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  • How does anesthesia or sedation impact your mood?

    Posted by brittany-foster on November 4, 2019 at 10:17 am

    I have seen so many funny videos of people waking up from anesthesia saying the most hilarious things! I have always struggled with trying to maintain a stable mood while coming off anesthesia, especially right after, even up to a few days later. My emotions seem to get the best of me right after I come off anesthesia. Sometimes it is really unpredictable. I can either be thanking everyone and inviting the surgeons to the “party in my hospital room” HAHA (true story!) or I just cry and feel like I lose control of all emotions and sometimes my touch with reality.

    How have you reacted when waking up from anesthesia? Are you someone that is funny and makes people laugh or are your emotions more like mine and all over the place? Share your experiences here.

    brittany-foster replied 4 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 8 Replies
  • 8 Replies
  • Colleen

    Member
    November 4, 2019 at 2:16 pm

    Brittany,
    My son is often very moody or even angry when he wakes up from anesthesia. It’s often a battle to get him to calm down because he will start insisting he wants his IV out NOW and wants to go home. This reaction was much worse when he was a teenager. An anesthesiologist told me that he often sees more of an aggressive reaction to anesthesia and sedation from teens due to hormonal changes.

    Now that he’s older he is a little better, or at least calms down faster. It’s funny/not funny because his reaction to anesthesia is total opposite of his normal personality. He’s not the type that angers easily.

    • brittany-foster

      Member
      November 4, 2019 at 2:54 pm

      Colleen,
      That is how I am too. I am not the angry type of person but I am highly sensitive and emotional and I think that the anesthesia definitely heightens that for me. I know that it’s hard but I have had some amazing surgeons who know that I get like that and get disoriented after surgery and they have sat with me until I feel more comfortable. These are the surgeons that really leave a mark on me and go above and beyond anything that I would expect. The anesthesiologist also did this for me before this last surgery because she realized I was getting over stimulated by all the noise around me and beeping of the monitors. She was a true angel in that moment.

  • v-r-peterson

    Member
    November 5, 2019 at 4:47 pm

    When I wake up after anesthesia, I’m extremely tired (too tired to get out of bed). At the same time, I’ve also got an incredible case of the jitters, feeling like I have to get up and pace the room to “walk off” the jitters. Then there was the time I woke up, asking the doctor if I said anything as I was waking up. He admitted that I had, but he wouldn’t tell me what. He finally admitted that I told him, in no uncertain terms, that I wasn’t happy with the pain I was in. So apparently, I mouth off to my medical team with absolutely no memory of my rant.

    • brittany-foster

      Member
      November 6, 2019 at 9:42 am

      I am known to get pretty mouthy too and just either mean, funny, or crying about everything and anything and it doesn’t even make sense. I don’t like waking up and not realizing what is going on so usually they make sure to have someone there when I first wake up to help explain everything. That feeling of being disoriented is just not a good one at all.

  • Colleen

    Member
    November 4, 2019 at 2:25 pm

    @ksmith610 it still shocks me when I hear of health professionals with poor bedside manners. That is just awful and then to find out 3 years later it’s actually PH that you have been fighting.

    Have you ever chatted with Randolph Reynolds @ripple76? He shares your love of flying and just had his memoir published “Towards New Worlds: Memoir of a Life in Aviation”.

  • brittany-foster

    Member
    November 4, 2019 at 2:51 pm

    Kevin,
    I can only imagine your frustration and I know how it feels to have dreams not be able to become a reality. It is hard to find ways to adapt our bodies and make our dreams work as best they can for us. I started out as a teacher in the school department teaching children with special needs and it was always my dream to be a severe and profound teacher working with students with traumatic brain injuries in wheelchairs. The job in itself is very labor intensive and not something that I will ever be able to do. I have had to adapt myself and work online and help others in a different way. At first that loss was so hard for me to deal with and felt a lot like grieving. I am glad that you are able to do that with the planes from home and I bet there is nothing like that feeling you are describing when being a part of being in control of an aircraft like that!

  • Colleen

    Member
    November 5, 2019 at 3:22 pm

    Kevin, that’s great! I haven’t purchased it yet but I plan to.

  • brittany-foster

    Member
    November 6, 2019 at 9:45 am

    Kevin,
    seeing young children suffering and in situations like this really makes you stop and think. I know for me, it makes me really grateful for the things that I am able to do in my life that many take for granted. So many children with different severities of special needs are just so happy in their own way. It is eye opening and humbling for sure.

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