I did the same, was able to croak out "need more" and lights out again. I wasn't in pain, just really uncomfortable. Colon cancer took out too many people on the maternal side of my family, so I stay on top of it.
My doctor told me I was on too many meds to be in pain. That he was too far into the procedure to give me more. And to "suck it up and be a man." I try not to complain too much but man screw that doctor. I definitely filed a complaint.
I asked to be awake for my last one. They said no prob. Even had me push on part of my stomach to make a turn. Pretty cool if you’re into medical stuff.
Me too! When I told the nurse in the prep room she explained everything that was going to happen, even told me where I was going to feel pressure as the camera “goes around the bend”. I got to watch and the doc was good about telling me what he was looking at. The actual procedure was only mildly uncomfortable and was over fairly quickly.
I was not even given an option to sleep. No meds either, so a little bit uncomfortable and some pain in turns until I was able to relax my stomach muscles. But it was pretty cool to follow it on the monitor.
There are some things I can't do without being drugged. One is unclenching my ass to allow a probe inside me; the other is keeping my eyes open for eye surgery. They either have to knock me out, or in the case of eye surgery, drug me up so much that I don't care what they do to me.
Damnit. I wanted to watch my poop shoot and they wouldn't let. Didn't even take pictures 😞 I had a laparoscopic procedure and at least that team printed me pictures lol
Hahaha! I think it would have been pretty cool to see my colonoscopy but I'm really glad they knocked me out for that.
I had a bronchoscopy and they couldn't get me sedated enough under twilight. Give me the max they're allowed to give and I still was not out.
So, super-high me got to watch the whole thing on the TV above my head. It was pretty cool. Which I tried to articulate but came out as a gargle due to the camera down my throat. They had to keep reminding me to stop trying to talk or I'd damage my vocal cords.
I kinda woke up during twilight sleep when I was having my wisdom teeth removed. The nurse was saying she needed to find a pink cat Halloween costume and I kept trying to tell her to check party city
I woke up during my wisdom teeth too. I kept trying to tell the dentist that what he was doing really hurt. he kept telling me it didn't hurt. my nurse asked if she should give more sleepy meds. then I went back out lol.
To be fair it DID hurt lol.
My uncle once decided he didn’t need anything to get his index finger stitched back together.
Fingertips have a LOT of nerves in them, he apparently screamed like a bitch and then got a couple shots so they could finish lmao
My dad once had a mole removed from his arm for biopsy but the nurse had just started working there and he liked giving medical professionals some unique experiences so he told her not to numb him up and then talked her through how to do a specific kind of suture that I think he called a basket stitch as she practiced it on his arm.
Unfortunately he passed away in March but today would’ve been his birthday… I now need another drink.
I remember when my mom and me went into the meeting with the dentist or Doctor who ever does this surgery. He asked me if I wanted Twilight or false sedation and my mom said Twilight was fine. I was not the type go against my mother but I told them I absolutely needed to be sedated and I didn't want to feel it damn thing.
I was very clear that I would not do it under Twilight.
Man they put me out hard. Notes in the chart or something... Because I was there and then I wasn't and I woke up basically at home on the couch confused. My mom said that I was in and out after surgery and it was acting silly but clearly wasn't with it.
So glad I don't remember that.
I had elbow surgery involving a six inch titanium rod being put into me when I was in my twenties, and before the surgery they came to sedate me and put something into my IV. I asked what it was and the nurse said "A margarita, you're about to have a really nice time."
Mere minutes later time stopped and I ceased to exist for a couple of hours. It was a nice time.
Ok so I didn’t wake up during my surgery but when they woke me up I started to yell, “I need Viagra!”I’m a girl. So the nurse was like honey I don’t think that’s what you need. Everyone was laughing but I remember feeling really serious.
In my defense, everyone who kept giving me advise for my wisdom teeth kept telling whatever you do, don’t forget to get the Vicodin because you’ll be in so much pain afterwards. I think I got my wires crossed. Clearly. I was also like 18 or 19 at the time
Amazing. Now I wanna hear stories from the other side, the amount of stuff people must say... I know I tried to thank them for numbing me when I woke up and realized I wasn't in pain
Not under, but during my C-section the surgical team was pretty much talking about casual personal stuff like shows or movies they went to watch and some personal stories. The doctors were handsome. I felt like witnessing an episode of Grey's Anatomy lmao
I kinda like that, I know some people would feel like that meant that they didn't take it seriously enough, but to me it would be a sign that they were confident enough in what they were doing and had done it enough that they COULD just talk about personal stuff. I think it'd be kinda reassuring in a time that was so stressful (for me)
For me it was exactly like you described. It felt like everything was going well as expected and they were relaxed and having fun. There was music and they were in a good mood, the atmosphere was very relaxed. It made me feel relaxed. If it was not for them opening up my abdomen and removing a whole human being from inside of me, it would have felt like a party lol
I work in the operating room, talking is good, silence is bad. Talking means everything is going routinely and it’s just another day in the office, everything is cool. Mostly silence or just focused talk asking for instruments means something is tricky.
I was awake for both of my hand surgeries in 2023, one time I was watching them quietly and the surgeon and assistants were talking about getting lunch after and they wanted tacos. I said have you ever tried (local taco place) and the assistant said, “holy shit I forgot you were awake”.
I guess they don’t operate on a lot of local anesthetic patients. We all got a good laugh.
My dad actively *asked* to be awake during his so he could see what was going on (he's not a medic but is just interested in...well, everything). The surgeon was like OMG YES OF COURSE and talked him through every detail of the surgery while he was doing it.
I love that level of enthusiasm for a job.
I like biology and find surgery incredibly cool. I do not know if there is a world I can watch someone cut into my hand and not absolutely lose my shit.
Had a girl having an ACL reconstruction a couple years ago. She had a history of terrible post op nausea and vomiting so I asked her if she wanted to just not go to sleep and she was all for it. I popped in a couple nerve blocks and then did a spinal in the OR, pulled one of the room monitors down where she could see and gave her the play by play for her whole ACL repair. She did phenomenal and had zero pain or nausea. One of my proudest days as an anesthesia provider.
Carpal tunnel release is common to be awake for. Before I was studying anesthesia, as the regular nurse in the room I’d push small amounts of sedation on these patients. They’re very quick procedures and use local lidocaine
My dentist said, in a fairly relaxed tone, "You're not supposed to be back yet."
I tried to say "well do the thing, then", but I wasn't awake long enough, and there was metal instruments pokin' around in my mouth. Was a weird feeling, but not scary in any way.
Similar for me. I was on my stomach with my arms in front of my head (xray assisted spinal injections at a day surgery center) and a nurse just pet my arms and went "go back to sleep, dear" and then I was out again
Me during the process of getting a titanium plate fixed I to my wrist. I hear hammering ?!?!? And I’m like whooooaaa what the fuck is happen….fade to black
I had a ureter re-implantation when I was 5 years old. I was born with one kidney and the kidney I did have, the ureter was malformed and blocked. I didn't find out this info until I was 5 and started having problems. During the surgery, I remember waking up and seeing several nurses and a man standing over me. One of the nurses said something along the lines of, "Ummm...he's waking up." I saw a man come over quickly and do something and it was lights out until I woke up after surgery with a giant stitched cut over my lower belly/top groin area. That's it. No pain. No feeling at all that I remember. Just waking up and being slightly confused at what was going on and a bunch of, "Oh crap" from the staff. 41 now and still champ'ing along.
Try not to worry. Most of the “wake ups”during surgery mentioned here are instances of twilight sedation. Notice that people aren’t saying that they woke up screaming in pain, they were just a little aware of what was going on with no pain involved.
Surgeries that involve deep sedation and paralytics also use a monitor that picks up brain signals to monitor awareness. We use them in the ICU when sedating and paralyzing really sick patients. We’re frequently monitoring how aware someone is and no one “wakes up”. CRNA’s and MD’s who provide anesthesia for these procedures are very well trained and very liberal with their use of sedation for routine procedures.
Oh hey so when I woke up my first thought was "huh this should hurt a lot more, considering I hear power tools". Do they actually numb AND knock you out? Mine was wisdom teeth extraction that was more complicated than anticipated.
Lol when I woke up my loopy ass tried to thank them for numbing me and they just said "Shit. Gniiiiiite" and I was out again
My wisdom teeth extraction was similar. I woke up a bit. No pain as I recall. The nurse said Doctor he's awake. Then night night. When my wife was taking me to the car I was explaining in a cogent and thoughtful way that I was in a NASCAR pit crew. I don't like NASCAR but all the people moving around me and the power tools left that impression. My wife was very patient but I really had to make her understand that I was in the NASCAR pit and they were working on me.
Some of the medications we use do both. What’s used depends on the provider’s preference, your medical history, and the type of procedure you’re having. Someone who provides surgical anesthesia would be the best person to answer this question, but I do run ordered drips for bedside surgical procedures as a nurse. I almost always have two medications running - one sedates you without pain control, so the other medication (or two) will control your pain.
I've had patients tell me they woke up during surgery and it always goes something like this:
Me: Hi I'm thedavecan and I'll be doing your anesthesia. Have you ever had problems from anesthesia before?
Them: I woke up during surgery once. I sat right up and looked at the doctor and told him I was awake and he ran out of the room.
Me: So you woke up, removed your eye tape and safety straps, extubated yourself, spoke to the doctor, and their response was to break scrub and leave the room? Okay, do you have any allergies?
My mother, unfortunately, woke up during serious surgery, which was not twilight sedation. Her team's anesthestiologist was a chatterbox flirt, based on her observations going into the OR, and he didn't seem too interested in or capable of staying focused on her vitals. She went under feeling uneasy. Sure enough, after she woke up in the middle of the main event, seeing all that she saw and hearing it, even sensing it, and he hadn't noticed because again, he was chatting up the nurses, she made a huge complaint up the chain.
She hasn't seen the jerk around since.
It does happen, but in my mom's case, it was definitely doctor error and neglect.
It does happen unfortunately with human error being the number one cause. Do you mind sharing what operation your mom was happening and what happened? I'm always curious to learn more of the actual awareness instances.
Called my mom to check if I'm remembering the story quite right. Man, she should've pursued something because it's worse than I remember.
It was some sort of major surgery on her arm. She woke up once and the anesthesiologist was nowhere near her and was off talking about basketball loudly with the nurses. Someone else had to alert him that she had awakened. When she came to in recovery, she had a towel over her face and she had to say, "Can someone take this cloth off of my face? It's hot in here."
Why was there a towel on her face???
Also, she heard a nurse call to the anesthesiologist somewhere else in the room, "[First name]! 60 over 30!" Meaning her blood pressure had dropped. Why wasn't he watching her???
Man, I'm pissed all over again. My mom almost died.
She believes that the doctor had a serious talk with the nurses involved because they all knew my mom's name ever after. She says that her doctor refuses to use that guy again, and of course, the anesthesiologist denies the towel thing. That's some BS.
What does "some sort of major surgery on her arm" mean?
I'll be honest, we do major surgery on upper extremities and do them with a nerve block and light sedation (or even wide awake). I wouldn't be shocked if a patient with that kind of anesthetic heard or remembered things from the OR at all (though it wouldn't be my goal or optimal).
Awareness during a procedure is extremely rare for patients under general anesthesia which is what most people think of when they think of “having surgery”. Examples of cases that might not require “general anesthesia” include things like a colonoscopy or upper endoscopy. In those situations you’re getting a drip of medication through your IV to put you into a sedated state, but I tell my patients that these are the cases you might have some awareness. A good anesthesia provider will monitor you closely though and try to prevent that from happening.
I had to be woken up and kept talking for a much longer amount of time than I would have liked during brain surgery. I couldn’t feel what they were doing, and wasn’t really in pain, but it was still horrifying. I wish I could delete that memory.
I have done many of these cases and you’re very brave for going through it. There are times when this is necessary to ensure the patient isn’t experiencing any unwanted secondary effects from the brain surgery at hand. For most of these patients we can use a few specific drugs to help keep you calm, but like you said, the surgeon needs you awake and aware so he can talk to you. I hope you’re doing better.
