Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Psyco Jelly]

If anyone here has noticed, I haven't been posting for the past few days. Last Tuesday, while working out, I was preforming some lunges to build leg strength. In the middle of my third lunge, me, and two of my friends in the room heard a very loud and sickening pop. My leg bend sideways from the knee and back, and I was taken to the ER.

Just today, the results of my MRI have shown that my kneecap is dislocated and has chipped in two places as well as sustained some surface damage, almost all the soft tissue around my knee is torn, and blood is pooling inside of it. This will require surgery this coming Thursday, and I am horrified of anesthesia.

Some years ago, I had broken my arm, and it was severe enough to require surgery. I was put on anesthesia to render me unconscious during the surgery, and coming out of it was an absolutely terrifying experience. I now have a phobia that I consider irrational, but am unable to kick it nonetheless. Perhaps the community could share their phobias?

[Calhoun]

Christ, that sounds like it hurts.

I also broke my arm a few year's back, and it too, required surgery. My Anesthesia experience wasn't all that bad. Though i freaked out a bit coming out of it, and i starting bashing my head against the bed. Eventually after doing that enough I was able to move other parts of my body and start to understand what was happening. It was kind of scary but also kind of fun.

My phobia is one shared by many. Arachnophobia. I hate spiders. Don't get me wrong, small spiders are nothing. However, where I live, there are lot's of sizeable spider's about.

Also, being buried alive. THAT would suck.

[Vector]

The first (and only) time I came out of anesthesia, I started screaming and crying because I thought the world was going to disappear =/  I also hallucinated some, couldn't remember the names of various objects, and ended up speaking in some twisted combination of Japanese, French (I think... can't fully remember) and English.

Twas bad.

As far as my phobias go, I'm afraid of water.

[Kebooo]

I've come out of it twice before, and I simply felt groggy and tired.  I felt like they had never even done anything and I thought "that sucks, it hasn't even BEGUN".  Then I sat in a room for about an hour, but it only felt as if I sat there for two minutes.  I have no real advice to get rid of the initial fear, I'm not sure you can change such a primal reaction to the immediacy of a moment.  But before the operation just think of it as a temporary fear or painful event that won't last long, no pain, no gain.  Also consider the fact you might not even feel that way at all, after having gone through it once.

As far as my phobias, I have a fear of death and of dark water.  If the water has living fish in it then it's even more terrifying.  I love fish and keep an aquarium, but I dread ever having to stick my hand in there for any reason because neons are VICIOUS SHARKS THAT WILL EAT ME.

[Caesar]

Well, if it'll make you feel better:

I've pretty much got a phobia for churches, cathedrals and similar buildings.

I can look at them, but as soon as I enter them, I get all nervous and uneasy. However hard I try, I can't find the source of this phobia.

Never broke a bone, and only required surgery once (. I can't remember much about it anymore.

[ToonyMan]

I had to take anesthesia before, it wasn't too bad.  They had to fill my broken hand full of the stuff.

Do it.

[Hyndis]

I was put under when I had all four of my wisdom teeth out at the same time. I demanded to be put completely under. I did not want the puny local stuff.

The put an IV into the back of my hand  and hooked it up to a drip, then asked me to count down from 10.

I got to 9.

The next thing I remember was waking up in a dark recovery room, completely groggy and dizzy, unable to walk and had no sense of balance. Took another hour or so for it to wear off completely.

You'll be fine! You won't remember anything. 

[Omegastick]

I've pretty much got a phobia for churches, cathedrals and similar buildings.

Yeah, you're a vampire...

Ontopic: Close your eyes and man through it, it's the best way to overcome phobias. To get over my claustrophobia (fear of santa? XD) I shut myself in a cupboard for fifteen minutes and I came out okay.

[Shzar]

Sucks about your knee, buddy. Sounds like you really need to get it fixed, anaesthesia phobia or not. Try to remember that a temporary terror is better than the lifetime of pain a person can get from an effed up knee.

I was put under once, to get my four wisdom teeth removed. I was a little apprehensive going into it because I'd heard lots of horror stories of people getting gum infections and dry rot and such after dental surgery. Anyway, everything went fine: like Hyndis there I got the IV and was asked to count backwards. I only made it two numbers or something, but the last thing I remember was saying aloud, "wow that stuff works quick." No problems at all. I could walk soon after waking up, but my face was numb for hours, which I thought was hilarious.

For my own phobias: spiders. Even the little ones give me a start, and I have to seriously pump myself up to kill one any larger than a quarter. It makes no sense. There are no poisonous or aggressive spiders here, nor do I recall a traumatic experience involving them. Ugh, spiders.

[ChairmanPoo]

Moths. I have mottephobia, I'm sad to admit.

I was put on anesthesia to render me unconscious during the surgery, and coming out of it was an absolutely terrifying experience.

Reminds me of a story about this anesthesiologist, whom, after a rhinoplasty, when the kid was coming around, exclaimed "Congratulations, son! The operation was a success! Pity about the nose, though. We couldn't save it..."

[Zangi]

Isn't there an option to... 'take it like a man' and go without anesthesia?

Are there alternative drugs that will blunt the pain at least?  Talk to your doctor / surgeon about it.

[ToonyMan]

I wouldn't go without the anesthesia...

[ChairmanPoo]

you could do it with regional anesthesia, instead of general, too.

[Psyco Jelly]

From the pain I've suffered from this kneecap, even after two full doses of dilaudid, I don't even know if regional anesthetic will work. I'm obviously going to have to use it, but I feel really uncomfortable with it. I feel hypocritical because I've criticized people for complaining about things that can't change.

[Footkerchief]

I don't think any surgeon in their right mind would perform joint surgery while the patient is still free to twitch under the restraints, but I could be wrong

Do it the dwarven way.  Stagger into the waiting room stinking drunk and act like everything's normal.

I've been under twice.  Both times were completely uneventful, I just woke up groggy and absent-minded like everyone does.