As a compliment to the thread about near death experiences I’d really like hearing people’s experiences of losing consciousness under general anesthesia and what’s it like coming back.
Also interested of things anesthetists may have noticed about this during their career.
To me it felt like THE BEST dreamless nap.
I honestly just felt like a sleept 3days in a row, Reality was like 5~8 hours
I actually have a story. I was very young and was under for 10 hours. It was terrible, I felt every moment, I was trapped in a video game, Link’s Adventure. Just repeating over and over. This isn’t a joke, the experience was so traumatizing I won’t go through surgery again. This was over three decades ago. I don’t know what went wrong, why I experienced the passage of time. I thought I had literally gone to Hell, it was torture.
Counting down from 99 … 98 … 97 … Wake up after surgery.
It was almost scarily smooth for me. I laid down on the operating table, they started prepping me up and I was out before I realized it. When I woke up minutes after the end of my short surgery I had clear memories of the moments before. There was no period of time where I felt confused or realized I was passing out or waking up. I went from being conscious, to unconscious, to wide awake pretty darn fast. The only numbness I had came from the painkillers. Or at least it’s how it felt to me. Modern anesthetics are amazing.
Yep - it’s both a science and an art.
Can you imagine doing it for a job?
Nothingness for general anaesthesia. Sedation for dental work was awesome: IV midazolam. Off to sleep just like GA but woke up at some point, super happy and relaxed. Waking up was like a long sleep. I loved it so much I asked if I could come in again for that without the operation. Turns out, no, that’s not a thing. Shame.
Arm feels cold as it goes in, the feeling spreads, taste of copper in the mouth… wake up in recovery. Pretty straightforward.
what’s it like coming back.
Waking up and asking the same questions over and over. “It’s over?” “We’re done?” “It already happened?”
Was under for a facture correction. Specifically asked to not be given drugs that would cause amnesia.
I was out for 2 to 3 hours. I dreamed. Woke up ready and willing to jump out of my bed; took me a fraction of a second to understand I was still at the hospital.
The weirdest thing I can mention is being extremely aware of all my senses, except for pain, which was what woke me. I was aware how many people were in the room by the sound of shuffling feet, the smell of disinfectant and sweat from the nurses nearly made me gag, the air in the room was too cold and the temperature under the sheets and blankets to warm. That part of me that had been cut felt hot and aching but the feeling of pain was distant; I was aware it hurt but it was not important. I just felt this need to run when I first opened my eyes.
Not a very good feeling.
I remember thinking it’s taking surprisingly long for the gas over my mouth and nose to do anything. A pretty surgical assistant was staring at my eyes and talking to me calmly, saying I was doing great. And I was doing great. Then the next moment I was suddenly startled awake again as completely different people were shouting and holding my arms, trying to bring me back to consciousness as I was flailing around in confusion. Apparently the surgery went well.
Quite often! Like everyone else has mentioned, one moment you’re in the OR, and then the next moment they’re waking you up and making sure you’re alright.
A lot of times they don’t even seem to ask me to count backwards anymore, I remember one time I asked if they wanted me to and they said “Nope, we’ve already started the meds so you should be asleep in a few seconds”, I remember getting very sleepy and saying something along the lines of “Oh, well that explains a lot” and then I was waking back up. There was a time where they did have me count backwards, and when I got to 80 they were quite confused - apparently my IV had an issue so I wasn’t actually getting the meds (they generally use propofol and a local anesthetic over here, the local one first since propofol can have a burning sensation). They fixed it quickly, had me restart the count, and I don’t even think I made it to 95 before being out.
I have never had any negative side effects from it thankfully, but I have noticed that the longer the procedure is, the more tired you feel after you come out of it. It’s common for me to fall back asleep after a 7 hour procedure, but for one that is an hour or less once they wake me up I’m generally awake for the rest of the day.
Twice, and they were completely different experiences.
First was gas at the dentists for taking 3 teeth out as my mouth was overcrowded. I was kind of asleep, I could hear people’s voices in a really trippy flanged way, and I could vaguely feel some tugging at my jaw (but no pain). The gas tasted awful.
The second was for an operation at hospital after an accident (requiring 6.5 hours of microsurgery). It was like jumping forwards 7 hours in time, literally counting the seconds after the anaesthetic went in at night, then immediately waking up in broad daylight. It is completely unlike deep sleep (where you still are aware that time has passed).
I had a larger surgical procedure done when I was 7. They gave me the calming pre meds maybe half an hour before the operation to make sure that I wouldn’t freak out with the IV. I remember clearly how strange it felt when the pre meds started to kick in, the whole world slowed down and everything felt “good”.
Then they wheeled me into the OR and took my robe off. The operating table was cold and I commented on it, the anesthesia doctor just laughed and said “don’t worry, in a minute it won’t be”. Then she put the IV in and asked me to count down from twenty. “Nine” was the last word I managed to stutter before I went under.
Then I woke up in the recovery room, about 9 hours later. It felt like I had slept a really long, dreamless sleep. The operation had gone as planned, but the recovery period in the hospital was still pretty painful.
I don’t think they knocked me out enough last time. I woke up from a 4.5hr surgery well rested and even dreamed. I scared the nurse right next to my recovery bed because they had just wheeled me in and didn’t expect me to be awake yet. I asked for my glasses and noticed everyone in the big level 1 recovery room was still sleeping. So I cracked some jokes. I then asked her how long the surgery has been because it felt like a while (was supposed to be 3hrs). She got a little freaked out and called the doctor who explained the surgery went a little longer due to some precision needed. I remember every moment from when I woke up to when they put me in the level 2 recovery room and was being walked to the car like 5mins later. I was a little bummed because I asked my husband to record me saying anything silly and he had nothing to work with except me thanking every single nurse I saw.
It wasn’t general, but I lost the memory. Sort of. Signed up for a study involving donating my wisdom teeth. Got them pulled for free in return. They described how they were gonna give me an “amnesiac drug” which would help me forget the whole disturbing experience, or maybe even forget the pain I don’t know.
I sat down in a dentist’s chair. A lady in scrubs came in and said “Do you like drugs?”
“Yes”
“Then you’re gonna love this. Start counting backward from 100 for me.”
So I started counting down and then I came to walking down the hallway pushing an IV thing. I was walking toward the waiting room after the procedure.
What’s strange is the memory of them taking my teeth out isn’t gone, it’s just squished down to like 5 seconds. The entire thing, like a move in ultra fast forward. My head whipping back and forth as pliers grip and there are crunching sounds. But it’s all ultra fast.
