They could just paralyse you like for brain surgery.

.....

does the flappy-hand-squinchy-face thing

Okay, not thinking about surgery anymore, thankyouverymuch.

You people are not helping my surgery phobia at all.

You people are not helping my surgery phobia at all.

We live to serve.

Good unconsciousness stories!

I had super-Valium for my wisdom teeth extraction, and although I was not technically unconscious, I was pretty effin unconscious according to my definition of the term. The needle went in (okay, painfully), the little flippy switch went to "give this girl some drugs", and I woke up two hours later with fewer teeth.

Even the side-effects were kind of cool! I had full-body tremor as I came out of it, and walked around with that serious vagueness of someone thoroughly drunk and trying to find her glasses.

Plus? Milkshakes later on!!

I think my wisdom teeth removal was the last time I was out, as well (back in 1987). I had general anesthesia--needle in the back of the hand, "Count backwards from 100," got to about 96 and I was gone. Woke up a few hours later in the little room down the hall, my sister asleep next to me (she had hers done right after mine), and when the nurse came in to check on us, she asked if I needed anything from my mom in the waiting room. I looked at her and grunted around my mouthful of cotton "ook." She was puzzled and asked I could clarify. I held my hands out, palms together, then opened them flat and spread out and repeated, "ook." The light went on--"Oh, book!" I nodded, she went out to my mom and said, "Kathy's awake and wants..." and Mom just held out my book before she finished her sentence.

Mom knows me very well!!

walked around with that serious vagueness of someone thoroughly drunk and trying to find her glasses.

I do that without drugs. It's a gift.

When I go to the ER these days, dilaudid is my drug of choice. About 4mg in, my memory is terribly spotty. At 6? It's not just what I do that I don't remember--it's also what's done to me. Apparently I talk super fast about things I'd normally talk about, but hop from subject to subject with lightning speed. The friend who takes me to the ER likens it to his reaction to Tramadol, but he considers losing control to be taking off his socks when he comes over to visit.

I have to admit it did raise my eyebrows quite a bit, and I had to suppress laughter when he went back 20 minutes later to put them on again.

I remember talking to a friend after surgery, closing my eyes and instantly finding myself dreaming, opening my eyes to see my friend still there talking to me, closing my eyes and dreaming, etc....

Vortex totally kicks ass.

I had to have an exam the morning after I had Owen--they were worried about bleeding. I have no idea what they gave me, but it made a woman who'd just spent 24 hours in labor pushing out an 8 lb. baby not give a shit about the doctors crawling back up there up their elbows. The drug only lasted for about 10 minutes and I sort of remember what happened but I totally don't care.

It's a good thing they didn't tell me what it was because I'd be out trying to score some right this second.

I totally don't care.

I've been told that's what heroin does. It often makes you vomit, but you just don't care. Or if you're in pain, you still feel it but you don't care.

Of course, they don't give heroin in hospitals. But dilaudid is similar to heroin in some ways, right?

But dilaudid is similar to heroin in some ways, right?

Dilaudid makes my pain go away, mostly. Even in general, my goal is only to get it under a 5. The friend who takes me to the ER gets impatient and thinks I should have it administered until the pain is near zero, but thing is...I'm about to sleep very deeply. One of these days he'll have to carry me from his car to my bed.

Dilaudid didn't work on my muscular pain, which I found a bit odd. They had to give me Valium for that.

Morphine didn't seem to touch my pain, but it did make me not care. I've heard similar things about demerol.