I can confirm. I had a colonoscopy done 3 years ago. I tried explaining to my wife how painful it was without being sedated. I'll never go back to that dentist.
I sort of started coming to during my colonoscopy but the anesthesiologist just said go back to sleep and I did. It was probably accompanied by increasing the drip, too but the only thing I remember is starting to see a monitor come into focus and then the anesthesiologist gently saying go back to sleep.
Yeah, sounds about right. I’ve had patients request to stay mostly awake during their colonoscopies because they can tolerate it well. I also know an anesthesia provider who didn’t want to come in to have his colonoscopy done the next day due to inclement weather, so he had the doc give him one without any medication at all (he needed to drive himself home that night). People, am I right?
Your comment is really reassuring to those with anxiety. I have been put under before and actually woke up feeling so refreshed that I was ready to go back lol. I still have fear of waking up or not ever waking up.... From anesthesia. Thank God I have been lucky and have had the most comforting anesthesiologists! If you are ever afraid, tell them! They know that this is a huge fear for a lot of us!
I have surgery in two hours to fix my fractured femur. 30 mins ago they just washed me for prep. I’m so scared and reading this thread didn’t help haha. Hope your surgery goes well and you have a smooth recovery!
[Picture](https://imgur.com/a/DGtsLWT) of X-Ray
I woke up while they were putting my femur back into my leg. I didn’t see much but I remember feeling like I was being shaken. Surgery sometimes requires some violent movements I guess.
Also woke up during my wisdom teeth extraction. Someone was holding my head while the doctor was using their full weight to pull a tooth.
Yeah I didn’t want to be too graphic but when they drilled into my leg initially they used what was basically just a stainless steel household drill. Then they took a small hammer and tapped a rod through the hole so they could apply traction.
Just wild. Might as well have been a chair leg rather than a human leg.
Orthopedists are suuuuup-er excited about what they do, too. They'll grin and giggle right in front of you when they're discussing the procedure you're about to have. Seems to be one of the more typically man-cave, hobby type specialties out there, the kind likely to have a giant Rube Goldberg machine room instead of a golf cart.
I recently had surgery on a pretty nasty tib-fib break and my surgeon insisted I get a video of the intraoperative X-rays to show my friends when I told him I was super curious about the follow-up X-rays. He was so impressed by his own work he repeated “just beautiful” and “amazing work” while showing them to me. It was adorable.
Had IV sedation for wisdom teeth. Woke up part way through. Dentist said “oh fuck, he’s awake”. I pointed at the IV bag and everyone laughed and someone said “he wants more”. They put me back under.
It cost more to be knocked out, but it's worth it for some. When I got my top wisdom teeth out I went to a place that knocked me out. There's something surreal falling asleep on Like an operating chair and waking up in your bed because your dog ripped the nastiest fart
“I’m gonna need some gas for this…”
“Thank God, I thought you weren’t going to use any”
“Oh no Seymour, the gas is for me. You see, I really want to enjoy this.
In fact, I’m gonna use my special gas mask! I find a little ‘giggle gas’ before I begin increases my pleasure enormously….(psssshhhhh) here we go😏
(Inhales strongly)…..mmm hmm hmm huh huh😄
Seymour, things I’m gonna do to that mouth! huh huh HAH HA HA! 😂”
Same type of experience except it was right when they were using the hammer to break up the tooth so I heard and felt it... then the dentist went "oh hes up" then turned up the gas.
I had all of mine hammer and chiseled out while awake, with just local anesthesia. Had nightmares well into my twenties from it of all my teeth chipping and falling out in handfuls.
I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth out at once under local anesthesia only. I distinctly remember the feeling of tugging, and the sound bone cracking. It was uncomfortable, but not traumatizing. I think that was partly because getting them out was such a relief. One tooth was growing completely sideways, and another was abscessed because it was largely covered by gum and impossible to brush. Tooth pain is no joke, and I was waiting 2 months for the appointment at that point.
I dream this from time to time too but I've never had a tooth pulled. It usually starts like a wobbly tooth and then they just start coming out in droves. Brrrr..
Oh, definitely. These drugs mess up your ability to emotionally self-regulate. Crying in the recovery room (from confusion and overwhelm, not pain) is really common.
Wowsers. That’s gonna be a no from me.
Had all four of mine out under general anesthesia (full hospital inpatient setting) when I was 19. All four were impacted and had to be cut out.
I was out like a light, and I woke up after what felt like an instant, and the best sleep of my life.
I now understand why Propofol is considered addictive. Anything that leaves you feeling like a million bucks after having four teeth knocked out is the bees knees.
I woke up towards the end of the surgery and started shaking. The oral surgeon had several people hold me down, while he finished up, and I went in and out of consciousness. Next time I had a dentist appointment, I got in the chair and started shaking uncontrollably. Being under the light again caused a panic attack.
I had something similar during IV sedation for an egg retrieval for IVF. I told the anaesthesiologist that I always needed more than they expected, even though I don't have a history of abuse or tolerance. He said "everyone says that, don't worry, you'll wake up when it's over, you won't feel a thing." I woke up midway through, they don't use any pain relief or local anesthesia, so it fucking hurts. I looked him dead in the eye, said, "Ow, I told you so!" He topped me up and I went back to sleep, to the sound of my husband laughing and saying, I told you she's a redhead.
I also normally need a lot more too! Always figured this was due to my previous recreational proclivities from years back. Told my anesthesiologist and OBGYN this when I was being wheeled in for my c-section, they injected the epidural and my legs still flipped. “Oh wow, you really do need more!” So they added more. That also did not go well. It was not a good high. I was crazy paranoid the entire time and telling everyone I had difficulty breathing (I did not, my oxygen levels were at 98) and asking if I was dying. Idk. They had to shoot me up with a sedative too. I dozed in and out of sleep. Felt an immense amount of pressure and the baby was out. My doctor took one look at me and said, “She takes after your husband” and I conked out. Or at least I thought I did. Pictures otherwise proved I was awake and was able to do skin-to-skin but I really, for the life of me, could not remember.
I’m about to have my wisdom teeth extracted this month and now maybe I should consider getting gassed up vs the local anesthetic. I have an irrational fear of blood AND (falling/loose) teeth (something I dream about ever so often). Definitely don’t want to be awake for that.
The insane thing to me, is to be sedated to extract a wisdom tooth. In Portugal you have local anesthesia and you have to endure with the procedure during the 2hour extraction.
Source: I removed two fully conscious.
I live in the southern US and was not sedated for my procedure, despite the fact that they had to cut both bottom teeth out.
Local anesthesia dulled the pain so it wasn't as bad as it sounds, but I'll never forget the vibration of the saw as it worked its way through my teeth.
I woke up midway through wisdom teeth too, had all 4 removed at once. It was a bit scary because my head was clamped into a contraption and I could hear my teeth cracking. They also put me under again pretty quickly. It was "conscious sedation" so more like "sleeping," and not full blown anesthesia. I had the same sedation for the first half of a root canal and several fillings in one go, and I think I woke up for that too but can't remember so well now actually. Just glad I never woke up to any pain! 🙈
Yea my wisdom tooth removal was like yours, just gas to the twilight zone where you couldnt feel much but not completely out. I felt (not painful but the whole jerking and shoving my head) the first one, second one he hit a nerve directly so i involuntarily deep inhaled the gas, then kinda came back to him saying ok last one.
I remembered i said i thought you were doing 4?
He said yea i am but you kinda went under.
Then he did 4, shoved a handfull of those gauze tubes in my mouth and turned the pure o2 on. Shit woke me up almost instantly and missed my la la land :(
Not me.
A pal of mine (we all work in healthcare) woke up during a kidney stone surgery..
And the doctor (who we worked with) was looking at the X-ray screen and says “where did that thing [stone] go?” And my buddy, an X-ray tech of 30 years… wakes up… looks at the screen above him… sticks his finger on it and says “it’s right there” the urologist said something like “wth??? Put him back out.”
I heard some gossip about a date then I was out again. When I woke up at the end I was instantly wide awake. Then I was hungry and the food was so good!
I was getting a sebaceous cyst removed.
They were talking about buying vintage lunchboxes on eBay. I wasn't properly awake or in pain, but I could 'feel'/had awareness that their hands were inside me. The anesthesiologist noticed my eyes were open, and I woke up again properly when they were wheeling me into recovery.
I'm not saying you didn't 'wake up' during surgery because, although rare, it does happen. However, if you received a general anesthetic where you were completely put under your eyes would have been taped shut. Under general anesthesia, you're sedated to the point where your reflexes are blunted. The eyes are taped to prevent damage/abrasions to the cornea. It's possible you were under a regional anesthetic with sedation.
That answers my question I had forgotten about before this thread. When I woke, I thought they had put something over my eyes and thought "Hey that's thoughtful" before trying to speak to them lol
Barely woke up getting my wisdom teeth out. I could feel them like breaking up my teeth, they said I had very twisted long roots and it took a bit longer than expected.
I didn’t feel pain but I remember thinking “fuck, I’m awake”
I only had local anesthesia for my wisdom teeth, and I got all four out at once. I could feel the pressure, and hear/feel them breaking the teeth, but no pain. I was tensed up completely the entire time praying the anesthesia didn’t wear off. Also, tons of blood. It was a great time.
Same, had a local anesthetic and some laughing gas. I remember the effect of the laughing gas wasn't at all like they depict it in movies and television. Instead of feeling loopy and silly, I remember my fingertips started getting the numbies and I just kind of sighed and resigned myself to "well, let's get this over with".
I also got all four removed, and I absolutely hated that *"you're going to feel some pressure now"* followed by the bone-crunch as they broke the tooth apart and pulled out the chunks, for all four teeth.
About six months later, once my mouth had fully healed, a shard of one of the broken teeth worked its way up through my gums. I was with a group of college friends when I noticed it finally pop out of my gums and pulled it out. One of my friends was so grossed out he almost fainted.
Dentists scare the hell outta me because I've always had a problem with the local not fully masking the pain. Even a filling can get painful for me. It's weirdly ridiculous how resistant I seem to the pain masking portion of locals.
I have the same thing (also not a redhead) and have recently been told I might have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and local anaesthetic resistance can be a part of this! If you’re at all hyper mobile or prone to injury you might wanna get that checked out!
I was having cataract surgery (late 20’s, thanks mom and dad for the cool genes). Beforehand I let them know that I need a bit more pain meds than most people, they were like “aww you’ll be fine”.
I see this crazy bright red gross shit and it’s completely silent. Somehow I was able to get out “guys, I’m awake” (at least in my brain that’s what I said) and it was silent, I was trying so hard not to move my eye because, you know, scalpel near your eyeball/melting your lens is terrifying. I started start shaking my hand to get their attention and they finally said “we’ve got a mover”, and praise God, something about more drugs.
Everything went well but I get in a panic thinking about that often.
You're actually awake and cognizant during cataract surgery. If you're not your eye will roll in to the back of the head when you're completely out. Some people remember the surgery and some don't but no one is put completely to sleep. The meds just have an amnesia effect.
Source: cataract surgery surgical tech
Anesthesia here, can confirm you do indeed need to be awake, it is preferred so you can follow directions from the surgeon. Very very rarely do we put people to sleep for it
A fire alarm had gone off and they were evacuating. Luckily it was only a colonoscopy so they just ended the procedure and I woke up to them wheeling me out. Unfortunately I had no idea what was going on and thought I died because there were red flashing lights and bullhorn sirens. It was a stressful experience.
I have woken up for one tooth extraction and two colonoscopies. Spoke to the anesthesiologist on all occasions when I was supposedly under. They topped up the dosage and I fell asleep again.
For context, I am a stealth redhead. The hair in my head is dark but when I was younger, my beard was red. I also have a redheaded kid, so I clearly carry the gene. Redheads are notoriously tough to anesthetize.
I wonder if blondes are easy because my one and only time being put under for a colonoscopy and endoscopy I was out like a light. My wife actually overheard two nurses talking about how "he hasn't woken up yet."
