 Good morning my beautiful internet friends. We are now eight days post-op things are going super well actually pain is really reduced I feel like myself almost almost I have noticed that on a number of the post-surgery videos I've gotten questions about what it's like to actually go under in general anesthesia And what my experience has been like and is it scary and how do you actually wake up? And what does it feel like when they put you to sleep and so I want to take today to actually answer that question a little bit In depth, so let's do that. But first let's make some coffee I was waiting in the undertold I set a drift with fair the way it light falls Under where and where my heart undertold Good morning my beautiful oops. Oh, I just spilled all over myself All right, that is a normal morning as far as my life goes. Let's talk about anesthesia I want to talk about the process in general and then get into some specifics like if you really really didn't want to go Under is there any way that you could fight it and stay awake or have I ever woken up because people have asked me questions like that So let's say for instance you had to have I don't know ankle surgery like I've had to have countless times What will happen is you'll be told that you have to go under you have to have anesthesia If that's the case your doctor or a nurse will call you at some point before surgery and tell you that you need to Not eat or drink a certain amount of time before your procedure that amount of time will vary depending on what kind of surgery You're having generally you won't be able to eat six to eight hours before and you won't be able to drink anything Two hours before do they do that just to be really mean and make sure that on top of being nervous and anxious and sleep deprived And not feeling great on the day of your surgery that you also can't have coffee or breakfast in the morning No, they do that because when you are under your bodily functions are suppressed So if you needed to throw up for instance You could choke to death and die complications like that can arise So make sure you listen to their instructions on that So get to the hospital You're getting ready for your procedure your anesthesiologist is going to come in and chat with you He or she will answer any questions you have about your procedure. And again, this is about general anesthesia There are different ways of being sedated for procedures real quick note guys It is really important to talk to your doctor about any concerns you have Any medical conditions you have Anything it is really rare that anything goes wrong in anesthesia and anesthesiologists are trained to deal with that You are going to be chances are in really good hands with that said though They need to be aware of any pre-existing conditions, whether that's Medical conditions, whether that's meddling your body, whether that's um anything you have going on mentally Like I've said before I have PTSD And that is something that I always let them know about because it interferes with how I wake up from anesthesia General anesthesia is generally I've said generally like 12 times in this video, haven't I? Pretty and flip. I don't know generally speaking general anesthesia is a combination of IV drugs and gases So you're gonna have an IV in for surgery And you'll also have a mask placed over your face sometimes and I greatly prefer it this way They'll start making you sleepy when you're still in kind of like the pre-op room They'll inject something into your IV and you can make sure to ask them to let you know when this is happening That kind of makes you start to drift off or relax Then they'll wheel you into the surgery room and then when you get there whether or not you've had that kind of Pre-sleepy drug it'll be time to go under so now you've made it back to the operating room You're laying there on the operating table. Everything is bright. Everything is white. What happens now? Well, what is probably going to happen is they're gonna have you count back from 99 or count back from 10 or whatever It's kind of the universal. Hey, you're gonna take a nap now and you will be going to sleep People have asked me if they can resist it if you can consciously control it If you really fought it off if you could stay awake No, you are going to be taking that nap because it's a combination of drugs and gases You are going to go to sleep and you're not actually sleeping. You're anesthetized. You are not feeling pain You're not gonna wake up the chances of that happening are so so so so so slim That's not something you need to worry about and yes, you will be taking this nap I have had the experience of them giving me zero warning of me going under and then I just wake up in recovery And I really don't like that that actually happened with my last surgery And I made the mistake of not asking them to kind of give me a countdown It can almost feel like going to sleep really quickly But it's not like going to sleep and that you can stop it You are going to go to sleep waking up from anesthesia can provoke a variety of responses You've probably seen some of the videos of people being funny after waking up from anesthesia You probably haven't seen the videos if they exist of really really bad reactions waking up from anesthesia Like I've had living with pgsd waking up from anesthesia has not been a blast I've woken up in a full-blown panic attack before and I've also woken up completely fine Like literally waking up from a nap now most people don't have any problems waking up from anesthesia You're probably just gonna slowly come out of it. You're gonna have a nurse kind of saying Hey, you know your surgery went okay It's time to wake up now kind of thing and you'll be given snacks, which is always a good thing Snacks are great generally crackers or pudding or something like that along with some juice Get you drinking your throat may be sore. That's from the anesthesia as well And on average it takes about 45 minutes to kind of come to in the anesthesia recovery room You're gonna be a little bit groggy because you've had a lot of drugs in your system And the thing that not a lot of people ever talked to me about but has been my personal experience Is that for days afterwards you might feel off you might feel different If you've been under general anesthesia someone is going to drive you home They're not gonna allow you to drive yourself home. You might be sleepy the rest of the day You might not be I don't know how your body works You do but how it works for me is that generally for 48 72 hours afterwards I am just feeling like poop honestly. I am on the couch for the most part I am groggy and I don't remember a lot and I just feel pukey and gross and icky And I am just not having a fun time. That's until the drugs get out of my system I drink a lot of water make sure to kind of flush everything out of there Your medical team is going to give you specific instructions on what to do after your surgery Listen to those generally what happens is when it comes to anesthesia specific stuff They'll tell you to go ahead and eat and drink whatever you want that you can tolerate So that is my kind of anesthesia 101 from my experience What what I've experienced the times that I have gone under and also some really really basic anesthesia information I'll put links to articles down below where you can read a little bit more about it Also, if you're watching this because you have to have surgery and are worried about anesthesia Let me show you that I've gone through it many times and I am here. I'm just fine I've had some weird reactions, but I've gotten through it just fine and anesthesiologists are very very highly trained doctors They know what they're doing You'll be in good hands and I'm here wishing you all the best for your upcoming surgery or procedure Huh excellent point. Yo, hon. Oh, hi there Do you like my super cheesy introduction there? I wanted to take a moment to address the final question that people are asking me about going under an anesthesia Have I ever woken up during it or have I ever known anyone who was woken up during anesthesia? Also, take a moment to introduce you to our sponsor, which is audible.com Legitimately no joke. I have been listening to an audiobook tonight called chasing the scream It's a book by Johann Hari about the evolution of the war on drugs internationally something I'm super super interested in I've had an audible subscription for I think about three years now Audible.com is the world's largest library of audiobooks and I really like audiobooks because I get chronic migraines I don't have to have my eyes open to read when I'm listening to audiobooks And so I really really appreciate what they do and if you check out the link right down below You will get a free month's trial of their subscription service and a free audiobook Which I highly recommend like seriously. I love audiobooks I'll listen to them in my car all the time when I'm driving around to work and things like that So I love it. You might like it. Check it out. Now on to the question. You guys are actually here to listen to you Have I ever woken up during surgery or anesthesia? No, however, I did know someone who said that he did now Let's just get this story a little bit clearer first. It was early middle school And uh, this kid really liked telling stories. You ever known one of those people who like had to one up everybody's story? Um, I was talking about my surgery and he was like, I had surgery and I woke up during it And I was like, wait, what? Apparently his words he had open heart surgery when he was a kid He remembers waking up for like a split second before they put him back under and that's his whole story So aside from that, I've never known of anyone who ever woke up I know a lot of people get really freaked out about that, but sincerely Medicine and technology have evolved so much that the risk of that happening is so miniscule And I will also link an article down below that addresses that concern specifically. So thanks for listening guys I love you. I'm thinking of you guys and I will see you in the next video. Bye guys