521
POV: You're too shy to tell the medical staff that you just woke up during surgery.
(sh.itjust.works)
this post was submitted on 06 Apr 2025
521 points (98.3% liked)
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I feel like we do a crappy job sometimes of telling patients what to expect or differences in things like sedation vs general anesthesia. Sedation is just 'makes you sleepy' but you can wake from that sleep.
General anesthesia you're out, and you stay out until the doc pushes the drugs to wake you up.
I think the vast majority of stories about waking up in the middle of surgery involve the kinds of surgery where that's semi-expected. Like, we're typically not going to give general anesthesia for something like a toenail ablation or other more minor stuff. People wake up during those - usually we have a drape over them, so thay can't see the the actual surgical site, but they often need to be oriented - "Hey Mr. Jones, you're at the hospital for your toe surgery remember? You've been asleep for about 15 mins - we've got a couple left to go, then we'll get some dressings on and you'll be good to go!" ...completely normal. They won't actually feel what we're doing because of a nerve block or local anesthetic.
But, ^that after a few rounds of telephone game becomes some horror story about waking up in the middle of a big open abdominal surgery, feeling all the cuts but not being able to speak or move. Can that shit actually happen? Probably, idk... our physiology is super finicky and there's always the chance you're the next one-in-a-billion unlucky bastard with a previously unheard of weird response to one of the meds they use for general, but I suspect most of these tales are, again, telephone-game type deviations from something completely different, or just pure bullshit from square one.
There are 100% people with a gene that makes them metabolize anesthesia super rapidly, myself included. It's linked to the gene for red hair, but red hair isn't a requirement (I have it and I'm not a redhead, although my mom is).
I've 100% woken up during surgeries I should not have been conscious for, because the anesthesiologist didn't believe me. Those include a pediatric colonoscopy, surgery to set a broken arm, my TEE (I was conscious, but in twilight sleep. Took 3 vials of versed and I still remember it), and my septoplasty.
And it's not just general anesthesia either. It takes a fuck load of local anesthesia for me to feel it. My last filling they had to give me so much it paralyzed half my face for a while. Also, I wish my urologist had believed me when I said I wasn't numb for my vasectomy.
What’s up cousin! I have this gene. Also have EDS and we have a ton of red hair in our family.
I also woke up during a pediatric surgery! Mine was a facial surgery. I was out for a bit and near the close end I woke up and was aware of everything except the pain.
Thanks for letting me know about the vasectomy pain because those are supposed to be easy! Yikes sorry man.
I wish we could add this to our medical files. Like it should be easy to do but for some reason it always comes down to the patient and whether the doctor feels like believing them that day.
Bonus: We also process opioids rapidly. So, those don’t work on us either. But the trade off is we have higher pain thresholds than normal people.
How interesting! Does this apply to alcohol/other “recreational” drugs too, then, or only sedative ones?
I'm pretty resistant to stimulants, but I have ADHD so that skews this.
I was undersedated for that one too. Hurt like a mother, but I never realised I may be under sedated so I just challenged through.
No issues in the end though. Just a firm reminder to ask for a double dose next time.
I straight up told mine I require significantly more anesthesia because of my genetics. He made the incision, asked if I felt it, I said yes, then he started.
I did find out that I have an enormous pain tolerance, though. Fortunately the recovery was a breeze, so I guess I speed ran the pain.
IDK shit about peds, but adult colonoscopy and TEE are both under sedation, not general. Broken arm depends on how they fixed it - if it was a closed reduction then it might have been sedation, but anything open would be general. Septoplasty is always general afaik.
Filing and vasectomy are usually just local anesthesia (numbing). That's a whole different battle: docs can be impatient and like to start working before the numbing actually starts. You say OW! They get annoyed and push more local, wait 10 seconds, start working again, you say OW, they push more, etc. 10 mins into the torture, the initial dose is finally doing it's job... but then the other 5 doses kick in and your entire head goes numb. I have that issue with local too - I don't need more of it, I just need to give it more time to work its magic; so when I need a filling or something I'll tell the doc to push the local, then take a coffee break or something and check back on me later.
Anyway, you kinda showcase my point: of the operations mentioned, only one stands out as for sure needing general anesthesia, so it sounds less like your anesthesiologist didn't believe you and more like he just did a shitty job of explaining the kind of anesthesia you'd be receiving.
LOTS of people think they should be asleep for any and every surgery. I've had dozens of patients in the operating room nervously ask "shouldn't I be asleep for this part?" and the nurse shoots an evil eye at the anesthesiologist as she explains "No, you won't be asleep for any part of this."
I blame office staff- when I had my wisdom teeth removed, it was going to be a shit show, so they sold me on "putting me under"- insurance would only cover local, but "you don't want to be awake for all the digging and prying" which did not sound like fun so I agreed, at a cost of $400. Of course I woke up in the middle of it, and got to experience the digging and prying... Didn't hurt at all, but it was still disconcerting. I found out later this wasn't anything unusual. Had I known I would have been awake, I wouldn't have spent the extra money.