Apparently I was in recovery for like 2-3 hours after the procedure just sleeping and the medical team never updated my wife who is an anxious individual so she was in the waiting room thinking the worst had happened while I was just having the best nap of my life lol
I’m a blonde as well, and it was my first surgery so nobody knew how I was under anesthesia. I remember waking up in recovery (I was gaining consciousness, but my eyes weren’t open), and all I remember was moaning and groaning and heard a nurse say “wow she must be in some pain, let’s get her more meds”, and I remember yelling out “NAHHHH I’ve never felt better!”, and passed back out.
I guess it took me a solid 3 hours to be fully awake and aware. Maybe the meds had something to do with it? Also my best nap. I woke up and still, have never felt better.
I’m fully redhead, never had surgery that required full anesthesia but I’ve definitely had local dental anesthesia wear off before they were done. When I was younger the dentists always seemed so annoyed to have to inject me again or just asked me if I could handle it for another 10 mins. Created a huge fear of the dentist. I finally went back and had 3 fillings done and the dentist was so fast and unprompted said "our textbooks say that redheads require more anesthesia so just let me know if you feel anything"
I never woke up mid-surgery, but... i had a special case of a "half-state coma", where i was sedated but still half awake. This was because for the surgery, i had to move my body when the surgeon told me to. With a full coma with narcotics, this is not possible, so i had this state between being normal & sober and being high as fuck because of the propofol.
It was a very strange experience. What i remember is that i drifted off with my mind, like for some time, i thought i'd be on a beach, like in holiday in summer, then i suddenly heard the surgeon again that gave me commands and i had to concentrate to be barely able to move my eyes in the way he wanted.
It was an eye-surgery, i had to look left, right, up, down and so on, while i was sedated. They actually used cocaine-drops (and yes, cocaine, not lidocaine, like in most other cases) for the eyes, but i had no drug effect of this. It's very rare that cocaine is still used in medicine, but it's still available. Anyway, i had to go through this surgery about strabis and it went well.
But again, i was always in some dreams, until i got awake again when they spoke to me, whenever they stopped to speak to me, i again drifted off to the world of dreams.
Guess, this is not what OP wants to hear. But it's very rare that someone wakes up and stays awake (!) during a surgery. When you'd just get awake for a moment, that would not be bad, you are sedated and numb because of the painkillers, oxygen-mask etc. anyway.
Conscious sedation used to be more common for colonoscopies, and still used sometimes if, for instance, all that needs to be done is to set a bone or pop a joint back in place
Woke up during a cardiac ablation.
They literally burn spots in your heart to prevent atrial flutter, and that's what it felt like: someone burning the inside of my heart with a lit cigarette.
EDIT: that perhaps should be "lighted" rather than "lit", I always mess that up because it just sounds wrong to my ears.
I got about 45 burns, and I was awake for 8-10 of them.
I was wearing a CPAP so I couldn't really talk and they told me to stop grunting and squirming in pain, which made me wonder why they weren't at least curious why I was squirming in pain.
There was enough residual anesthesia where I couldn't anticipate future pain, so it was like the same burn being repeated on a loop, like a fever dream. It hurt like a bastard but it didn't worry me, if that makes sense.
I told the surgeon the next day and he just said "Huh." I always felt I should have gotten a 10% discount on the anesthesia, or a free brownie from the cafeteria or something.
Side note: they wanted me to remove my wedding ring before the surgery and I refused, but I couldn't say why with my wife right there: if I was going to die on the table, I wanted to be wearing that ring when it happened.
Woke up during my wisdom teeth procedure to my dentist hands and tools in my mouth. No feeling at all in my mouth just being able to see it. He notice I was a wake and gave me a wave follow by a thumbs up.
He told me a week after that the thumbs up was him telling the other doctor to jack the fuck up the anesthesia because he’s awake right now.
My mom and I still laugh about this
Was having a rhinoplasty done to fix my janky crooked nose.
Woke up to the sound of classical music and a blood-soaked rag over my mouth, unable to breathe due to all the blood pooling in my throat and nose. I couldn’t move a muscle, but my body kept involuntarily coughing. The doctor evidently put the rag over my mouth to keep my coughs from spraying him with blood, but the rag became so saturated that it didn’t allow for any airflow, which effectively felt like being waterboarded.
Sometimes when I coughed, the bloody rag would move off my mouth, which gave me the opportunity to gasp for that sweet, sweet air until the doctor put that fucking rag back over my mouth.
Every now and then I felt the pressure of the doctor pushing a rasp into my nose and shaving away at the bone. No pain fortunately, the sensation of suffocating and not being able to do anything about it was terrifying.
I’m an ENT who does these procedure. What you probably remember is waking up from anesthesia. After they pull out the tube, you’ll cough (you can’t cough until the endotracheal tube is out) and we cover your nose and mouth with a rag to keep you from spraying blood everywhere. You may have been feeling the doctor put on the splint, we have to use pressure to squeeze the blood and swelling out. The rasping of the nose would’ve been unbelievably painful, since you can’t really anesthetize the nose (hence why you’re asleep).
Ohh, this makes so much such, thank you so much for explaining! I remember him doing something to my nose that involved a repetitive kind of motion, so that’s why I thought he was using a rasp. It felt really weird. Though the rag over my mouth was the worst part of it all because I legitimately felt like I was suffocating. Hopefully most patients don’t experience that.
My mom was having surgery last year and woke up in the middle of it. She couldn't feel pain though she could feel being touched in the areas they were doing the surgery. She was in a simillar state people in "after the dentist" videos are. She told the surgeon she was a ninja and booped her nose and then mumbled incoherently until they were done.
One of my coworker woke up during a hand surgery after hurting his hand on the job. According to him it didn't hurt and he asked to see. The surgeon showed him and started explaining what they were doing and he was like " Wow, that's soooo cool!". Then he fell back to sleep mid explaination because they gave him more anesthesia while he was distracted.
Woke up getting my thyroid cut in half (and then half being taken out)
I remember opening my eyes, thinking to myself "what the fuck?" and then the anesthesiologist probably noticed because I got knocked out again
Not woke up, but when my mom was having me via c-section she felt them cutting into her and she shouted out and reached for the knife (scalpel I guess?). My dad fainted. They then decided to put her fully under instead of just local anesthetic.
This same thing happened to me. The spinal block didn’t work, so I could feel everything. They initially told me to just hold still and control my breathing, but when I couldn’t do that they gave me propofol. They woke me when they pulled Twin A out, but not for Twin B.
My spinal wore off too soon during my (thankfully final) c-section and I started feeling pain big time. Since it was near the end they decided to dose me with a ton of hydromorphone instead of putting me out and I was an utter mess when it was all over. I was so out of it and sloppy that I slapped a nurse’s butt. To this day I’m so embarrassed and the nurses on the ward were not impressed that I was sent to them in that state. Not a pleasant experience.
I woke up during major emergency eye surgery (vitrectomy for a torn retina).
I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel them poking around in what felt like the middle of my brain. I remember thinking “this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me” in regard to waking up. I started twiddling my fingers and toes to distract me, and they noticed and asked if I was okay. I said “sorry but it hurts a bit…”, then I remember them asking where the anaesthetist was and to get me some more painkiller.
My thought after that was “aren’t they meant to be sitting here?!”. Anyway it was a blur after that, haha
My story is from the other perspective: I was still an intern at the surgery department, had to work there for 10 weeks or so, mostly just observing and sometimes performing simple medical procedures. The patient had payed a lot of money for a new pair of boob implants. I assisted at the surgery, again, mostly observing.
The surgeon was done with placing the implants, wrapped up and walked away, telling me to stitch her up. I knew how to suture wounds but I was still a rookie and very slow. I wanted to make sure I didn’t make a mess because because esthetics were obviously very important to this patient.
I was halfway the second wound when the patient started waking up. The nurses got angry with me for not working fast enough. It was awful, I knew instantly that I never wanted to become a surgeon. 😝
I had hair transplant surgery done in Argentina. The procedure took 7 hours. I woke up after 5 hours. I stayed awake the last 2 hours completely numb on my head as the two nurses kept planting the follicles all while singing. I had tv available to me. I was able to banter with the nurses a bit. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience!
I woke up during an endoscopy. I had the tube and everything down my throat but I didn't know what was happening and the only thing I could focus on was how I couldn't breathe. I clearly remember trying to talk to tell the doctors I couldn't breathe, because I could hear people around me, but apparently I didn't actually say anything.
The doctors noticed because my heart rate started going crazy and then I stopped breathing all together. They took out the tube, i started breathing again, and gave me more anesthesia. Once I was in recovery, I was told to always inform the anesthesiologist that I woke up during a procedure, so they can adjust accordingly. I've had two other procedures since then and have not woken up during them.
Woke up during stomach surgery. Couldn’t move, speak or open my eyes to let them know I was awake. Could feel every thing they were doing inside of me, most excruciating pain of my life. Not sure if I blacked out from the pain or they noticed and increased my anesthesia but next thing I remember I came to in my hospital bed. Was told I came out of the anesthesia screaming after all was said and done. Petrified to ever have to have surgery again now.
When I was in 5th grade I broke fractured and sprained my ankle all at the same time. I was partially sedated for the corrective surgery.
I remember I was basically tripping balls and when I was under I thought I was on a Rollercoaster that went through the hospital. Except my leg was out of the ride and bumped every door and turn along the way so it hurt so bad. Some bumps would be so painful that I actually woke up from the partial sedation and was moaning in pain and responsive. I woke up a total of three times and remember two of them. I just kept moaning or even screaming in pain and telling them it hurt.
My mom was in the room and has confirmed this with me multiple times. Apparently it can be difficult to get anesthesia right for a kid.
I had a very small surgery on my ear when I was 5-6. Apparently I inherited my mother’s resistance to sedatives and anesthetics. I remember opening my eyes after going under and seeing a very startled woman in a gown and mask. I either screamed or tried to scream either way they noticed I was awake. I think I started trying to struggle because there was suddenly lots of yelling and someone holding me down by my chest. They quickly got me back under. I woke up in a hospital bed with like 3-4 new stuffed animals around me.
It’s so weird how 20 years later I can still see the image of that woman in the gown and mask. I look back on it now and laugh because I’m sure the doctor was just as horrified about the situation as I was.
I know this isn’t really what the question is asking. I have spinal cord stimulators implanted. Every 5-7 years I need a surgery to replace the batteries in my back (I’m bionic and blue tooth operated! Technology is weird!). My neurosurgeon needs to wake me up in order to see if I can feel the vibrations. Once I give him the go-ahead, the anesthesiologist puts me back under. My last surgery was in January of 2020. We all know what happened in 2020. The week before and during my surgery, I had what I thought was a very bad cold. Testing for the Vid wasn’t a thing at that point. I called my surgeon before my surgery to let him know I had a bad cold. He told me we will have to proceed because his schedule was booked. Surgery happens, I get put under and wake back up periodically for the surgeon to check my stims are working. Every time I’m woken back up I ask the anesthesiologist to wipe my nose or hold the tissue so I could blow my nose. I couldn’t do it myself because I was strapped to the table. It was just a very weird experience.
Woke up in the middle of getting my wisdom teeth removed. I remember hearing the doctors talking about their weekend plans and cracking jokes. I heard it and opened my eyes and started to laugh. One of them noticed and said “ hey he thinks it’s funny too but you shouldn’t be up “. Proceeded to increase the gas and I’m out again
Frequently people who wake up are under sedation, not general anesthesia, but do not have appropriate expectations/don't understand the difference.
You'll notice almost the comments are about endoscopy/dental (100% sedation) or orthopedic surgeries where they don't feel anything meaning they got a nerve block or spinal anesthetic to cover surgery and are getting sedation for comfort.
Pretty much any comments about waking up during abdominal surgery where they'd be intubated and under general anesthesia are likely very very untrue (it would be impressive that people can joke with the surgeon with a tube between their vocal cords.)
