Went under anesthesia yesterday

My experience with anesthesia is that I go to sleep without knowing it, then no time passes as far as I can tell (not like ordinary sleep, where you still get a feeling of time passing), then I wake up.

The whole blackness without time and space thing is what I figure death must be like, except that you never wake up. You and the universe (as far as you're concerned) just cease to exist.

I had an operation on my testicle years ago upon arriving back on the ward still under the influence of the anaesthetic I proceeded to sit up on the trolley in front of all the other patients rip off all the bandages from my scrotum then fell onto the bed I awoke later to told of this incident by 2 giggling nurses.

I vaguely remember someone telling me I should keep the bandages on but I proceeded to rip them to pieces anyway and throw them on the floor it must have been an amusing sight to behold.

When I wake up I'm very relaxed and normal, but once I'm dressed and out the door of the hospital, everything becomes hysterically funny. I laugh like hell and am so silly. Whoever is with me cracks up laughing. LOL

Been under many times, mostly during childhood.

The last two times - 1998 and 2009 - was for tricky dental work and, being an adult, I do remember them, and remember them for being quite different.

The first time was most unpleasant as I think the anaesthetist, the dentist, and the nurse were amateurish, or else in a hurry.

I don't recall coming round, but apparently I effed and jeffed at the nurse (my nephew was there to drive me back home).

Completely out of character for me, and my embarrassed nephew apologised to the nurse on my behalf.

She said, "It's okay, I've heard a lot worse."

It was for the removal of an embedded wisdom tooth, and my face was like a balloon - I must have been in agony, and the nurse was patting my cheeks to wake me up!

Anaesthetist didn't give me any pain relief at all...it was horrible.

The second time was fantastic.

I was in a private hospital (first time in a clinic) and treated like a VIP by comparison.

I awoke in a lovely, pain-free high, with a lovely young nurse quietly talking to me.

I learned later that the anaesthetist had included Buprenorphine as pain relief with the inducer; I was floating all day long.

Money talks, eh?

I had a hernia surgery a few years back. I remember when they put me under. I felt a tingling in my head. Like in my brain. I Dont know why, probably some kind of instinct but I tried fighting it. Didn't work at all. Lol. half way through thesurgery, I became conscious and and felt tugging on my abdomen. They were inside my abdomen sewing up the mesh they use for the hernia. I moaned ever so slightly. The anesthesiologist asked me. "Are you waking up?" I moaned again. She then loaded me up to the extreme and I was dunnnn. Woke up a few hours later and felt like the king of the world. So relaxed. I felt like i had the best nap of my life. Didn't see any cool colors or feel any loving entities afterward, but I sure felt good.

far from ginger
a reply to: slippeddisc

a reply to: pimptriggs

oh right, its just i had a conversation with my anaesthetist before my op saying how scared i was about waking up during the op and he told me it mostly happens to redheads.

hmm thats strange. I think that i was just off the anesthetic for too long, i was having tubes put in my eardrums aswell as having my adenoids removed, so its possible i just wasn't under long enough, i blame the anesthetist.
a reply to: slippeddisc

a reply to: pimptriggs

considering the amount of years training they have, you would have thought they would get the dosage right! must be horrific waking during an op.

a reply to: Gumerk

Only twice have I had experiences involving colors.

The first time was when I was given a sedative after a frightening panic attack.
I was incoherent aside from repeating my name and social security number to the EMTs.

They gave me a intravenous sedative and as it began to take effect I distinctly remember seeing what looked like concentric circles extending above me bathed in a golden-white glow with what appeared to be golden light beings watching over me on each tier of the circles when extended upwards indefinitely to a brilliant center point.

I felt such infinite and immense love and peace.
That memory still leaves me in awe and wonder.

When I regained consciousness, I could faintly see golden whites, purples, greens and blues moving across the walls as doctors and nurses passed outside my little room.

The anti-psychotics/sedatives employed where I live currently just knock me into darkness and are unpleasant to experience...the only colors I have seen locally have been peaches, pastel blues, pastel greens and light purples but never during one of the "hard knockouts".

