[knospi]

I was under anesthesia Tuesday for an oral operation. I don't know the name, but it was corrective bite surgery where they cut my jaw off and plated it back on. I don't really know how severe the anesthesia was because I was putting so much unconscious effort into ignoring what was happening that I didn't ask any questions at all, but I guess it was pretty strong considering the surgery. I went in with no worries, or at least no worries that I was aware of, but the worst part of the surgery turned out to be afterward.
When I woke up, I could barely see. That and the dopiness of just waking up immediately threw me into a panic attack. The seeing thing was definitely a trigger. All I remember is desperately throwing my head back and forth looking for my mom in the recovery room, telling the nurses that I frequently have panic attacks, and then blacking out until I was in my hospital room and they were trying to get me out of the recovery bed, which apparently had something on it. I don't remember, and I couldn't see anything. I kept panicking for 5 more hours. I wouldn't let go of my mom's hand that whole time. It's like I suddenly developed separation anxiety or something?! I just kept staring at the wall and lapsing into sleep every once and a while the whole time. I was so scared. It was horrible. (about the mom thing, I'm 16)
And it's all fine and dandy that all this happened, but I can't find anything on it, and I can't stop dwelling on it. Aaah?! Does this happen to anyone else, living or dead? It's been 4 days and I'm still thinking about it all the time. Especially as I am very detail-oriented and I have no clue what happened or if it is normal... It's driving me up the wall. I mostly just want to know if this is relatively normal or not. I've been trying Google for hours, but I can't find anything.

[geis]

I don't know how common it is, but I've had that happen before. Once after oral surgery (not as extensive as yours), and after every colonoscopy. I don't know what it is, but I wake up in a total panic. Luckily, my awesome gastroenterologist has proven to be very good at calming me down. I think part of it, for me, is that I woke up partially during my first colonoscopy. I don't remember it, but apparently I was screaming and freaking out, and they had to give me more of whatever they were using to knock me out. Even though I don't consciously remember it, I think it may be part of the problem for me. But like you, I haven't been able to find much information about this online.

[Jaimes the Writer]

knospi,

I've had 3 surgeries requiring general anesthesia in the last 10 years, and each time I woke, I had a severe anxiety attack. The second one lasted nearly 12 hours, and was actually so traumatic that I suffered from PTSD for awhile. I didn't understand what was happening to me. I considered that it was possible that I was insane. I was so messed up that I didn't even link the general anesthesia to the anxiety attacks until after my 3rd surgery, which only triggered a short (though powerful) anxiety attack.

So I've done some research on the subject, and it turns out that it's fairly common, especially among people who already suffer from anxiety disorders. It's not uncommon among patients who have never had an anxiety attack. What's amazing is that post-op caregivers (nurses for the most part) are so underinformed on the subject given the prevalence of the problem.

What happened to you (and make no mistake, this isn't something you could have avoided) was not out of the realm of normal. But this is valuable information, and if you ever have another surgery or procedure that requires general anesthesia, you need to make sure that the doctors, nurses, and whomever you choose to be with you afterward (family, friend, etc.) all know that general anesthesia causes this reaction in you. It's not much different from an allergy, and they need to treat it as a medical problem, not an emotional one, because that is absolutely what it is.

[geis]

Jaimes, that's really interesting that you were able to find information on this. Would you be able to point us toward whatever you found? I'd be very interested to read more.

[Jaimes the Writer]

Originally Posted by geis

Jaimes, that's really interesting that you were able to find information on this. Would you be able to point us toward whatever you found? I'd be very interested to read more.

I'll have to look a bit to find some links that aren't on paid medical journal sites (my brother is a physician, and I often use his subscriptions for research when writing). But what might help when looking for more info is that the one surgery I had that triggered the big panic attack was a hysterectomy, and that was actually lucky because OB/GYNs actually pay attention to things like patients' moods and anxiety levels, whereas most anesthesiologists only see a patient briefly before and then during the surgery, so they wouldn't know if there was a link between anesthesia and post-op panic attacks anyway. Most surgeons are only concerned with surgical outcomes. I remember finding the first real clues that I wasn't crazy on "What to Expect After a Hysterectomy" sites. (I'd post a link here, but I haven't posted 10 times yet...GRRRRR...but I just did a simple Google search, and got a few there.)

I know sites like WebMD (the page is called "Anxiety & Panic Disorders Health Center" on webmd dot com) list general anesthesia as a major risk factor for panic attacks without anxiety disorder, but it takes some digging (which helps me fill my often sleepless nights) to find the good info. I'll see what I can dig up for you if I have some downtime on my trip this week. And I'll try to get my 10 posts in before then so I can post some actual links.

I remember when I had oral surgery and was put under general anesthesia . When I woke up I pulled out the intravenous plug and I lost a lot of blood

[Lady Lindsey]

I had surgery and woke up with a horrible panic attack, so much so, that when I fully was awake, the nurse suggested I get a therapist... I told her I had one and was working on it...
People do many strange things when waking up out of anesthesia. My daughter is an RN and I talked to her about it, she said that she see's a lot of panic attacks, combativeness and lots of other odd behavior.. recovery nurses see lots of odd behaviours when people come out of anesthesia... it does strange things to our body....