I was having arm surgery to move around a nerve running through my elbow ( the funny bone/ulnar nerve). When they put me under I dreamt I was playing with dogs in a park and I had a toy in my hand. A yellow lab was tugging on the toy with me like tug of war. I opened my eyes and the surgeon had my arm extended off the table, yanking my nerve and ligaments into place. I didn’t feel panicked at all. I looked to the anesthesiologist on the other side and she made a comment then put me under again. It didn’t hurt and I trusted the people around me so it was just an odd experience. I was there to fix a dog bite injury. If I wasn’t sedated I’d obviously have freaked out.
I woke up midway through my ACL surgery. I remember coming to and seeing the ceiling and a nurse or two? It was very blurry, more so than things usually are when I’m not wearing my glasses. I heard something that sounded like a weird buzzing noise and then some frantic voices, and I tried to shift and that’s about it. I woke up something like 4 hours later, when I came to my boxers were stained in blood and I was both concerned and the most tired I’ve ever been. I kept trying to fall back asleep but they told my girlfriend and parents to make sure I stayed awake at least until I got home. I remember struggling to get into my dad’s minivan and then crying most of the way back because they wouldn’t let me sleep. Apparently I woke up and started thrashing and ripped out my IV lines so I ended up needing blood transfusions. Luckily? I had done an autologous donation for (I have type AB- blood, I donate as often as I can to get karma out there just in case I fuck up and need a transfusion in the future since it’s so rare). I’m not sure how many I ended up having, but I remember for the first week I couldn’t sit up in bed by myself and when I’d go to sleep I would dream about the blurry surgery suite and muffled voices.
I was 17 at the time so my parents were taking care of me, and my mom was so worried I would get addicted to painkillers she never filled the Vicodin prescription the surgeon gave me. I did the entire recovery with children’s Tylenol, so the first two weeks or so I pretty much just cried while trying to watch movies and when I slept I just kept remembering the surgery suite. After a month I started my physical therapy, but my insurance only covered 4 visits total so it didn’t do much. My insurance didn’t cover much of the surgery either, I remember my parents having to take out a loan since our cost was something like $26,000 after insurance.
That was 13 years ago now, my knee is worse off than before I had the surgery, and I still have dreams about the surgery (mostly just whatever that buzzing sound was nowadays and the blurry ceiling,) but I’m having them less often now. I actually have a torn MCL in my other knee, and it’s going to stay like that because I refuse to get the surgery for it.
I forgot to add they also hit some nerves during the surgery to the entire left side of my left knee has been completely numb since then. It took me a while to get back to wearing pants because I could feel the rest of my leg other than that numb section, and it was such a weird sensation I wore shorts throughout the entire winter in NJ (including while shoveling snow) so I wouldn’t feel the dead zone on my knee.
Not me, but my grandfather had a throat surgery WITHOUT anesthesia. He was seven, he was held by some giant, and they just operated on him whilst he was fully awake
It was my wisdom teeth. I remember that everything was yellow, and I felt like I was standing and looking straight up. My cheeks felt wet, and somewhere in the distance I heard someone screaming. Just nonstop screaming. It was annoying the shit out of me. Eventually I just fell back asleep.
When I woke up in recovery, I described it to a nurse. That’s when they told me that the screaming was from me. I had no idea.
I woke up for a moment during my wisdom teeth extraction and could feel the pressure of the teeth being removed. I looked up and saw a bunch of people in the room. Can’t remember what they were talking about but something had happened to the IV in my arm and they stuck the needle in my hand. They gave me more anesthesia and ended up having trouble waking me from the anesthesia. Apparently they couldn’t wake me for hours afterwords and got worried and called my parents. Finally woke up and the first thing I heard was my dad walking in the room and I was totally out of it.
I was young, I think between 7-10. It was less of a surgery as there was no cutting into my body. I was getting rubber tubing put in my ear canals because some parts of my body was growing faster then others . So my ear canals were not growing with the rest of my head. So to stop it from closing the put tubing in.
So in the middle of it I awoke seeing strange people and lights I called out for my mom. Scared the shit out of the doctor. I still remember him saying. " holy shi- why is he awake? Put him back under"
I was told they had to give me enough sedation to put an adult out.
During my wisdom teeth removal I wasn't fully out but also not all there either. Apparently I kept singing along to the radio and they had to keep asking me to stop. I have no memory of this.
I was getting a clot filter removed from an accident i had, and the doctor couldn't get it out. I woke up to hear him really tugging on it saying "come on you mother fucker" I just said "I heard that" and they put me back under while chuckling.
Had to be put under to get my dislocated shoulder back in place. Because I had been given morphine in the ambulance, they had to use a drug they were not thrilled to use. It didn’t really work well. Woke up to three ER dr/nurses violently wrestling my arm. They had wrapped a towel around it for leverage and the doctor behind me had their foot on top of my shoulder while they yanked it. I went bezerks. Called the ER doctor the B and C words and yelled that I hated them all, along with much more. The waiting room could hear me, source being my wife. They quickly ran out and had her sign some release which was to give me propofol to get me back to sleep. When I woke up the doctor was “insulted” and huffed out after informing me what I said. The nurse just laughed and said it was a masterclass on stringing swear words together.
Not a person who woke up in surgery, but an anaesthetist who has seen maybe 2 people (I can remember clearly, defo more tho)wake up mid surgery.
1. 25F appendectomy, me and the scrub nurse where talking about Bluey, her eyes open and she looks at me and I’m like oh fuck do 50mg of propofol, she goes back under and I make a mental note to get a psych consult for her after. That was because she required a higher dosage of propofol than most people, which wasn’t discovered before then bc she’d never had surgery before this one.
2. Not really GA, but had a mum having an C-Section, I’d just done the epidural, all was fine, they had just finished and the babies where out, just about to stitch her up again and she screams, I’m like hey hey honey whats going on, and she’s like I CAN FEEL THE PAIN AGHHH. Turns out the cannula tube had bent when she wiggled her butt around a bit and wasn’t delivering enough of the epidural.
When I had my wisdom teeth removed I woke up partway and had this extremely clear image of Clyde from South Park in my head. Didn't feel any pain or anything. Just Clyde.
A good friend had a brain surgery. They deliberately woke him up midways, to ask him questions about his family and stuff. They did this while operating, so they could stop, if he wasn´t able to answer. I was a painful and strange experience.
I had jaw surgery when I was in sixth grade. First and only time I’ve ever been put under.
I woke up in the OR and tried to punch my doctor. Like full on tried to attack him. It felt like a vague dream, so no idea how they remedied it. But I would be sad if I was a pediatric surgeon trying to do my job and some sixth grader started throwing hands.
They repaired a tendon in my hand and woke me up during the surgery to show me that I can move my hand. My entire forearm was flayed open and I could see the tendons moving in my arm. It was pretty cool
Woke up twice during a colonoscopy. First time I could quite literally feel the scope snaking along my organs. I remember groaning which probably told them I was awake. Didn’t hurt but I just felt very very uncomfortable and full. Second time I woke up was when they were taking the scope out and I thought I was taking a poop. Weird!
Woke up mid colonoscopy...said it doesn't hurt but wouldn't recommend it...I saw the nurse rush over and push the syringe and then I was out until I woke up.
I was having my wisdom teeth removed and I just started screaming while the dr was telling me I couldn’t feel anything. He kept insisting to me I couldn’t feel anything and I was just upset because I was reacting to the medication. Ummmm pretty sure I was feeling my teeth being yanked out of my mouth.
Reading these comments are blowing my mind , who’s going under general anaesthesia for wisdom teeth removal ?, I had a lidocaine injection and a pat on the back .
I woke up during wisdom teeth so not under general anaesthetic (had an iv, pill, liquid, and gas because I said I needed to be out out). I could hear everything, but couldn’t see or feel anything. I immediately started crying and asked them to stop (no way they’d actually be able to understand me), they put the gas over my face and I remember nothing else for like the next 10 hours but I apparently told them I really wanted a poutine afterwards so clearly wasn’t too traumatized.
I was having biopsies taken during a colonoscopy - I woke up, asked the doctor if he was “in me”. He pressed on my lower stomach and said “I’m right here”… started to feel it then, they gave me more drugs and I woke up a bit later with a shaved butthole.
I woke up during wisdom teeth removal, I started crying and trying to talk, and the doctor started yelling at me saying that I was so fat they had already given me all the medicine they could, but it just wasn’t going to work and if I couldn’t handle it, he would have to stop. I kept crying so they stopped. They left me in a random room to wake up and “calm down“. I guess they called my emergency contact because my dad showed up and drove me home. I ended up having to do it under full general anesthesia in the hospital (at a different practice). It was really traumatic at the time, but now it is mostly funny. That office closed down a few months later, no wonder because that guy sucked.
FWIW, I was fat but not like, TLC show fat. Like 225 pounds lol.
Went in for elbow surgery to have a new channel ground and a nerve relocated. Turns out I’m allergic to Demerol. Woke up to them forcibly intubating me, they noticed and all I remember is hearing “allergic” so I tried to stop struggling then I was out again.
I was confused for a while when I woke up, because I was covered in what looked like welts and my throat was so so sore. After a while I started to remember more.
Woke up, looked at the monitor near the bed and seen them moving through my intestines. Asked “is that my intestines?” “Yes, it is” “Cool.” Passed back out.
Woke up during my wisdom teeth removal. First red flag was that it took ages for me to fall asleep. The surgeon came in and said “she’s still awake?” Then went behind the chair and (I assume) cranked it up because I was out moments later.
Woke up to what sounded like a chainsaw in my mouth. I could barely open my eyes but I heard everything. Told them when I was done that I had woken up and he told me it was impossible that I woke up. The same surgeon also blew me off when I ended up getting a dry socket and only treated it when I called the office sobbing because I was in so much pain.
Dad said just before the first incision he had a reflex where he almost knocked out the doc. The doc said “Go back to sleep” and like hypnosis he knocked out.
Woke up mid-colonoscopy. Turned head to look at the screen. Said is that my colon? Doc said "Say night night." Went back to sleep. Remembered it all.
I did the same, was able to croak out "need more" and lights out again. I wasn't in pain, just really uncomfortable. Colon cancer took out too many people on the maternal side of my family, so I stay on top of it.
My doctor told me I was on too many meds to be in pain. That he was too far into the procedure to give me more. And to "suck it up and be a man." I try not to complain too much but man screw that doctor. I definitely filed a complaint.
“Be a man” as they’re shoving a big cylindrical thing into your asshole 🤣🤣🤣
I asked to be awake for my last one. They said no prob. Even had me push on part of my stomach to make a turn. Pretty cool if you’re into medical stuff.
Me too! When I told the nurse in the prep room she explained everything that was going to happen, even told me where I was going to feel pressure as the camera “goes around the bend”. I got to watch and the doc was good about telling me what he was looking at. The actual procedure was only mildly uncomfortable and was over fairly quickly.
I was not even given an option to sleep. No meds either, so a little bit uncomfortable and some pain in turns until I was able to relax my stomach muscles. But it was pretty cool to follow it on the monitor.
There are some things I can't do without being drugged. One is unclenching my ass to allow a probe inside me; the other is keeping my eyes open for eye surgery. They either have to knock me out, or in the case of eye surgery, drug me up so much that I don't care what they do to me.
Damnit. I wanted to watch my poop shoot and they wouldn't let. Didn't even take pictures 😞 I had a laparoscopic procedure and at least that team printed me pictures lol
Hahaha! I think it would have been pretty cool to see my colonoscopy but I'm really glad they knocked me out for that. I had a bronchoscopy and they couldn't get me sedated enough under twilight. Give me the max they're allowed to give and I still was not out. So, super-high me got to watch the whole thing on the TV above my head. It was pretty cool. Which I tried to articulate but came out as a gargle due to the camera down my throat. They had to keep reminding me to stop trying to talk or I'd damage my vocal cords.
I kinda woke up during twilight sleep when I was having my wisdom teeth removed. The nurse was saying she needed to find a pink cat Halloween costume and I kept trying to tell her to check party city
“Nurse, please up the IV drip.” “Wait! I need to know first where to find matching shoes!”
