I have a majorly embarrassing fear of surgery. It is so irrational that I will put off procedures that I need. I’m afraid that when I’m under anesthesia that I could wake up, or I could have awareness/feel pain and not be able to communicate it to the surgical team. I’ve heard that they give you drugs so you don’t remember at all- my anxiety-ridden brain wonders if we are all suffering during the procedure and we just forget upon waking. I understand that quite a few folks will require surgery during their lifetime. I have had IV sedation during procedures, and despite having no problems, I am utterly terrified. Please tell me about how ridiculous I am being.
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Anesthesiologists tend to be one of the highest paid people in the room for a very good reason – their entire specialization is fully dedicated to getting anesthesia right.
It’s complicated stuff, and they spend years perfecting their skill. Every person has a different mix of height, weight, overall health, and medications that they are on that makes dosing anesthesia different for everyone. Despite this, anesthesia failure remains fairly uncommon – about 1 in 1000 on a bad day.
Even then, anesthesia is made of multiple drugs – usually sedative, a painkiller, and a paralytic. Generally, anesthesia failure is in the sedative, meaning you might become vaguely aware but you won’t actually feel any pain or be able to move. And anesthesiologists are trained to look for awareness, so if you do become aware you’re generally put back under fairly quickly.
Worse complications generally only happen when the patient doesn’t disclose something – e.g. if a cocaine user doesn’t disclose that they used in the days leading up to surgery.
As a whole, if you disclose every medication/drug you’ve taken recently and all medical conditions you have to the anesthesiologist, and follow the instructions in your pre-op booklet, you don’t really have anything to fear. Having been through surgery with the same fear, I look back at the lack of mobility and post-op pain with much more disdain than the anesthesia.
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