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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/Boba_tea_thx on 2024-09-08 18:13:48+00:00.
About a year ago, I had finished 25 rounds of pelvic radiation (for cancer) and was taking Percocet for severe pain I had around that time. I stopped taking the pain medication cold-turkey before I ran out, but somehow my body didn’t react well to this. I was having some serious stomach pain, and the doctors were suspicious that I had gastroparesis. They needed to do an endoscopy to confirm it. I thought, “Hey, I’ve had surgeries before—no big deal,” and then I got curious. I wondered if I could remember what happens just before being knocked out by anesthesia if I made a real effort to stay awake.
Challenge accepted.
I had already been in the hospital for a few days because of my stomach issues. They wheeled me from my hospital bed to the surgical area, and then transferred me to a smaller bed. I was parked in a huge room with a few other patients, separated by curtains. Fun fact: I had been in the same room a year before for a painful blood patch procedure (without anesthesia).
Eventually, they rolled me into the surgical room. My bed was parallel to the freezing cold surgical table, and they moved me over. As always, they asked me my name and birthday for the 50th time. Then the anesthesiologist came over to my left side and started putting the meds into my IV, which was near my left hand.
And that’s when I messed up.
Suddenly, I felt this sharp, shooting pain going all the way up my left arm. I wasn’t just uncomfortable—I was crying uncontrollably from the pain. I remember someone on my right saying, “Don’t worry, you won’t remember this when you wake up.” Well, spoiler alert: I remembered.
When I woke up, the first thing I recalled was that awful pain. I’ve had multiple surgeries before, and anesthesia was always fine. But now? I’ve got a brand-new fear of going under. Thanks, brain.
TL;DR: Tried to stay awake and be aware before the anesthesia knocked me out during a surgery. The meds caused a shooting pain up my arm, and now I’m mildly terrified of surgery.