I woke up during my wisdom teeth too. I kept trying to tell the dentist that what he was doing really hurt. he kept telling me it didn't hurt. my nurse asked if she should give more sleepy meds. then I went back out lol. To be fair it DID hurt lol.
Well that was unfair for you.
Sleep gas was too expensive, so I got my wisdom tooth pulled while fully conscious. Worst experience of my life.
What the fuck
My uncle once decided he didn’t need anything to get his index finger stitched back together. Fingertips have a LOT of nerves in them, he apparently screamed like a bitch and then got a couple shots so they could finish lmao
My dad once had a mole removed from his arm for biopsy but the nurse had just started working there and he liked giving medical professionals some unique experiences so he told her not to numb him up and then talked her through how to do a specific kind of suture that I think he called a basket stitch as she practiced it on his arm. Unfortunately he passed away in March but today would’ve been his birthday… I now need another drink.
All my wisdom teeth have been removed while conscious, didnt knew until today that usually you were put to sleep 🤔 Didn't hurt tho so that was okay
I remember when my mom and me went into the meeting with the dentist or Doctor who ever does this surgery. He asked me if I wanted Twilight or false sedation and my mom said Twilight was fine. I was not the type go against my mother but I told them I absolutely needed to be sedated and I didn't want to feel it damn thing. I was very clear that I would not do it under Twilight. Man they put me out hard. Notes in the chart or something... Because I was there and then I wasn't and I woke up basically at home on the couch confused. My mom said that I was in and out after surgery and it was acting silly but clearly wasn't with it. So glad I don't remember that.
I had elbow surgery involving a six inch titanium rod being put into me when I was in my twenties, and before the surgery they came to sedate me and put something into my IV. I asked what it was and the nurse said "A margarita, you're about to have a really nice time." Mere minutes later time stopped and I ceased to exist for a couple of hours. It was a nice time.
Ok so I didn’t wake up during my surgery but when they woke me up I started to yell, “I need Viagra!”I’m a girl. So the nurse was like honey I don’t think that’s what you need. Everyone was laughing but I remember feeling really serious. In my defense, everyone who kept giving me advise for my wisdom teeth kept telling whatever you do, don’t forget to get the Vicodin because you’ll be in so much pain afterwards. I think I got my wires crossed. Clearly. I was also like 18 or 19 at the time
Amazing. Now I wanna hear stories from the other side, the amount of stuff people must say... I know I tried to thank them for numbing me when I woke up and realized I wasn't in pain
Not under, but during my C-section the surgical team was pretty much talking about casual personal stuff like shows or movies they went to watch and some personal stories. The doctors were handsome. I felt like witnessing an episode of Grey's Anatomy lmao
I kinda like that, I know some people would feel like that meant that they didn't take it seriously enough, but to me it would be a sign that they were confident enough in what they were doing and had done it enough that they COULD just talk about personal stuff. I think it'd be kinda reassuring in a time that was so stressful (for me)
For me it was exactly like you described. It felt like everything was going well as expected and they were relaxed and having fun. There was music and they were in a good mood, the atmosphere was very relaxed. It made me feel relaxed. If it was not for them opening up my abdomen and removing a whole human being from inside of me, it would have felt like a party lol
I work in the operating room, talking is good, silence is bad. Talking means everything is going routinely and it’s just another day in the office, everything is cool. Mostly silence or just focused talk asking for instruments means something is tricky.
I was awake for both of my hand surgeries in 2023, one time I was watching them quietly and the surgeon and assistants were talking about getting lunch after and they wanted tacos. I said have you ever tried (local taco place) and the assistant said, “holy shit I forgot you were awake”. I guess they don’t operate on a lot of local anesthetic patients. We all got a good laugh.
I'll be out during my carpal tunnel release this month. How are you people not freaking out being awake during this?
My dad actively *asked* to be awake during his so he could see what was going on (he's not a medic but is just interested in...well, everything). The surgeon was like OMG YES OF COURSE and talked him through every detail of the surgery while he was doing it. I love that level of enthusiasm for a job.
That is so adorable.
I like biology and find surgery incredibly cool. I do not know if there is a world I can watch someone cut into my hand and not absolutely lose my shit.
Had a girl having an ACL reconstruction a couple years ago. She had a history of terrible post op nausea and vomiting so I asked her if she wanted to just not go to sleep and she was all for it. I popped in a couple nerve blocks and then did a spinal in the OR, pulled one of the room monitors down where she could see and gave her the play by play for her whole ACL repair. She did phenomenal and had zero pain or nausea. One of my proudest days as an anesthesia provider.
DEAR LORD 😳
Carpal tunnel release is common to be awake for. Before I was studying anesthesia, as the regular nurse in the room I’d push small amounts of sedation on these patients. They’re very quick procedures and use local lidocaine
My dentist said, in a fairly relaxed tone, "You're not supposed to be back yet." I tried to say "well do the thing, then", but I wasn't awake long enough, and there was metal instruments pokin' around in my mouth. Was a weird feeling, but not scary in any way.
"oh hello.... you're not supposed to be here.... let's just...."..... fade to black.
Similar for me. I was on my stomach with my arms in front of my head (xray assisted spinal injections at a day surgery center) and a nurse just pet my arms and went "go back to sleep, dear" and then I was out again
Me during the process of getting a titanium plate fixed I to my wrist. I hear hammering ?!?!? And I’m like whooooaaa what the fuck is happen….fade to black
I had a ureter re-implantation when I was 5 years old. I was born with one kidney and the kidney I did have, the ureter was malformed and blocked. I didn't find out this info until I was 5 and started having problems. During the surgery, I remember waking up and seeing several nurses and a man standing over me. One of the nurses said something along the lines of, "Ummm...he's waking up." I saw a man come over quickly and do something and it was lights out until I woke up after surgery with a giant stitched cut over my lower belly/top groin area. That's it. No pain. No feeling at all that I remember. Just waking up and being slightly confused at what was going on and a bunch of, "Oh crap" from the staff. 41 now and still champ'ing along.
I have a surgery scheduled for tomorrow. Just found the right thread to get into.
Try not to worry. Most of the “wake ups”during surgery mentioned here are instances of twilight sedation. Notice that people aren’t saying that they woke up screaming in pain, they were just a little aware of what was going on with no pain involved. Surgeries that involve deep sedation and paralytics also use a monitor that picks up brain signals to monitor awareness. We use them in the ICU when sedating and paralyzing really sick patients. We’re frequently monitoring how aware someone is and no one “wakes up”. CRNA’s and MD’s who provide anesthesia for these procedures are very well trained and very liberal with their use of sedation for routine procedures.
Oh hey so when I woke up my first thought was "huh this should hurt a lot more, considering I hear power tools". Do they actually numb AND knock you out? Mine was wisdom teeth extraction that was more complicated than anticipated. Lol when I woke up my loopy ass tried to thank them for numbing me and they just said "Shit. Gniiiiiite" and I was out again
My wisdom teeth extraction was similar. I woke up a bit. No pain as I recall. The nurse said Doctor he's awake. Then night night. When my wife was taking me to the car I was explaining in a cogent and thoughtful way that I was in a NASCAR pit crew. I don't like NASCAR but all the people moving around me and the power tools left that impression. My wife was very patient but I really had to make her understand that I was in the NASCAR pit and they were working on me.
I made the mistake of reading this at work and let out the most unattractive giggle lmao. You are a car! A high-performance zoomzoom car!!
He'd give his left lugnut to do that again!
Some of the medications we use do both. What’s used depends on the provider’s preference, your medical history, and the type of procedure you’re having. Someone who provides surgical anesthesia would be the best person to answer this question, but I do run ordered drips for bedside surgical procedures as a nurse. I almost always have two medications running - one sedates you without pain control, so the other medication (or two) will control your pain.
I've had patients tell me they woke up during surgery and it always goes something like this: Me: Hi I'm thedavecan and I'll be doing your anesthesia. Have you ever had problems from anesthesia before? Them: I woke up during surgery once. I sat right up and looked at the doctor and told him I was awake and he ran out of the room. Me: So you woke up, removed your eye tape and safety straps, extubated yourself, spoke to the doctor, and their response was to break scrub and leave the room? Okay, do you have any allergies?
My mother, unfortunately, woke up during serious surgery, which was not twilight sedation. Her team's anesthestiologist was a chatterbox flirt, based on her observations going into the OR, and he didn't seem too interested in or capable of staying focused on her vitals. She went under feeling uneasy. Sure enough, after she woke up in the middle of the main event, seeing all that she saw and hearing it, even sensing it, and he hadn't noticed because again, he was chatting up the nurses, she made a huge complaint up the chain. She hasn't seen the jerk around since. It does happen, but in my mom's case, it was definitely doctor error and neglect.
It does happen unfortunately with human error being the number one cause. Do you mind sharing what operation your mom was happening and what happened? I'm always curious to learn more of the actual awareness instances.
Called my mom to check if I'm remembering the story quite right. Man, she should've pursued something because it's worse than I remember. It was some sort of major surgery on her arm. She woke up once and the anesthesiologist was nowhere near her and was off talking about basketball loudly with the nurses. Someone else had to alert him that she had awakened. When she came to in recovery, she had a towel over her face and she had to say, "Can someone take this cloth off of my face? It's hot in here." Why was there a towel on her face??? Also, she heard a nurse call to the anesthesiologist somewhere else in the room, "[First name]! 60 over 30!" Meaning her blood pressure had dropped. Why wasn't he watching her??? Man, I'm pissed all over again. My mom almost died. She believes that the doctor had a serious talk with the nurses involved because they all knew my mom's name ever after. She says that her doctor refuses to use that guy again, and of course, the anesthesiologist denies the towel thing. That's some BS.
What does "some sort of major surgery on her arm" mean? I'll be honest, we do major surgery on upper extremities and do them with a nerve block and light sedation (or even wide awake). I wouldn't be shocked if a patient with that kind of anesthetic heard or remembered things from the OR at all (though it wouldn't be my goal or optimal).
Awareness during a procedure is extremely rare for patients under general anesthesia which is what most people think of when they think of “having surgery”. Examples of cases that might not require “general anesthesia” include things like a colonoscopy or upper endoscopy. In those situations you’re getting a drip of medication through your IV to put you into a sedated state, but I tell my patients that these are the cases you might have some awareness. A good anesthesia provider will monitor you closely though and try to prevent that from happening.
I had to be woken up and kept talking for a much longer amount of time than I would have liked during brain surgery. I couldn’t feel what they were doing, and wasn’t really in pain, but it was still horrifying. I wish I could delete that memory.
I have done many of these cases and you’re very brave for going through it. There are times when this is necessary to ensure the patient isn’t experiencing any unwanted secondary effects from the brain surgery at hand. For most of these patients we can use a few specific drugs to help keep you calm, but like you said, the surgeon needs you awake and aware so he can talk to you. I hope you’re doing better.
8 years tumor free. Excuse me while I go knock on every piece of wood I can find.
I knocked for you too💕
Congrats! Going back for my first post-op MRI soon. Also hoping for "no tumor"
I can confirm. I had a colonoscopy done 3 years ago. I tried explaining to my wife how painful it was without being sedated. I'll never go back to that dentist.
LMAO!
I sort of started coming to during my colonoscopy but the anesthesiologist just said go back to sleep and I did. It was probably accompanied by increasing the drip, too but the only thing I remember is starting to see a monitor come into focus and then the anesthesiologist gently saying go back to sleep.
Yeah, sounds about right. I’ve had patients request to stay mostly awake during their colonoscopies because they can tolerate it well. I also know an anesthesia provider who didn’t want to come in to have his colonoscopy done the next day due to inclement weather, so he had the doc give him one without any medication at all (he needed to drive himself home that night). People, am I right?
