Comfortably Numb: Interesting Medical Experiences

Has anyone else had experiences with anesthesia for surgery and the like? Weird drug interactions? Things like that?

What prompted me to thinking about this stuff today was reading an article on Cracked where someone was talking about enjoying life until you "cease to exist" and, well, I see lines like that a lot since it is a common view on death. I think I'm weird because I don't share it. No, I don't mean just because I'm a quaint, old-fashioned stupid-person who believes in Heaven (though I am a quaint, old-fashioned stupid person who longs for a Heaven), but because I just don't think it is possible for any of us to actually experience "cessation" in the truest sense. It's a logic-puzzle for me. I don't think it is logical for a perceiving being to be able to perceive it's own non-perception. If there's Darkness, it's probably only because you had your eyes closed when it happened. I honestly wonder, at certain points "Am I dead right now?" because I am sure death is so unknowable.

Before I weird you out too much, my weird views are actually based on something. EVIDENCE that has happened IN MY LIFE and the fact that a lot of people use being put under for surgery as a metaphor for dying.

I've been put under sedation/anesthetic for medical procedures a couple of times in my life.

The first time was in having all four of my wisdom teeth yanked out many years ago, when I was still on my parents' good insurance. I was afraid, but the worst part of it was no food or water for many hours before the procedure. No food, I could handle, the water thing? I had to take little sips. I got to a point of "Get this thing over with so I can drink again, I'm so thirsty I'm dying!" Anyway, I was put in the dental chair and given something nice to smell over my face as the people put the IV in. I looked at it, felt progressively sleepy, leaned my head back thinking:

"I wonder when this stuff is going to finally kick i—— I taste blood and feel gauze in my mouth. It's over?!"

It was that quick. I DID NOT feel myself fall asleep. I DID NOT "go into the dark" or see Darkness. The only "dark" was behind my eyelids and that was a kind of darkish-gray because of the bright lights in the room that not even eyelids can completely block out.

So, you know, if my consciousness was "turned off" then... I certainly didn't feel it, wasn't aware of it. The last moment before waking was wondering when I was going to go to sleep. Un-interrupted thought-chain.

I've since read that a lot of dental surgery anesthetic doesn't actually "turn you off" as much as the stuff they use for major body-surgeries, that, instead, it's more of a sedation whereby the turn off your brain's ability to form memories for a while.

Either way, I'm pretty sure that if death is remotely like what I'd gone through, if I'd died on the chair, The me that is my own perception would to this day be waiting for that damn drug to work.

I've been under a second time in a procedure that is describe more commonly by people who try to compare it to dying... when people say "going into the dark" that's... a lot like my mild-sedation experience for an endoscopy, and that, for me, WAS just going to sleep, because I had a really cool dream.

A couple of years ago, in order to find out what the heck is wrong with my stomach, I was given an endoscopy. For that, I was put under via IV and it was a milder kind of drug than what the tooth-rippers used, because it needed to only be effective for a few minutes. I remember that one giving the sensation of a great circle of sleepy darkness edging my vision, possibly mostly because I was fighting it. You see, the medical team had to put a device in my mouth to hold my mouth open so they could get the scope down and I have the touchiest gag reflex ever formed in a human. I kept gagging on the device and the crew told me they HAD to get it in before I was out and I'd already been given the drug, so my last moments there were fighting to keep from gagging out the thing while I felt the darkness wrap over me.

THAT experience had me actually SEEING and SENSING the darkness. NOT the one where I was "completely out."

And I know I wasn't completely "gone" for this second procedure, because the next thing I knew after the darkness took me was.... I was in Hyrule. I was specifically on the Surface-world of Skyward Sword Hyrule and I had been given elemental bending powers by Avatar Korra and I was to teach the settlers of Hyrule from Skyloft how to bend elements because it was vital for their future thriving on the Surface.

Yes, I'd been playing Skyward Sword and watching a lot of Legend of Korra around that time.

Coolest, geekiest dream I'd ever had. And a male nurse shook me awake.

