may be a little crusty.

Have fun!