Dear Colleagues,
On Friday March 27th I had Arthroscopic surgery on my right knee to
repair a significant tear in my right Medial Menniscus.For anesthesia I had
two choices:"Regional Anesthesia" [spinal] or a"MIVA" [Monitored
Intravenous Anesthesia]
which combines local anesthesia and intravenous sedation. I chose the
latter because of a negative experience with a previous spinal.The surgeon
is one of the good guys and he did warn me that if he thought he needed to
put me out he would do so with a general.
So here I am happily watching my surgery on the color monitor when he
decided to shift to the general because I wasn't able to relax my knee. So
out went the lights. The recovery from the actual surgery was a piece of
cake. I gave up the crutches after one day,the pain meds after one day and
in general the knee feels great.The problem was the general anesthesia. For
6 days I felt miserable.Nearly every PD symptom
I've ever known returned for an extended visit. My balance was way off, my
tremor was very active, my ability to walk came apart as did my speech and
my ability to drive a car. My ability to eat as well as my appitite became
a problem. My head throbed and I was stiff and rigid. Each night I was up
every 1 or 2 hours to empty out a bursting bladder. My standard PD meds
could not keep up with the out-flow as I tried to rehydrate my dryed out
system and to wash out the long lasting drugs from the general anesthesia
To say that I was depressed is to state the obvious. How low was I? I had
to unlace my shoes to see! What was by far the worse for me was the fear I
had at my very
core; that my sinking ship would never right itself. It turned out to be
only an awake nightmare
Like most PWP I was able to draw on some inner strength. Modesty
prevents me from talking about courage but it was there. Every time this
ugly illness rears its ugly head I raise my equally ugly head and roar at
the top of my lungs "Out you son of a bitch. I'm not going anywhere with
you"
What has been your experience with General Anesthesia?
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
A. Computer breaks down [Spell checker needed badly]
B. Body breakdown in the face of General Anesthesia
C. ?? stay tuned
My best
george
PS Thank you Dennis for the title