I'm wondering if you may have been seeing and sensing the auras of your caretakers? Purple is widely thought to be associated with Mystics and green with Healers.

Regardless, I'm so glad you were well cared for by such wonderful specialists!
It always warms my heart to know there are good people watching over us.
Everyone deserves such care.

a reply to: Gumerk

Drugs can do amazing things to our mind, especially mind altering ones . Not discounting your experience, but you should consider that it was most likely the drugs, and only slightly possible that you were seeing auras/spirits/whatever.

Pretty sure all of that was the effect of the nitrous that comes first, and then whatever else the respirator has in it. Nitrous can be used to induce such feelings.

a reply to: Gumerk

The most likely scenario is you were experiencing some sort of drug-induced euphoria. It's actually pretty common. If you know the type of anesthesia that was used, you could try looking it up to see if others reported the same type of experience when waking up from sedation.

Yeah I was going to say drugs are a hellavu thing but that already got covered. Also the reason why people have completely different crazy experiences even while having the same procedure done is because of the anaesthesiologist and their current choice of cocktail of medications.

I'll tell you a crazy story though.

When I was 19 and again when I was 20 I had to see the same orthopedic surgeon for "college" related injuries, first was a severed tendon on my 4th finger and the second was a boxer's fracture.

Now when I filleted my hand (I was floating down a river backwards and as I was taking a pull from a glass bottle a rock came up and shattered it in my hand), it was crazy as I immediately knew I severed a tendon as I tried to make a fist and one of my fingers wouldn't go down, it was so deep I could see everything, even the yellow fat hanging out of my skinny teenage finger. Yet I was calm the entire time and managed to get the girl I was with and me off the river. I hitched a ride back to my car, luckily I had a first aid box, because I bandaged my right hand up, and drove my Mustang while shifting the stick with my bandaged hand to the hospital (Hell NOBODY drives my stang, especially a girl!). I waited in the ER under a puddle of blood for 7 hours til them finally took me in, gave me one percocet and just rebandaged it (Never go to the ER if your broken they'll just tell you what you already know and make you call doctors you already know about to fix yourself). Now the entire time and the 2 weeks leading up to the surgery I didn't shed a tear.

Then when they finally went in to reattach my tendon together they put me under. As I was waking up I felt great and knew for the most part what was happening around me. Then all of a sudden I started sobbing uncontrollably; I felt great, they were pushing morphine into my IV, and I was looking around at everybody, the nurses, my parents etc... As I'm literally crying for no reason, I'm looking at them and sobbing I go "Why is this happening *sob* to me *sob* I can't *hiccup* stop crying *sob* I feel great *sob*sob*sob**hiccup*". And it was like that for a good 5 minutes, I'm talking to them normally except while I'm doing that I'm having a massively uncontrollable fit. Being the man I was I kept insisting that it wasn't *ME* doing the crying. The anaestesiologist came up to me and he said that this kind of post surgery thing was normal and that he's seen it before, even though your under massive sedation, somewhere deep inside that lizard brain of yours KNOWS that your body is undergoing some VERY traumatic physical changes, and even though you don't feel any pain, somewhere your brain knows the intensity of what your body went through, so it saves all the pent up crying for when you physically can and does it as a reaction when you wake up. After I got it established to everybody that I wasn't a pansy, I milked my sad face for as much morphine as I could before they detached the IV.

Hi, I may have had a similar experience in 2012. I asked my surgeon if it was due to the anesthesia and if ketamine was used. She said no ketamine and had no explanation for my experience (she is a respected surgeon practicing since the 80's).

Coming out of anesthesia after an operation to remove a breast tumor I experienced a bright white light of indescribable clarity and brightness. I felt great serenity, joy , bliss (for lack of better words.) No colors.

I also practice meditatation. I have never seen this light before or since and am not aware of any others with this experience without being under something hallucinogenic.

So Maybe it relates somehow to a brain effect of meditation?