Eh, I don't know. I guess I'm just fascinated by the different ways the brain works and perceives things under different stimuli and in different situations. My brain has had some interesting times.

And I don't even do anything illegal substances.

I had jaw surgery when I was 18. Turns out my right wisdom tooth was a double tooth, and the way it had grown had left me with almost no jawbone on the right side, so I had to have a bone graft. I remember being comforted by the fact that they were playing country music in the operating room, and I either fell asleep or woke up to "Mississippi Girl" by Faith Hill. I also remember being told not to eat solid foods for a week, or harder foods until the scars from the wisdom tooth removal had gone. They gave me some pain meds that I didn't need, which is odd since I'm a big baby.

The only thing I remember is that amplified sounds, like the radio or TV, sounded lower pitched for a few weeks afterward.

I had a similar endoscopic procedure earlier this year. Had a weird reaction to the drug where I had this horrible metallic taste in my mouth once it was injected through the IV for a few seconds, and for several hours once I woke up. Apparently it was a fairly rare but harmless side effect, from what I was told. I was under for less than 20 minutes, so no recollection of dreams or anything of the sort. Was more like a forced, light sleep. While I was pretty groggy and was my speech was really slurring, I was pretty "mentally" awake/aware from the moment I woke back up.

I definitely remember the dreaming because... A crossover fanfic dream, man... it was sooo geeky. And the coolest dream, ever. I've been *trying* to dream dreams like that ever since.

I did have my wisdom teeth taken out, but it was done under a local anesthetic, I was quite conscious throughout the process. The actual tooth-yanking didn't hurt per se, but it felt really violent and unnatural, what with my jaw being shaken all around from the inside. After the anesthetic wore off it was painful, at least for the first couple of days, sort of a dull pain but strong enough to give me a headache if I didn't take ibuprofen to dampen it a little.

Almost a year ago I had some minor surgery, and for that they used (I think) some sort of combination of a spinal anesthetic and a gas-based sedative. It wasn't like the 'blink and it's over' experience people describe for a straight-up general anesthetic. I remember lying down and having the mask put over my mouth and nose, and I was kinda wondering whether they'd started with the gas because I couldn't smell anything, but then I was feeling really sleepy and my thoughts and vision and sense of time were all disjointed. At some point during the procedure itself I remember having my eyes open and being able to read a number on one of the hospital machines (couldn't tell you what exactly the number was, I think it was five or six digits long and had an '8' in it). After it was over, I do remember pretty clearly being wheeled out of the operating room on a stretcher and lying around for a while as the drugs wore off.

edited 24th Oct '14 2:33:10 PM by Meklar

I don't really remember the procedure of having my wisdom teeth out other than feeling like my mouth was full of cotton balls the entire time, but what I do remember is the after-effects making me puke and getting upset because I hadn't puked for three years prior to that. I think I was quoting things from that Seinfeld episode with the black-and-white cookie (where Jerry broke his not-puking streak), because I was hooked on Seinfeld reruns at the time.

I usually remember waking up but not falling asleep. As for strange affects and mishaps. One time when I was little I woke up halfway though getting stitches, I was still under the painkillers so it didn't hurt but it's very scary to actually feel a needle going in and out of you. Another time I got put on an IV that apparently doubled as a truth serum. I started saying all my thoughts out loud though it was mostly just me saying every swear I knew. Um, pretty much the only other thing kinda sorta related is Melatonin giving me a weird metaphysical fear of nothingness but that's more my reaction to a side effect. By the way great title for this.

edited 5th Nov '14 9:08:01 AM by Yewleaf

Well, I have a lot of medical experiences, so be prepared for a long story. When I was 16, I had a stomachache, so the doctor gave me some medicine for the stomachache. It got worse and so they had to haul me in for surgery and x-ray me. They found that a part of my large intestine was slightly twisted and after the surgery, I felt a bit numb in the area where the scar was located, also the anesthetic had knocked me out for a long time.

edited 5th Nov '14 4:50:53 AM by sabrina_diamond