The Forums › Forums › Ask The Community › Bad side effect post surgery – need to understand why! › Re: Bad side effect post surgery – need to understand why!
@Elizabeth, anesthetics can cause weird reactions, even if you’re not on any long-term medications.
As Novocaine wears off (especially if you need a lot of it to numb-up), you’ll experience a lack of co-ordination and a tendency to drool. It’s as if you’re slightly drunk. Useful to remember if you’re planning to drive or operate heavy machinery after your visit to the dentist.
General anesthesia can cause violent stomach distress (even if you have it on a completely empty stomach, as recommended) and some permanent memory loss if you’ve been anesthetized several times in your life. My mom’s had several surgeries during her lifetime and now, she has no memory whatsoever of taking me and my brother to Burger King on our school lunch hours—which is something she’d done many times, as a special treat. We remember it so clearly, but she doesn’t at all. I’ve only ever had general anesthesia once, so my memory’s still intact. Plus, I didn’t hurl or feel nauseated afterwards, unlike the other 3 girls in the shared hospital room, so maybe I’m a freak of nature.
And not everyone finds laughing gas (nitrous oxide) the pleasant experience it’s made out to be. The one time I was given it at the oral surgeon’s, I immediately panicked at the weird, floaty, out-of-control sensation, and tried to fling myself out of the chair and onto the floor to make it stop. My oral surgeon quickly realized that if laughing gas made me panic, then the “twilight” anesthetic he’d planned to give me intravenously would only make things worse. So for me, it’s strictly Novocaine and listening to comedy or music on my MP3 player.
Yup, I’m a freak of nature.
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