Funny Surgery Stories
Jul. 31st, 2012 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
timSo, I had stage II of my surgery (link goes directly to probably-TMI details; do not pass Go, do not collect $200) and everything went fine, except that, unfortunately, there will be a stage III. I meant to do a post-surgery summary post, and then horrible complications happened, and I wanted even more to write a post explaining what happened and why I had no regrets anyway... but anyway, that hasn't happened yet. But, I still want to write up everything that happened post-first-surgery!
This is not that post, though. So, I had IV sedation, which means you're sort-of-conscious during surgery but can't really feel anything. You're not supposed to remember things that happened while you were sedated, either, but I do, both from this time and the previous one. This time I was pretty awake for what I'd guess was the last 20 minutes of the surgery, not feeling any pain or anything, but able to listen to my surgeon talking to the nurses. They were talking about Portland for whatever reason and the doctor was describing a poster he saw when he first moved to Portland, and how it showed this guy standing with his back to the camera while opening his trench coat (which, it was implied, there was nothing under it) to a sculpture. And also, the guy was the mayor of Portland at one point. Then he said what the caption of the photo was. I don't remember what he said, but it was wrong. So I said "actually, it said 'Expose Yourself to Art'" and he was like "oh, you're right". (Possibly after that they gave me more drugs, I don't know :P)
Moral of story: I won't pass up the opportunity to correct someone who is wrong, even while they're literally operating on me :P (It's this poster.)
This is not that post, though. So, I had IV sedation, which means you're sort-of-conscious during surgery but can't really feel anything. You're not supposed to remember things that happened while you were sedated, either, but I do, both from this time and the previous one. This time I was pretty awake for what I'd guess was the last 20 minutes of the surgery, not feeling any pain or anything, but able to listen to my surgeon talking to the nurses. They were talking about Portland for whatever reason and the doctor was describing a poster he saw when he first moved to Portland, and how it showed this guy standing with his back to the camera while opening his trench coat (which, it was implied, there was nothing under it) to a sculpture. And also, the guy was the mayor of Portland at one point. Then he said what the caption of the photo was. I don't remember what he said, but it was wrong. So I said "actually, it said 'Expose Yourself to Art'" and he was like "oh, you're right". (Possibly after that they gave me more drugs, I don't know :P)
Moral of story: I won't pass up the opportunity to correct someone who is wrong, even while they're literally operating on me :P (It's this poster.)
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-02 08:49 pm (UTC)Both times now that I've had IV sedation (well, I actually had it a third time, when I had my wisdom teeth removed, but that was a while ago so I don't remember) I've remembered things that happened during the surgery, so that's a data point.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-08-02 09:13 pm (UTC)My wisdom tooth experience was kind of hellish; they gave me propyphol but it didn't work on me and while I don't remember this I apparently was freaking out and screaming/fighting when they tried to take my teeth out. They eventually did it just with novocaine and nitrous which meant I was STILL screaming the entire time because it hurt and was terrifying even though they didn't really believe me.
So when Dr. Reardon was talking me through pre chest surgery stuff and mentioned that they were going to use propyphol I was pretty scared, but he said that the difference was that they had an actual anesthesiologist on staff and the oral surgeons probably didn't know how to properly work with it. And happily my only memory from that is the cough I mentioned earlier.