• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Masking and anesthesia

Kender

New Member
I hope this is in the right place.

I want to see if anyone else has had a similar experience. I had surgery today and the anesthesia had me pretty loopy afterwards. So much so that I remember thinking to myself (inner monolog) don't say anything you don't have your mask. The medicine had me so messed up that I was saying goofy stuff without worry. At one point I even blurted that I need my mask. Anyone been so loopy you couldn't mask? I was so anxious
 
Yeah, that's very normal but typically at higher quantities the anxiety dissipates as well. I've been laughing and goofing off all the way to the operating room when given the right dosage of drugs, lol

It's really difficult to mask under circumstances like this, which is sort of why alcoholics and drug abusers act the way they do. At least in your scenario you had a good reason to not be masking. Also I hope that went well!
 
Last edited:
Anyone been so loopy you couldn't mask?
Yes, only on drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. Mostly acid, sometimes alcohol. I don’t like losing my mask in this way, though. I prefer to chip away at the edges a bit at a time in sobriety.
 
Hope your surgery went well and hope it was a minor surgery!

Anesthesia does make me loopy, but I don't think I usually say weird things.
I get the same types of feelings from coming out from under anesthesia, missing a dose of my meds, and not sleeping for more than 24 hours. They all give me kind of the dissociative "brain melting" feeling and I feel like I immediately need to go to sleep.

If possible, I ask to have surgeries done under local anesthesia instead of general anesthesia, because I'm terrified that I won't wake up.
In 2020 I had an emergency operation done under local anesthesia. I know I have talked about this before.
But I had a hysterectomy in October 2022 and I was completely put under for that, they would not do that under local anesthesia, for very obvious reasons. Fortunately it was an outpatient procedure and I wasn't unconscious for very long.
 
First of all, please understand that when you are in health care, you see all sorts of people in their very worst state of mind. I've been in health care for over 35 years. We just roll with it, mostly with a humble sense of humor when we see people under the influence of our medications. We know you aren't "you" in this context. It's a difficult thing for non-healthcare professionals to wrap their brains around, but we routinely see things that the general public never will, and deal with behaviors that the public never will. We are immersed in it, and after a while, we just do our jobs and never give it any thought.

That said, whether it be personal modesty or embarrassment for what you think that healthcare worker is thinking about your body or your behavior, in the vast majority of cases, we literally don't give it a thought. We "click the switch" in our brains when we walk through those doors and just do our jobs.
 
Yes, only on drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. Mostly acid, sometimes alcohol. I don’t like losing my mask in this way, though. I prefer to chip away at the edges a bit at a time in sobriety.
Sobriety is a good thing, some people have the addictive personalities....I am one. Everyone's journey is different but the end goal is the same. Good luck, fight one day at a time.
 
Hope your surgery went well and hope it was a minor surgery!

Anesthesia does make me loopy, but I don't think I usually say weird things.
I get the same types of feelings from coming out from under anesthesia, missing a dose of my meds, and not sleeping for more than 24 hours. They all give me kind of the dissociative "brain melting" feeling and I feel like I immediately need to go to sleep.

If possible, I ask to have surgeries done under local anesthesia instead of general anesthesia, because I'm terrified that I won't wake up.
In 2020 I had an emergency operation done under local anesthesia. I know I have talked about this before.
But I had a hysterectomy in October 2022 and I was completely put under for that, they would not do that under local anesthesia, for very obvious reasons. Fortunately it was an outpatient procedure and I wasn't unconscious for very long.
It was a total knee replacement, not minor but not the worst. I have been theough this surgery before with my other knee. I just never had that loopy feeling that bad. I also did realize till recently I've been masking pretty much my whole life so I may not have recognized I was unmasked it previous surgeries. More power to you for staying awake, my nerves could never.
 
It was a total knee replacement, not minor but not the worst. I have been theough this surgery before with my other knee. I just never had that loopy feeling that bad. I also did realize till recently I've been masking pretty much my whole life so I may not have recognized I was unmasked it previous surgeries. More power to you for staying awake, my nerves could never.
I hope your recovery goes well! :)
Knee replacements are rough.
 
First of all, please understand that when you are in health care, you see all sorts of people in their very worst state of mind. I've been in health care for over 35 years. We just roll with it, mostly with a humble sense of humor when we see people under the influence of our medications. We know you aren't "you" in this context. It's a difficult thing for non-healthcare professionals to wrap their brains around, but we routinely see things that the general public never will, and deal with behaviors that the public never will. We are immersed in it, and after a while, we just do our jobs and never give it any thought.

That said, whether it be personal modesty or embarrassment for what you think that healthcare worker is thinking about your body or your behavior, in the vast majority of cases, we literally don't give it a thought. We "click the switch" in our brains when we walk through those doors and just do our jobs.
I have worked with police and have some very good friends in the emt/para field so I have a little bit of an idea of what you are saying. I wasn't so worried about them hearing me as much as I was about not having my mask, if that makes sense. Also my mind lives in the gutter so I didn't want to be disrespectful to the ladies trying to help me.
 
First of all, please understand that when you are in health care, you see all sorts of people in their very worst state of mind. I've been in health care for over 35 years. We just roll with it, mostly with a humble sense of humor when we see people under the influence of our medications. We know you aren't "you" in this context. It's a difficult thing for non-healthcare professionals to wrap their brains around, but we routinely see things that the general public never will, and deal with behaviors that the public never will. We are immersed in it, and after a while, we just do our jobs and never give it any thought.

That said, whether it be personal modesty or embarrassment for what you think that healthcare worker is thinking about your body or your behavior, in the vast majority of cases, we literally don't give it a thought. We "click the switch" in our brains when we walk through those doors and just do our jobs.
This past year has taught me not to be embarrased in medical settings. Stroke and angioplasty of the R vertebral artery, Stent placement in the subclavian to correct a thoracic outlet issue, UTI and severe food poisoning at the same time, prostate surgery x3 - the last to remove 600 ml of blood clot in the bladder, and finally, open heart surgery to bypass blockage in the left anterior descending artery.

With the last was the only time I had difficulty with anesthesia. During the second and then final attempt to remove me from ventilation i was becoming awake and aware. I felt like I was drowning and my whole body was vibrating with the strain. I never want to experience that again.
 
@Kender I don't know if you're referring to General Anesthesia? I assume so since you said it was related to surgery. I've had General Anesthesia related to a surgery and it's a "trip" for sure. I don't recall saying anything weird or that I regretted.

One thing that in a weird way is a comfort to me related to General Anesthesia and surgery and which I can find comfort of a sort in, if I ever go under General Anesthesia again: If a person "dies on the operating table" (ie dies while under General Anesthesia) they literally would never know it. I have read about people who have "died on the table" and have had Out of Body Experiences, but most of those seem to be in Emergency Room situations where they're not under General Anesthesia. Again, for me it's comforting on some level, the idea that if you "go under" and never wake up (ie die during the surgery), you'd likely never know it and in that respect it would be as peaceful as dying in your sleep.
 

New Threads

Top Bottom