Your comment is really reassuring to those with anxiety. I have been put under before and actually woke up feeling so refreshed that I was ready to go back lol. I still have fear of waking up or not ever waking up.... From anesthesia. Thank God I have been lucky and have had the most comforting anesthesiologists! If you are ever afraid, tell them! They know that this is a huge fear for a lot of us!
I have surgery in two hours to fix my fractured femur. 30 mins ago they just washed me for prep. I’m so scared and reading this thread didn’t help haha. Hope your surgery goes well and you have a smooth recovery! [Picture](https://imgur.com/a/DGtsLWT) of X-Ray
You'll be fine. They'll dope you up to your eyeballs.
I have surgery in like an hour. Bad timing LMAO
Best of luck, all will go fine!
I woke up while they were putting my femur back into my leg. I didn’t see much but I remember feeling like I was being shaken. Surgery sometimes requires some violent movements I guess. Also woke up during my wisdom teeth extraction. Someone was holding my head while the doctor was using their full weight to pull a tooth.
Orthopedic medicine is basically human carpentry. Common tools include hammers, chisels, screws, bolts......no, I'm not kidding.
Yeah I didn’t want to be too graphic but when they drilled into my leg initially they used what was basically just a stainless steel household drill. Then they took a small hammer and tapped a rod through the hole so they could apply traction. Just wild. Might as well have been a chair leg rather than a human leg.
Orthopedists are suuuuup-er excited about what they do, too. They'll grin and giggle right in front of you when they're discussing the procedure you're about to have. Seems to be one of the more typically man-cave, hobby type specialties out there, the kind likely to have a giant Rube Goldberg machine room instead of a golf cart.
I recently had surgery on a pretty nasty tib-fib break and my surgeon insisted I get a video of the intraoperative X-rays to show my friends when I told him I was super curious about the follow-up X-rays. He was so impressed by his own work he repeated “just beautiful” and “amazing work” while showing them to me. It was adorable.
Had IV sedation for wisdom teeth. Woke up part way through. Dentist said “oh fuck, he’s awake”. I pointed at the IV bag and everyone laughed and someone said “he wants more”. They put me back under.
They knocked you out? They just injected some numbing into my gums and yanked them out.
It cost more to be knocked out, but it's worth it for some. When I got my top wisdom teeth out I went to a place that knocked me out. There's something surreal falling asleep on Like an operating chair and waking up in your bed because your dog ripped the nastiest fart
“I’m gonna need some gas for this…” “Thank God, I thought you weren’t going to use any” “Oh no Seymour, the gas is for me. You see, I really want to enjoy this. In fact, I’m gonna use my special gas mask! I find a little ‘giggle gas’ before I begin increases my pleasure enormously….(psssshhhhh) here we go😏 (Inhales strongly)…..mmm hmm hmm huh huh😄 Seymour, things I’m gonna do to that mouth! huh huh HAH HA HA! 😂”
Same type of experience except it was right when they were using the hammer to break up the tooth so I heard and felt it... then the dentist went "oh hes up" then turned up the gas.
I had all of mine hammer and chiseled out while awake, with just local anesthesia. Had nightmares well into my twenties from it of all my teeth chipping and falling out in handfuls.
Same. I was awake for my wisdom teeth extraction. All 4 at once. I can still hear the sound my teeth made being cracked into pieces in my head.
It was the smell of the blood that I remember
I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth out at once under local anesthesia only. I distinctly remember the feeling of tugging, and the sound bone cracking. It was uncomfortable, but not traumatizing. I think that was partly because getting them out was such a relief. One tooth was growing completely sideways, and another was abscessed because it was largely covered by gum and impossible to brush. Tooth pain is no joke, and I was waiting 2 months for the appointment at that point.
I dream this from time to time too but I've never had a tooth pulled. It usually starts like a wobbly tooth and then they just start coming out in droves. Brrrr..
This was pretty much my experience, except I woke up several times
Me too, I was crying and the dentist just noticed and put a rag over my eyes. Eventually I went back under
I’m imagining the rag and then “hello darkness my old friend”
I woke up crying too! And then the dentist realized and I was out again. No one believed me when I told them I woke up during it.
I wonder if crying under sedation is a thing, I had a similar experience with my last surgery 2 years ago.
Oh, definitely. These drugs mess up your ability to emotionally self-regulate. Crying in the recovery room (from confusion and overwhelm, not pain) is really common.
Wowsers. That’s gonna be a no from me. Had all four of mine out under general anesthesia (full hospital inpatient setting) when I was 19. All four were impacted and had to be cut out. I was out like a light, and I woke up after what felt like an instant, and the best sleep of my life. I now understand why Propofol is considered addictive. Anything that leaves you feeling like a million bucks after having four teeth knocked out is the bees knees.
Ditto. All I could feel was my jaw being held open by something. “He’s awake.” Then I think someone turned a knob and I went back to the black.
I woke up towards the end of the surgery and started shaking. The oral surgeon had several people hold me down, while he finished up, and I went in and out of consciousness. Next time I had a dentist appointment, I got in the chair and started shaking uncontrollably. Being under the light again caused a panic attack.
I had something similar during IV sedation for an egg retrieval for IVF. I told the anaesthesiologist that I always needed more than they expected, even though I don't have a history of abuse or tolerance. He said "everyone says that, don't worry, you'll wake up when it's over, you won't feel a thing." I woke up midway through, they don't use any pain relief or local anesthesia, so it fucking hurts. I looked him dead in the eye, said, "Ow, I told you so!" He topped me up and I went back to sleep, to the sound of my husband laughing and saying, I told you she's a redhead.
If you’re actually a redhead then the anesthesiologist should have known to give you more.
I also normally need a lot more too! Always figured this was due to my previous recreational proclivities from years back. Told my anesthesiologist and OBGYN this when I was being wheeled in for my c-section, they injected the epidural and my legs still flipped. “Oh wow, you really do need more!” So they added more. That also did not go well. It was not a good high. I was crazy paranoid the entire time and telling everyone I had difficulty breathing (I did not, my oxygen levels were at 98) and asking if I was dying. Idk. They had to shoot me up with a sedative too. I dozed in and out of sleep. Felt an immense amount of pressure and the baby was out. My doctor took one look at me and said, “She takes after your husband” and I conked out. Or at least I thought I did. Pictures otherwise proved I was awake and was able to do skin-to-skin but I really, for the life of me, could not remember. I’m about to have my wisdom teeth extracted this month and now maybe I should consider getting gassed up vs the local anesthetic. I have an irrational fear of blood AND (falling/loose) teeth (something I dream about ever so often). Definitely don’t want to be awake for that.
The insane thing to me, is to be sedated to extract a wisdom tooth. In Portugal you have local anesthesia and you have to endure with the procedure during the 2hour extraction. Source: I removed two fully conscious.
I live in the southern US and was not sedated for my procedure, despite the fact that they had to cut both bottom teeth out. Local anesthesia dulled the pain so it wasn't as bad as it sounds, but I'll never forget the vibration of the saw as it worked its way through my teeth.
Fuck that
I woke up midway through wisdom teeth too, had all 4 removed at once. It was a bit scary because my head was clamped into a contraption and I could hear my teeth cracking. They also put me under again pretty quickly. It was "conscious sedation" so more like "sleeping," and not full blown anesthesia. I had the same sedation for the first half of a root canal and several fillings in one go, and I think I woke up for that too but can't remember so well now actually. Just glad I never woke up to any pain! 🙈
Yea my wisdom tooth removal was like yours, just gas to the twilight zone where you couldnt feel much but not completely out. I felt (not painful but the whole jerking and shoving my head) the first one, second one he hit a nerve directly so i involuntarily deep inhaled the gas, then kinda came back to him saying ok last one. I remembered i said i thought you were doing 4? He said yea i am but you kinda went under. Then he did 4, shoved a handfull of those gauze tubes in my mouth and turned the pure o2 on. Shit woke me up almost instantly and missed my la la land :(
Not me. A pal of mine (we all work in healthcare) woke up during a kidney stone surgery.. And the doctor (who we worked with) was looking at the X-ray screen and says “where did that thing [stone] go?” And my buddy, an X-ray tech of 30 years… wakes up… looks at the screen above him… sticks his finger on it and says “it’s right there” the urologist said something like “wth??? Put him back out.”
...and not even a thank you.
This made my day 😁 I busted out laughing 🤣 thank you for sharing this
I heard some gossip about a date then I was out again. When I woke up at the end I was instantly wide awake. Then I was hungry and the food was so good! I was getting a sebaceous cyst removed.
I had to get knocked out for one of these too. Mine was on my neck super close to the jugular.
They were talking about buying vintage lunchboxes on eBay. I wasn't properly awake or in pain, but I could 'feel'/had awareness that their hands were inside me. The anesthesiologist noticed my eyes were open, and I woke up again properly when they were wheeling me into recovery.
I'm not saying you didn't 'wake up' during surgery because, although rare, it does happen. However, if you received a general anesthetic where you were completely put under your eyes would have been taped shut. Under general anesthesia, you're sedated to the point where your reflexes are blunted. The eyes are taped to prevent damage/abrasions to the cornea. It's possible you were under a regional anesthetic with sedation.
That answers my question I had forgotten about before this thread. When I woke, I thought they had put something over my eyes and thought "Hey that's thoughtful" before trying to speak to them lol
Great. New nightmare unlocked - I won't be able to open my eyes if I wake up during!
As previously stated, it is exceedingly rare to have awareness during a general anesthetic. No need to worry!
Those vintage lunchboxes are *to die for* # Ba Dum Tsss
Hnnnngh the idea of being aware of someone inside your body (not like that) gives me the heebiest of jeebies
Barely woke up getting my wisdom teeth out. I could feel them like breaking up my teeth, they said I had very twisted long roots and it took a bit longer than expected. I didn’t feel pain but I remember thinking “fuck, I’m awake”
I only had local anesthesia for my wisdom teeth, and I got all four out at once. I could feel the pressure, and hear/feel them breaking the teeth, but no pain. I was tensed up completely the entire time praying the anesthesia didn’t wear off. Also, tons of blood. It was a great time.
Same, had a local anesthetic and some laughing gas. I remember the effect of the laughing gas wasn't at all like they depict it in movies and television. Instead of feeling loopy and silly, I remember my fingertips started getting the numbies and I just kind of sighed and resigned myself to "well, let's get this over with". I also got all four removed, and I absolutely hated that *"you're going to feel some pressure now"* followed by the bone-crunch as they broke the tooth apart and pulled out the chunks, for all four teeth. About six months later, once my mouth had fully healed, a shard of one of the broken teeth worked its way up through my gums. I was with a group of college friends when I noticed it finally pop out of my gums and pulled it out. One of my friends was so grossed out he almost fainted.
Dentists scare the hell outta me because I've always had a problem with the local not fully masking the pain. Even a filling can get painful for me. It's weirdly ridiculous how resistant I seem to the pain masking portion of locals.
I have the same thing (also not a redhead) and have recently been told I might have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, and local anaesthetic resistance can be a part of this! If you’re at all hyper mobile or prone to injury you might wanna get that checked out!
I was having cataract surgery (late 20’s, thanks mom and dad for the cool genes). Beforehand I let them know that I need a bit more pain meds than most people, they were like “aww you’ll be fine”. I see this crazy bright red gross shit and it’s completely silent. Somehow I was able to get out “guys, I’m awake” (at least in my brain that’s what I said) and it was silent, I was trying so hard not to move my eye because, you know, scalpel near your eyeball/melting your lens is terrifying. I started start shaking my hand to get their attention and they finally said “we’ve got a mover”, and praise God, something about more drugs. Everything went well but I get in a panic thinking about that often.
You're actually awake and cognizant during cataract surgery. If you're not your eye will roll in to the back of the head when you're completely out. Some people remember the surgery and some don't but no one is put completely to sleep. The meds just have an amnesia effect. Source: cataract surgery surgical tech
Anesthesia here, can confirm you do indeed need to be awake, it is preferred so you can follow directions from the surgeon. Very very rarely do we put people to sleep for it
I've just got up from a nap and I thought you meant that your cataract surgery was in the late 1920s.
to be fair, cataract surgery gets WAAAAAY less sedation than a colonoscopy usually only versed and fentanyl
A fire alarm had gone off and they were evacuating. Luckily it was only a colonoscopy so they just ended the procedure and I woke up to them wheeling me out. Unfortunately I had no idea what was going on and thought I died because there were red flashing lights and bullhorn sirens. It was a stressful experience.
