General anaesthetic, closest to death you can get?

CREATIVE!11

CREATIVE!11

CREATIVE!11

Soldato
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As few may remember a couple days ago I made a post about a septoplasty I was having done for a deviated septum so could breathe through my nose again.

I went under general anaesthetic for the procedure and it kind of made me think, is that what dying feels like?

One minute I'm lying there on a table I can't see jack because I wear glasses, they're all talking to me all chill, next thing you know he wacks huge syringe into cannula in my hand and injects me with a bunch of liquid.... I just remember him saying it'll feel cold don't worry. Basically felt the cold travel up my arm pretty fast I was looking at the light above and and said "oh this does not feel good..." boom black. It didn't even kick in slowly like bit of dizziness or blurry vision, just BOOM my brain was KTFO'd...

Then I remember waking up high as a kite, absolutely nothing inbetween, I was under for about an hour and a bit I think. It was an almost serene experience you just cease to worry, to think, to be stressed.

But I've sat here thinking about it, one thing we all share is we're going to die, and in that moment my conciousness just ceased to exist. All of my memories, troubles, amazing times. Gone in the blink of a eye.

Thoughts?
 
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If you aren't being run over by an HGV or something then yes I should imagine that is exactly what it feels like... if you "feel" at all.
 
I was high as a kite before my last operation as he only gave me some of the injection to 'relax me' before giving me the rest. Time before that I just got that world spinning feeling of being very drunk for a couple of seconds before I was gone. But yeah I reckon it's pretty similar to death, just without the waking up at the end.
 
( |-| |2 ][ $;26417329 said:
I struggle to cope with the concept of mortality. Worries me a lot when I'm drunk.

I guess it's easy to see why religion was developed.
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Yeah I'm not particularly religious but I totally get the appeal.

It was just a very weird experience for me. I look at all of us (some struggling more than others) going through life angry, depressed, stressed. And its so easy to say yeah just don't be stressed, don't be depressed, but really you do have to try not to be as best as you can manage and everyone will have bad **** happen and bad luck that is just life. But in that moment all my bad luck, stresses, insecurities blah blah were just gone. Evaporated instantly and ceased to matter.

Hard to put into words but I've just been thinking about concept of mortality since this experience.

Only other time I experienced this was when I once fainted and though about it similarly to this.
 
yup pretty much... you don't dream you're just completely out of it for the entire process

and yes waking up from an operation, at least the first time, is a very nice experience - I remember being super happy (thanks to the morphine) - no concept of time you go under then next thing you're aware of some nurse is attending to you as you come around...
 
so you mean like every night when you fake up and can't recall the passed time been falling asleep and waking up?
anyone who thinks there's an after life needs to get real.

Ye only that waits for you is nothingness
 
Don't recall ever coming out of it feeling high but its been awhile, do remember I was under for several hours but it was basically them injecting it then sitting up in bed back on the ward as if no time had past between the 2 events.

arknor said:
so you mean like every night when you fake up and can't recall the passed time been falling asleep and waking up?
anyone who thinks there's an after life needs to get real.

Ye only that waits for you is nothingness
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I think it arrogant at best to have an absolute view one way or another on an afterlife or whatever happens after death, there is enough vague information to potentially support either arguement and very little solid information to make any one of them more certain than the other.
 
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I've been under a few times, and what gets me ever time is that I have no concept of how much time has passed while I'm knocked out. It feels like i've blinked, and boom! 2 hours have passed.
 
Don't recall the moment I went under completely on Xmas Day '14 in theatre prep (to have my upper jaw and lower nose put back together with permanent titanium plates after a nasty RTA in the bad weather of 23/12), I do remember being conned about I was going to taste something similar to bananas just prior... No bananas I've eaten tasted like that vile stuff!

Apparently I spent several hours in the communal operation recovery room, I came around in there, but I was so drugged up I had no idea what was going on. It was only the next morning I truely felt as normal as someone could feel given the scenario...

Albeit I still had a double meta tarsal fracture of my "good" hand that was heavily infected, that needed another 5 days of antibiotics to get that sorted under a local block. Now that operation was quite surreal, it was the most tranquil period of my stay in hospital over Xmas, it was so peaceful while a Scandinavian surgeon and her boss screwed some bones back together!
 
if the cold stuff was white thats propofol, aka milk of amnesia...its great stuff, the relaxing stuff is usually midazolam and has an orange sticker, opiates like fentanyl or morphine usually a blue sticker. When I used to work in theatres, it was funny recovering kids as they would wake and continue the count down the anaesthetist had started at induction not realising its all over.

Ive had a few anaesthetics, Ive seen a lot of deaths, I can totally see where your coming from. lets hope its that peaceful for most of us.
 
I had an op the other month and said to the mrs. If anything happens to me I wont know about it. I'll just go to sleep and that'll be it.

I don't know how long I was out but i was scheduled for an hour.

As they put in the sleep juice I said is this were I try and count back from ten as quick as I can to see if I get to 1. Nurse said ok go for it and smiled I said ok 10 ........................................................................................................
 
OP you pretty much described what most of us have experienced this past week or more in the TIAM thread....


More seriously, I hope everything went successfully for you :)
 
rotters said:
When I used to work in theatres, it was funny recovering kids as they would wake and continue the count down the anaesthetist had started at induction not realising its all over.
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Didn't do it myself but I do remember some of the other kids coming round after their ops and still thinking they were pre-op including continuing the counting down.
 
wow, so there brain was like frozen. They had recent memories still totally intact unused.

This is what makes people think cryogenics could work.

I was reading about radical rabies treatment for cases where the victim is unaware until far too late for normal cure.
In some cases they have done the impossible by putting them into a coma so the brain is not destroyed by the virus. The idea being if its not used at all or subject to only very low blood flow the body can develop (with help) a proper immune response in time to stop the normal destruction on the brain stem


To answer the OP I would say no. I think part of the sleep cycle can involve full unconsciousness if only shortly. Death would be no blood flow for over a minute maybe. I think people have come back fully from death like that, the rabies coma did result in some cell death and loss of balance apparently
 
ive had a few operations under general during my life so far all of which have been relatively straightforward. I wasnt particularly nervous, knew what the surgery was for, had months knowing it was coming and was well prepared mentally for it.

Then a few years ago I developed this lump in the back of my throat, it appeared quite quickly and got to the point where it would hang down the back of my throat on a stalk long enough that i would wake in the middle of the night feeling that i was choking as this would be large enough to feel like it was blocking my windpipe.

Once referred to my GP i was then waiting to see a specialist and i would regularly have moments of intense anxiety/panic attacks due to the feelings of suffocation i would regularly have.

Once i seen a specialist i was then brought in to hospital within a week to have it removed under general anesthetic.

This time when i was waiting on my bed to be taken down to theater i was having a really bad time with anxiety and nervousness. I remember saying i felt fine yet my legs and arms were shaking uncontrollably, i imagined it was because i was freezing cold, but i remember a few nurses reassuring me while i was getting prepped for surgery.

When they fitted the IV into my hand i really couldnt feel a thing and then they started asking me random questions, confirming my name, age etc. Much like the OP i was then told i would feel a coldness in my arm and as they asked me my address i remember just blacking out.

Ive never been that anxious before surgery and it really made me think of how dying from a terminal illness feels. I.E a condition where you feel yourself deteoriate over time rather than a quick death.

Pretty grim stuff really.

I also remember when i came round after the o/p i expected to have a lot of pain in my throat from having the lump removed but i had no feeling of pain whatsoever, just a huge relief that i could breathe properly and swallow without feeling like my throat was obstructed :)
 
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