[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by TalnSG

Appendectomies are done with general anesthesia and you don't wake until they want you to. The wake you by giving drugs to counteract the anesthetic. However, when it involves childbirth that is trickier. They have to be wary of the baby's state and the mother's and they don't commonly use general anesthesia for those cases.

I hear it`s normally a lot different than it was for me - that they`ll even have you stay awake for those bonding moments after the birth, etc. The incision itself is much much smaller, and designed to hit fewer muscles and make it easier to recover. The baby itself is under pressure, so will sort of stretch the skin and pop out of a smaller cut. I hear they don`t even do the vertical incision anymore unless there is a major emergency as it has a long recovery time and much higher risk for complications.
It would be very hard for me to consider my surgery as a c-section, the only part that was the same is that the end result was a baby was taken out. And even that baby was too early to even show...
I would think that it would be much much easier and less horrific if it was a normal scheduled or routine (performed due to some kind of common complication during labor) as 99% of c-sections are. Certainly not the terror of what happened to me.

For me, it felt like I was definitely not the priority. The baby was sick, had a stroke, and it`s heart was almost to the point of stopping. So instead of thinking about me through the procedure, it was "cut the baby out to save it!" - there were definitely no qualms about putting me under general anesthesia.
They tried first via IV, which probably would have been better... Maybe... but failed so used gas only. That may have been the reason I was partially aware through part of it.

As for feeling the pain of the cut, I doubt it. My abdominal incision was for very different reasons, but I didn't get feeling back along the stitches for at least 24 hours. Then it was more itching as it healed than surface pain, except where one staple had shift and was poking me. Doc fixed that immediately.

I was too scared to touch my cut until they were taking the stitches (staples?) out, but I don`t believe it actually hurt like a cut. Everything under and around it hurt, and I couldn`t use ANY of my abdominal muscles. It really sucked to need to clear my throat and be completely unable to do it. My body just would not even let me try.
It also didn`t help that the nurses kept telling me that if I wasn`t careful, the whole thing could just pop open. *shudder*
A quick measure of the scar is... 15cm with a 2cm cut over to the side for a drain tube. I had a tube with a little bottle on the end to drain fluids from inside the wound.
Having the tube in there was just flat out weird. I kept thinking that if I squeezed the bottle by accident while sleeping that I would push air inside of me... Or how much it would hurt if I caught it on something and it ripped out of me. (The tube was stapled on, and the bottle dangled about 20cm below it - I kept it in my robe pocket.)

I forget when they took it out, but I`m pretty sure it was when they took the stitches out. For about a week after that, if I bumped the scab it would leak. The leaking from the scab was supposed to be "healthy" as long as it was clear clean liquid and not blood or infected stuff. So it was kind of interesting in it`s own way. Freaked my husband out though. I`m glad it was in there though - it looks like the most common complication for large incision surgeries is fluid retention inside the wound preventing healing... And needing the incision to be opened again for draining.

I later had a bordeline ectopic pregnancy removed (caused by scarring from the first procedure...), and was put under by needle (couldn`t get the iv in then either, so the doctor was amazing and just went by needle into the arm in the spot where they can usually take blood.)
In that case, I wasn`t cut open - it was by micro camera - so there was no cut to wake me. I also wasn`t in a terrified state, and wasn`t panicking. I went to sleep, then woke up after it was over with no recollection of the time between. I did wake up much more quickly than they had expected and startled the nurse who was doing the cleanup in the OR. I also declined pain killers that time too, and was up and completely ready to go home within 5 minutes. The anesthesia left my system VERY quickly. I`m kind of proud of my incredibly efficient liver - no grogginess whatsoever left behind . I never even had to go to the recovery room - I woke before they moved me, and was able to walk and leave the OR normally. (Then go home almost immediately after.)

So I guess that`s a success story for the anesthesia? But it`s not really major surgery.