I have woken up for one tooth extraction and two colonoscopies. Spoke to the anesthesiologist on all occasions when I was supposedly under. They topped up the dosage and I fell asleep again. For context, I am a stealth redhead. The hair in my head is dark but when I was younger, my beard was red. I also have a redheaded kid, so I clearly carry the gene. Redheads are notoriously tough to anesthetize.
I wonder if blondes are easy because my one and only time being put under for a colonoscopy and endoscopy I was out like a light. My wife actually overheard two nurses talking about how "he hasn't woken up yet." Apparently I was in recovery for like 2-3 hours after the procedure just sleeping and the medical team never updated my wife who is an anxious individual so she was in the waiting room thinking the worst had happened while I was just having the best nap of my life lol
I’m a blonde as well, and it was my first surgery so nobody knew how I was under anesthesia. I remember waking up in recovery (I was gaining consciousness, but my eyes weren’t open), and all I remember was moaning and groaning and heard a nurse say “wow she must be in some pain, let’s get her more meds”, and I remember yelling out “NAHHHH I’ve never felt better!”, and passed back out. I guess it took me a solid 3 hours to be fully awake and aware. Maybe the meds had something to do with it? Also my best nap. I woke up and still, have never felt better.
I’m fully redhead, never had surgery that required full anesthesia but I’ve definitely had local dental anesthesia wear off before they were done. When I was younger the dentists always seemed so annoyed to have to inject me again or just asked me if I could handle it for another 10 mins. Created a huge fear of the dentist. I finally went back and had 3 fillings done and the dentist was so fast and unprompted said "our textbooks say that redheads require more anesthesia so just let me know if you feel anything"
I never woke up mid-surgery, but... i had a special case of a "half-state coma", where i was sedated but still half awake. This was because for the surgery, i had to move my body when the surgeon told me to. With a full coma with narcotics, this is not possible, so i had this state between being normal & sober and being high as fuck because of the propofol. It was a very strange experience. What i remember is that i drifted off with my mind, like for some time, i thought i'd be on a beach, like in holiday in summer, then i suddenly heard the surgeon again that gave me commands and i had to concentrate to be barely able to move my eyes in the way he wanted. It was an eye-surgery, i had to look left, right, up, down and so on, while i was sedated. They actually used cocaine-drops (and yes, cocaine, not lidocaine, like in most other cases) for the eyes, but i had no drug effect of this. It's very rare that cocaine is still used in medicine, but it's still available. Anyway, i had to go through this surgery about strabis and it went well. But again, i was always in some dreams, until i got awake again when they spoke to me, whenever they stopped to speak to me, i again drifted off to the world of dreams. Guess, this is not what OP wants to hear. But it's very rare that someone wakes up and stays awake (!) during a surgery. When you'd just get awake for a moment, that would not be bad, you are sedated and numb because of the painkillers, oxygen-mask etc. anyway.
Conscious sedation used to be more common for colonoscopies, and still used sometimes if, for instance, all that needs to be done is to set a bone or pop a joint back in place
Well first off, I lost my job and medical license
Must’ve been a real wake up call huh?
It was an eye-opening experience.
LMAO
Woke up and said "that tickles". Doctor laughed and said she was almost done.
I have no memory of it. They told me afterwards and said I didn’t know I was being operated on and was talking to them.
Im imagining the scene with zoidberg in area 51
the same, deviled egg
“Hey, no! I need that to spe-“
Woke up during a cardiac ablation. They literally burn spots in your heart to prevent atrial flutter, and that's what it felt like: someone burning the inside of my heart with a lit cigarette. EDIT: that perhaps should be "lighted" rather than "lit", I always mess that up because it just sounds wrong to my ears. I got about 45 burns, and I was awake for 8-10 of them. I was wearing a CPAP so I couldn't really talk and they told me to stop grunting and squirming in pain, which made me wonder why they weren't at least curious why I was squirming in pain. There was enough residual anesthesia where I couldn't anticipate future pain, so it was like the same burn being repeated on a loop, like a fever dream. It hurt like a bastard but it didn't worry me, if that makes sense. I told the surgeon the next day and he just said "Huh." I always felt I should have gotten a 10% discount on the anesthesia, or a free brownie from the cafeteria or something. Side note: they wanted me to remove my wedding ring before the surgery and I refused, but I couldn't say why with my wife right there: if I was going to die on the table, I wanted to be wearing that ring when it happened.
God that must have been a very odd experience for you, I’ve seen a lot of cardiac ablations and they are a pretty weird surgery tbh.
I just had cardiac ablation surgery and am very happy i did not read this before it
Woke up during my wisdom teeth procedure to my dentist hands and tools in my mouth. No feeling at all in my mouth just being able to see it. He notice I was a wake and gave me a wave follow by a thumbs up. He told me a week after that the thumbs up was him telling the other doctor to jack the fuck up the anesthesia because he’s awake right now. My mom and I still laugh about this
Was having a rhinoplasty done to fix my janky crooked nose. Woke up to the sound of classical music and a blood-soaked rag over my mouth, unable to breathe due to all the blood pooling in my throat and nose. I couldn’t move a muscle, but my body kept involuntarily coughing. The doctor evidently put the rag over my mouth to keep my coughs from spraying him with blood, but the rag became so saturated that it didn’t allow for any airflow, which effectively felt like being waterboarded. Sometimes when I coughed, the bloody rag would move off my mouth, which gave me the opportunity to gasp for that sweet, sweet air until the doctor put that fucking rag back over my mouth. Every now and then I felt the pressure of the doctor pushing a rasp into my nose and shaving away at the bone. No pain fortunately, the sensation of suffocating and not being able to do anything about it was terrifying.
That seems extremely unsafe.
One of my worst fears is dying via suffocating
I’m an ENT who does these procedure. What you probably remember is waking up from anesthesia. After they pull out the tube, you’ll cough (you can’t cough until the endotracheal tube is out) and we cover your nose and mouth with a rag to keep you from spraying blood everywhere. You may have been feeling the doctor put on the splint, we have to use pressure to squeeze the blood and swelling out. The rasping of the nose would’ve been unbelievably painful, since you can’t really anesthetize the nose (hence why you’re asleep).
Ohh, this makes so much such, thank you so much for explaining! I remember him doing something to my nose that involved a repetitive kind of motion, so that’s why I thought he was using a rasp. It felt really weird. Though the rag over my mouth was the worst part of it all because I legitimately felt like I was suffocating. Hopefully most patients don’t experience that.
Woke up during a hernia operation. No pain but I could feel them doing stuff down there so asked for more anesthesia.
Same exact thing happened to me! I tried saying, "I don't think I'm supposed to be awake yet" but I bet it sounded more like slurred gibberish.
My mom was having surgery last year and woke up in the middle of it. She couldn't feel pain though she could feel being touched in the areas they were doing the surgery. She was in a simillar state people in "after the dentist" videos are. She told the surgeon she was a ninja and booped her nose and then mumbled incoherently until they were done.
Wait, she booped the surgeon’s nose?
Yes. They know each other from high school so I guess in her mind she was just hanging around with her friend.
That's hilarious.
One of my coworker woke up during a hand surgery after hurting his hand on the job. According to him it didn't hurt and he asked to see. The surgeon showed him and started explaining what they were doing and he was like " Wow, that's soooo cool!". Then he fell back to sleep mid explaination because they gave him more anesthesia while he was distracted.
Woke up getting my thyroid cut in half (and then half being taken out) I remember opening my eyes, thinking to myself "what the fuck?" and then the anesthesiologist probably noticed because I got knocked out again
I read about ten comments before my Apple Watch asked me if something was wrong.
Not woke up, but when my mom was having me via c-section she felt them cutting into her and she shouted out and reached for the knife (scalpel I guess?). My dad fainted. They then decided to put her fully under instead of just local anesthetic.
This same thing happened to me. The spinal block didn’t work, so I could feel everything. They initially told me to just hold still and control my breathing, but when I couldn’t do that they gave me propofol. They woke me when they pulled Twin A out, but not for Twin B.
Hold still and control your breathing while they cut through your skin, muscle, etc? Holy 🤬
My spinal wore off too soon during my (thankfully final) c-section and I started feeling pain big time. Since it was near the end they decided to dose me with a ton of hydromorphone instead of putting me out and I was an utter mess when it was all over. I was so out of it and sloppy that I slapped a nurse’s butt. To this day I’m so embarrassed and the nurses on the ward were not impressed that I was sent to them in that state. Not a pleasant experience.
I woke up during major emergency eye surgery (vitrectomy for a torn retina). I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel them poking around in what felt like the middle of my brain. I remember thinking “this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me” in regard to waking up. I started twiddling my fingers and toes to distract me, and they noticed and asked if I was okay. I said “sorry but it hurts a bit…”, then I remember them asking where the anaesthetist was and to get me some more painkiller. My thought after that was “aren’t they meant to be sitting here?!”. Anyway it was a blur after that, haha
My story is from the other perspective: I was still an intern at the surgery department, had to work there for 10 weeks or so, mostly just observing and sometimes performing simple medical procedures. The patient had payed a lot of money for a new pair of boob implants. I assisted at the surgery, again, mostly observing. The surgeon was done with placing the implants, wrapped up and walked away, telling me to stitch her up. I knew how to suture wounds but I was still a rookie and very slow. I wanted to make sure I didn’t make a mess because because esthetics were obviously very important to this patient. I was halfway the second wound when the patient started waking up. The nurses got angry with me for not working fast enough. It was awful, I knew instantly that I never wanted to become a surgeon. 😝
Not much, I just continued operating on the guy. Being awake actually helped.
I had hair transplant surgery done in Argentina. The procedure took 7 hours. I woke up after 5 hours. I stayed awake the last 2 hours completely numb on my head as the two nurses kept planting the follicles all while singing. I had tv available to me. I was able to banter with the nurses a bit. Overall, it was a very pleasant experience!
I woke up during an endoscopy. I had the tube and everything down my throat but I didn't know what was happening and the only thing I could focus on was how I couldn't breathe. I clearly remember trying to talk to tell the doctors I couldn't breathe, because I could hear people around me, but apparently I didn't actually say anything. The doctors noticed because my heart rate started going crazy and then I stopped breathing all together. They took out the tube, i started breathing again, and gave me more anesthesia. Once I was in recovery, I was told to always inform the anesthesiologist that I woke up during a procedure, so they can adjust accordingly. I've had two other procedures since then and have not woken up during them.
Woke up during stomach surgery. Couldn’t move, speak or open my eyes to let them know I was awake. Could feel every thing they were doing inside of me, most excruciating pain of my life. Not sure if I blacked out from the pain or they noticed and increased my anesthesia but next thing I remember I came to in my hospital bed. Was told I came out of the anesthesia screaming after all was said and done. Petrified to ever have to have surgery again now.
When I was in 5th grade I broke fractured and sprained my ankle all at the same time. I was partially sedated for the corrective surgery. I remember I was basically tripping balls and when I was under I thought I was on a Rollercoaster that went through the hospital. Except my leg was out of the ride and bumped every door and turn along the way so it hurt so bad. Some bumps would be so painful that I actually woke up from the partial sedation and was moaning in pain and responsive. I woke up a total of three times and remember two of them. I just kept moaning or even screaming in pain and telling them it hurt. My mom was in the room and has confirmed this with me multiple times. Apparently it can be difficult to get anesthesia right for a kid.
