What is general anaesthetic like nowadays?

[Pawnless Endgame]

I'm after some experiences from you OcUK patrons in recent years, while trying to avoid making this a medical thread please (as per forum rules).

I'm having cataract + stent surgery for just the 1 eye as my other eye is blind. It's usually done under a local but they're giving me a general. I think it's because I'll have to take my hearing aids out and thus won't be able to hear the surgeon's instructions. I shouldn't be under for much more than 30 minutes I guess.

My last operation was in 1992. Back then, you had to take pre-med which I hated because it tasted like Red Bull! So I got given it as a tablet instead. The injection that knocks you out was pretty quick but I felt a pounding headache before I was knocked out cold. Then a gas mixture is administered during the operation. After I came round (woke up), I felt sick for about a day then it wore off.

So was wondering if the procedure is the same now (pre-med / injection / sleeping gas) or if there are any changes since 1992.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Cheers fellas. Seems like they've done away with the pre-med then. Injection then... out.

For those with minor procedures (like 30 minutes), was the injection needle gone when you woke up? I'm hoping that my hands will be free so that I can pop my hearing aids back. This is so that I can hear what's going on around me as I will be blindfolded with an eye shield.

I'm actually assigned to a ward but hoping it will still only be day surgery. At the same time, I'm very grateful that I'm having the op on the NHS as I know there is a backlog in many NHS areas due to the pandemic.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Cheers again everyone. There seems to be varying degrees of the nausea aspect post-op, so I'll just have to suck it up when the time comes. Hopefully not too bad if it's only a 30-minute op.

Be a real man and do it awake.

LOL perfect GD response. That's the way to do it

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

This is exactly the same experience that I had a few years back for wisdom teeth extraction. The cold arm sensation was quite strange, but felt fine after.

I didn't know that dental uses GA now. I had some teeth chipped in a 1990 road accident and they got removed at the dentist's in 1993. That was under a local anaesthetic. Again that was nearly 30 years ago.

I look forward to a GA. I absolutely love the floaty, away with the fairies feeling you get for a few seconds before going under.

I guess that's like a near-death experience. When you're under GA, you no longer 'manifest'. So it's like being paralytically drunk in that you're not self-aware. That's as opposed to being just asleep at bedtime when you do have dreams and you sometimes remember them.

Got given something for nausea, then injection with the GA, still woke up nauseous as **** and feeling like I'm dying, then they gave me morphine and I felt good

Even if the anti-nausea didn't work for you, I'll see if I can ask for it, so thanks for the heads up.

From my own knowledge (I have a lot of surgeries): General anaesthetics have evolved quite a lot since 20 years ago. They do still use propofol (milk of amnesia lol), but there are a lot of advances in the inhalant agents and other associated drugs. Basically going to sleep is generally easier, less hard on you, and easier to recover from.

That's great knowing too, thanks! I do have a pre-op appointment, so that's where I'll hopefully be able to ask some medical stuff.

Pre-op btw is 6th July, and the op itself is the 14th. So all going well, I'll be able to add my own input to this thread too.

 

[Pawnless Endgame]

Small bump / thread necro as I've been offline for nearly 2 months:

The cataract + stent operation was on 14th July, and it took 2h 50m on the 1 eye. It's a complicated eye though and there were further complications that required 2 more operations in August due to me temporarily losing the rest of my eyesight. Some of my sight has come back now and I can use the computer for short periods of time.

And so, I can now feed back on my own recent experience of having a general anaesthetic in 2022.

Nausea: None at all! I told the anaesthetist team that I had previous / historic sickness, so I was given 4 anti-sickness pills with a bit of water around 45 minutes before the operation. This did the trick for me

The pre-med: As other posters said here, pre-med isn't done any more. Not in medicine or pill form at least. Instead, I was made to breathe in a gas through my nose that smelt like strong alcohol. This was for about 30 seconds, and it made me feel sleepy.

Being knocked out: A cannula was fitted, which was no sweat at all - just a sharp ***** for about 1 second when it was being fitted. While I was inhaling the pre-med gas (as above), the anaesthetist team announced that the sleep injection is about to start and asked me to count from 1. In 1992, I didn't like the feeling of the sleep injection going up my arm and the brief headache it caused as the fluid was entering my head. This time round in 2022, I only felt the fluid in my hand, as I counted 1-2-3, then I was out. It's probably faster-acting now.

Being asleep: Again like others said here, it's like hitting the pause button for 3 hours. No dreams. You don't manifest. Just oblivion.

Coming around: I woke up in a recovery room, but I didn't see this because I had an eye patch. I was self-aware now and was given a sandwich, biscuits, orange juice and water. This is again an absolute FIRST for me because I have never been able to hold down food after an operation on the same day. It was an amazing feeling just being able to eat!

Covid restrictions: I couldn't have anyone on the ward with me before the operation, but my parents were allowed to join me in the recovery room before going back home.

Hearing aids: My left eye was the eye being operated on, so I was allowed to keep my opposite (right) aid in. This meant that I was able to listen out for the anaesthetist team and it also meant that I was able to hear when I came around.

Overall experience: Really positive, despite all the doom-mongering that you hear about the NHS on the news. Granted the staff are stretched but they're always trying their best. Lovely nurses on the ward, anaesthetist team had a great sense of humour, and I was able to meet with the surgeon before each operation. I'm now in the after-care stages with plenty of out-patient appointments and that's been great too.