My Newbie is Showing

The Difference of Anesthesia v. Sedation

I just got out of surgery for thyroplasty and arytenoid adduction — that is put in a prosthetic to move a paralyzed vocal cord over to a flat position and the adduction is a stitch the surgeon puts in to eliminate any gaps that would cause air leakage. I was told that the stitch was usually not typical. Except this is me and nothing is ever typical with me. I should have known.











So, I have been through anesthesia and now through sedation. Having experienced both, you may want to know the fun and kicks with sedation. I had to do sedation because they needed me awake to talk to make sure that the prosthetic was properly formed and fitted. A simply thyroplasty would have been four hours tops, add in the arytenoid adduction, it added 3 more hours onto the surgery and an overnighter. Here is the difference between anesthesia and sedation.











1. With anesthesia, the check in time is usually a decent hour. With sedation, my check in time was 5:30 a.m. (0530 hours in military time) and that means I had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to get there on time.











2. With anesthesia, you usually count on an overnight stay, so you pack a bag just in case. With sedation, you count on day surgery so you don’t pack a bag.











3. With anesthesia, you won’t remember a thing. Whatever you do or say, whatever the doctors and staff do or say, you won’t remember. With sedation you remember EVERYTHING. Oh, sweet Jesus EVERYTHING. I found out that in anesthesia, the restraints they put you in pretty much stay put. In sedation, I had a female doctor on the left and a male doctor on the right, and seven hours later, the male doctor was using his entire body to keep me on the table, I had scooted over that much.With anesthesia, you usually count on an overnight stay, so you pack a bag just in case. With sedation, you count on day surgery so you don’t pack a bag.With anesthesia, you usually count on an overnight stay, so you pack a bag just in case. With sedation, you count on day surgery so you don’t pack a bag.











I found out that I could move my left arm out of its restraint, but not past the rib cage restraint, and they had this heavy blanket over me so I could not grab the surgeon’s hands. I wanted to get that plastic thing off my face because I could not breathe. I kept telling them that the nose tube was not working, but they said it was. They eventually figured out that the plastic was helping the surgeons, but that I was resisting it, so then he replaced the tube and plastic with an oxygen mask. I liked that better because by doing my best monkey face I got that removed with ease and effectiveness. The guy who was administering the anesthesia had to grab me by both sides of my face and hold the oxygen cup in place. That was fun. Really. Or I would not have kept on doing that.











Geez, they could not regulate the temperature, first it was cold and then blazing hot. That was weird. At the end, they wanted to transfer me from the surgical table to the recovery room table. I looked at it and said, NO! They said I did not have a choice and I said, “This ought to be fun for you.” They said it was good I retained my sense of humor and 30 seconds later, I was flipped onto a board, transferred and flipped off the board. If they had given me a bit more time, I would have figured out a way to make it harder. Pretty sure anyway.











4. With anesthesia, you end up in the recovery room without knowing how you got there or what time it was. With sedation, you get to experience motion sickness as they whisk you along corridors and up and down elevators, etc. to get you where you needed to be. I know I was in slot 15 and that it was 2:00 in the afternoon.











5. With anesthesia, they guarantee you a bed for an overnight stay. With sedation and they expect it to be day surgery, but ends up being an overnight stay, you are not guaranteed a bed for the night. I sent Tom and Matt home at 4:00 p.m. because I really did not know if they would find a bed for me or if I would spend the night in the recovery room.











6. When coming out of anesthesia, the staff can do anything they want and you are out so you don’t know to care. With sedation, the staff tried to change me out of the Bear Paws and into the hospital gown out there in the open. I looked at her and told her that she needed to invite all the men on the floor if she was going to flash me. She said she was an expert at not flashing. I showed her my best wooden board impression. The nurse finally got off her butt and closed the curtain because Chickie and I were at a standoff.











7. With anesthesia you do not know if you “evacuate” or not. With sedation you do. So after a couple hours into recovery, I wanted to go to the bathroom. I was told that it was far away and that there was no one to walk me down there. I said Chickie could walk me down there. Turns out that was not the way they did things and it was not Chickie’s job, but Nurse Ratchet did offer to get me a bedpan. I told Nurse Ratchet that I would rather explode. She went in search of a wheelchair. She came back with two assistants and no chair. I am concerned. Instead of one person wheeling me down there in a wheelchair, I had two people wheel the entire bed down there. Yeah, I know.











8. With Anesthesia, you get a couple days to be uncomfortably constipated, and it’s expected and okay. With sedation, you better be evacuating or at least tooting or you do not get to go home. Guys have no problem bragging about such things, with girls it’s not a proud and noble topic of conversation.











9. With anesthesia, you get to rave on like a lunatic and they always stick that person with the one that had sedation. Oh, yes, the raving lunatic in slot 14 who got there at 4:00, got moved up to be my roommate by 7:00. Glory. So from 7:00 to 1:30 a.m. I got to listen to the f-bomb and endless complaining. So here’s THE SECRET if you have one of those as a roommate….call the nurse aside and tell them EVERYTHING that was said and hint that the nut job is suicidal. As soon as she got her private nurse she was happy. As soon as I found out the nurse was from the psych ward I was happy.











10. Anesthesia leaves the patient in a bit of not themselves. Sedation leaves you with your true personality rising up. For instance, I got up out of the bed to toss a Kleenix in the trash and the nurse said that it was a first. Most patients would call her in to do that. And she found it adorable that I actually got up to do that. I told her my mom was the kind that would walk around the restaurant filling empty coffee cups.