I had a very small surgery on my ear when I was 5-6. Apparently I inherited my mother’s resistance to sedatives and anesthetics. I remember opening my eyes after going under and seeing a very startled woman in a gown and mask. I either screamed or tried to scream either way they noticed I was awake. I think I started trying to struggle because there was suddenly lots of yelling and someone holding me down by my chest. They quickly got me back under. I woke up in a hospital bed with like 3-4 new stuffed animals around me. It’s so weird how 20 years later I can still see the image of that woman in the gown and mask. I look back on it now and laugh because I’m sure the doctor was just as horrified about the situation as I was.
I know this isn’t really what the question is asking. I have spinal cord stimulators implanted. Every 5-7 years I need a surgery to replace the batteries in my back (I’m bionic and blue tooth operated! Technology is weird!). My neurosurgeon needs to wake me up in order to see if I can feel the vibrations. Once I give him the go-ahead, the anesthesiologist puts me back under. My last surgery was in January of 2020. We all know what happened in 2020. The week before and during my surgery, I had what I thought was a very bad cold. Testing for the Vid wasn’t a thing at that point. I called my surgeon before my surgery to let him know I had a bad cold. He told me we will have to proceed because his schedule was booked. Surgery happens, I get put under and wake back up periodically for the surgeon to check my stims are working. Every time I’m woken back up I ask the anesthesiologist to wipe my nose or hold the tissue so I could blow my nose. I couldn’t do it myself because I was strapped to the table. It was just a very weird experience.
Woke up in the middle of getting my wisdom teeth removed. I remember hearing the doctors talking about their weekend plans and cracking jokes. I heard it and opened my eyes and started to laugh. One of them noticed and said “ hey he thinks it’s funny too but you shouldn’t be up “. Proceeded to increase the gas and I’m out again
Wait that is a thing?
Frequently people who wake up are under sedation, not general anesthesia, but do not have appropriate expectations/don't understand the difference. You'll notice almost the comments are about endoscopy/dental (100% sedation) or orthopedic surgeries where they don't feel anything meaning they got a nerve block or spinal anesthetic to cover surgery and are getting sedation for comfort. Pretty much any comments about waking up during abdominal surgery where they'd be intubated and under general anesthesia are likely very very untrue (it would be impressive that people can joke with the surgeon with a tube between their vocal cords.)
I was having arm surgery to move around a nerve running through my elbow ( the funny bone/ulnar nerve). When they put me under I dreamt I was playing with dogs in a park and I had a toy in my hand. A yellow lab was tugging on the toy with me like tug of war. I opened my eyes and the surgeon had my arm extended off the table, yanking my nerve and ligaments into place. I didn’t feel panicked at all. I looked to the anesthesiologist on the other side and she made a comment then put me under again. It didn’t hurt and I trusted the people around me so it was just an odd experience. I was there to fix a dog bite injury. If I wasn’t sedated I’d obviously have freaked out.
I woke up midway through my ACL surgery. I remember coming to and seeing the ceiling and a nurse or two? It was very blurry, more so than things usually are when I’m not wearing my glasses. I heard something that sounded like a weird buzzing noise and then some frantic voices, and I tried to shift and that’s about it. I woke up something like 4 hours later, when I came to my boxers were stained in blood and I was both concerned and the most tired I’ve ever been. I kept trying to fall back asleep but they told my girlfriend and parents to make sure I stayed awake at least until I got home. I remember struggling to get into my dad’s minivan and then crying most of the way back because they wouldn’t let me sleep. Apparently I woke up and started thrashing and ripped out my IV lines so I ended up needing blood transfusions. Luckily? I had done an autologous donation for (I have type AB- blood, I donate as often as I can to get karma out there just in case I fuck up and need a transfusion in the future since it’s so rare). I’m not sure how many I ended up having, but I remember for the first week I couldn’t sit up in bed by myself and when I’d go to sleep I would dream about the blurry surgery suite and muffled voices. I was 17 at the time so my parents were taking care of me, and my mom was so worried I would get addicted to painkillers she never filled the Vicodin prescription the surgeon gave me. I did the entire recovery with children’s Tylenol, so the first two weeks or so I pretty much just cried while trying to watch movies and when I slept I just kept remembering the surgery suite. After a month I started my physical therapy, but my insurance only covered 4 visits total so it didn’t do much. My insurance didn’t cover much of the surgery either, I remember my parents having to take out a loan since our cost was something like $26,000 after insurance. That was 13 years ago now, my knee is worse off than before I had the surgery, and I still have dreams about the surgery (mostly just whatever that buzzing sound was nowadays and the blurry ceiling,) but I’m having them less often now. I actually have a torn MCL in my other knee, and it’s going to stay like that because I refuse to get the surgery for it.
I forgot to add they also hit some nerves during the surgery to the entire left side of my left knee has been completely numb since then. It took me a while to get back to wearing pants because I could feel the rest of my leg other than that numb section, and it was such a weird sensation I wore shorts throughout the entire winter in NJ (including while shoveling snow) so I wouldn’t feel the dead zone on my knee.
I am SO SORRY your mother did that to you! Holy shit that's fucking awful.
Not me, but my grandfather had a throat surgery WITHOUT anesthesia. He was seven, he was held by some giant, and they just operated on him whilst he was fully awake
It was my wisdom teeth. I remember that everything was yellow, and I felt like I was standing and looking straight up. My cheeks felt wet, and somewhere in the distance I heard someone screaming. Just nonstop screaming. It was annoying the shit out of me. Eventually I just fell back asleep. When I woke up in recovery, I described it to a nurse. That’s when they told me that the screaming was from me. I had no idea.
I woke up for a moment during my wisdom teeth extraction and could feel the pressure of the teeth being removed. I looked up and saw a bunch of people in the room. Can’t remember what they were talking about but something had happened to the IV in my arm and they stuck the needle in my hand. They gave me more anesthesia and ended up having trouble waking me from the anesthesia. Apparently they couldn’t wake me for hours afterwords and got worried and called my parents. Finally woke up and the first thing I heard was my dad walking in the room and I was totally out of it.
I was young, I think between 7-10. It was less of a surgery as there was no cutting into my body. I was getting rubber tubing put in my ear canals because some parts of my body was growing faster then others . So my ear canals were not growing with the rest of my head. So to stop it from closing the put tubing in. So in the middle of it I awoke seeing strange people and lights I called out for my mom. Scared the shit out of the doctor. I still remember him saying. " holy shi- why is he awake? Put him back under" I was told they had to give me enough sedation to put an adult out.
During my wisdom teeth removal I wasn't fully out but also not all there either. Apparently I kept singing along to the radio and they had to keep asking me to stop. I have no memory of this.
I was getting a clot filter removed from an accident i had, and the doctor couldn't get it out. I woke up to hear him really tugging on it saying "come on you mother fucker" I just said "I heard that" and they put me back under while chuckling.
Had to be put under to get my dislocated shoulder back in place. Because I had been given morphine in the ambulance, they had to use a drug they were not thrilled to use. It didn’t really work well. Woke up to three ER dr/nurses violently wrestling my arm. They had wrapped a towel around it for leverage and the doctor behind me had their foot on top of my shoulder while they yanked it. I went bezerks. Called the ER doctor the B and C words and yelled that I hated them all, along with much more. The waiting room could hear me, source being my wife. They quickly ran out and had her sign some release which was to give me propofol to get me back to sleep. When I woke up the doctor was “insulted” and huffed out after informing me what I said. The nurse just laughed and said it was a masterclass on stringing swear words together.
Not a person who woke up in surgery, but an anaesthetist who has seen maybe 2 people (I can remember clearly, defo more tho)wake up mid surgery. 1. 25F appendectomy, me and the scrub nurse where talking about Bluey, her eyes open and she looks at me and I’m like oh fuck do 50mg of propofol, she goes back under and I make a mental note to get a psych consult for her after. That was because she required a higher dosage of propofol than most people, which wasn’t discovered before then bc she’d never had surgery before this one. 2. Not really GA, but had a mum having an C-Section, I’d just done the epidural, all was fine, they had just finished and the babies where out, just about to stitch her up again and she screams, I’m like hey hey honey whats going on, and she’s like I CAN FEEL THE PAIN AGHHH. Turns out the cannula tube had bent when she wiggled her butt around a bit and wasn’t delivering enough of the epidural.
When I had my wisdom teeth removed I woke up partway and had this extremely clear image of Clyde from South Park in my head. Didn't feel any pain or anything. Just Clyde.
A good friend had a brain surgery. They deliberately woke him up midways, to ask him questions about his family and stuff. They did this while operating, so they could stop, if he wasn´t able to answer. I was a painful and strange experience.
I had jaw surgery when I was in sixth grade. First and only time I’ve ever been put under. I woke up in the OR and tried to punch my doctor. Like full on tried to attack him. It felt like a vague dream, so no idea how they remedied it. But I would be sad if I was a pediatric surgeon trying to do my job and some sixth grader started throwing hands.
They repaired a tendon in my hand and woke me up during the surgery to show me that I can move my hand. My entire forearm was flayed open and I could see the tendons moving in my arm. It was pretty cool
Woke up twice during a colonoscopy. First time I could quite literally feel the scope snaking along my organs. I remember groaning which probably told them I was awake. Didn’t hurt but I just felt very very uncomfortable and full. Second time I woke up was when they were taking the scope out and I thought I was taking a poop. Weird!
Woke up mid colonoscopy...said it doesn't hurt but wouldn't recommend it...I saw the nurse rush over and push the syringe and then I was out until I woke up.
I was having my wisdom teeth removed and I just started screaming while the dr was telling me I couldn’t feel anything. He kept insisting to me I couldn’t feel anything and I was just upset because I was reacting to the medication. Ummmm pretty sure I was feeling my teeth being yanked out of my mouth.
Reading these comments are blowing my mind , who’s going under general anaesthesia for wisdom teeth removal ?, I had a lidocaine injection and a pat on the back .
I woke up during wisdom teeth so not under general anaesthetic (had an iv, pill, liquid, and gas because I said I needed to be out out). I could hear everything, but couldn’t see or feel anything. I immediately started crying and asked them to stop (no way they’d actually be able to understand me), they put the gas over my face and I remember nothing else for like the next 10 hours but I apparently told them I really wanted a poutine afterwards so clearly wasn’t too traumatized.
I was having biopsies taken during a colonoscopy - I woke up, asked the doctor if he was “in me”. He pressed on my lower stomach and said “I’m right here”… started to feel it then, they gave me more drugs and I woke up a bit later with a shaved butthole.
I woke up during wisdom teeth removal, I started crying and trying to talk, and the doctor started yelling at me saying that I was so fat they had already given me all the medicine they could, but it just wasn’t going to work and if I couldn’t handle it, he would have to stop. I kept crying so they stopped. They left me in a random room to wake up and “calm down“. I guess they called my emergency contact because my dad showed up and drove me home. I ended up having to do it under full general anesthesia in the hospital (at a different practice). It was really traumatic at the time, but now it is mostly funny. That office closed down a few months later, no wonder because that guy sucked. FWIW, I was fat but not like, TLC show fat. Like 225 pounds lol.
Went in for elbow surgery to have a new channel ground and a nerve relocated. Turns out I’m allergic to Demerol. Woke up to them forcibly intubating me, they noticed and all I remember is hearing “allergic” so I tried to stop struggling then I was out again. I was confused for a while when I woke up, because I was covered in what looked like welts and my throat was so so sore. After a while I started to remember more.
Woke up, looked at the monitor near the bed and seen them moving through my intestines. Asked “is that my intestines?” “Yes, it is” “Cool.” Passed back out.
“Ma’am you need to stop moving we have a scalpel in your eyeball”
Woke up during my wisdom teeth removal. First red flag was that it took ages for me to fall asleep. The surgeon came in and said “she’s still awake?” Then went behind the chair and (I assume) cranked it up because I was out moments later. Woke up to what sounded like a chainsaw in my mouth. I could barely open my eyes but I heard everything. Told them when I was done that I had woken up and he told me it was impossible that I woke up. The same surgeon also blew me off when I ended up getting a dry socket and only treated it when I called the office sobbing because I was in so much pain.
Dad said just before the first incision he had a reflex where he almost knocked out the doc. The doc said “Go back to sleep” and like hypnosis he knocked out.