The mask is just oxygen - they want your blood as saturated with O2 as it can be. The stuff that knocks you out comes in from the IV, and it knocks you out so completely that you literally don’t even breathe on your own. So, once that stuff kicks in it’s gogogo time for the anesthesiologist, cuz you’re basically holding your breath until they get you intubated, which allows the ventilator to take over.
*There are probably exceptions to that, but 99% of surgeries requiring general anesthesia will go like that.
Many anesthetics actually have an amnesiac effect as well. If you’ve ever been under general anesthesia then you likely had a minute or two of talking with the anesthesiologist that you will never remember and that last “this is just oxygen” moment is not actually the last moment you were conscious.
I feel very very bad for my medical teams if that the case cuz I resist drugs until they knock me out, to my perception, and am chatty and inquisitive up until I lose memory. I can’t imagine I’m less annoying after if I’m not just out cold already.
They don’t bother trying to lie to me about my drugs tho cuz I’m asking about them. And the equipment. What drugs are you giving me? Oh this is fentanyl? It feels nice, I get why it’s a controlled substance, yeah. What’s that for? What’s that do? Cool, yeah, tell me more about your job. Oh what kind of gas are you giving me? Sorry for being so chatty but thanks for telling me! (Same shit I do fully coherent, but with situationally acceptable drugs and a group of people invested in responding to me, excellent.)
For my first surgery I had been told something like the above. I was twelve and didn’t have much to be embarrassed about, other than the things that might worry every twelve year old boy, but I was still concerned. When I was in recovery I asked the surgeon “what did I say while I was under?”
He responded “I’m sworn to silence.” I worried about that for months if not years, especially because I had to have two more surgeries under his care.
More like “this is just a little oxygen” and then you’re asleep.
The mask is just oxygen - they want your blood as saturated with O2 as it can be. The stuff that knocks you out comes in from the IV, and it knocks you out so completely that you literally don’t even breathe on your own. So, once that stuff kicks in it’s gogogo time for the anesthesiologist, cuz you’re basically holding your breath until they get you intubated, which allows the ventilator to take over.
*There are probably exceptions to that, but 99% of surgeries requiring general anesthesia will go like that.
Many anesthetics actually have an amnesiac effect as well. If you’ve ever been under general anesthesia then you likely had a minute or two of talking with the anesthesiologist that you will never remember and that last “this is just oxygen” moment is not actually the last moment you were conscious.
I feel very very bad for my medical teams if that the case cuz I resist drugs until they knock me out, to my perception, and am chatty and inquisitive up until I lose memory. I can’t imagine I’m less annoying after if I’m not just out cold already.
They don’t bother trying to lie to me about my drugs tho cuz I’m asking about them. And the equipment. What drugs are you giving me? Oh this is fentanyl? It feels nice, I get why it’s a controlled substance, yeah. What’s that for? What’s that do? Cool, yeah, tell me more about your job. Oh what kind of gas are you giving me? Sorry for being so chatty but thanks for telling me! (Same shit I do fully coherent, but with situationally acceptable drugs and a group of people invested in responding to me, excellent.)
I had the same experience recently … The doctor was clearly annoyed.
And I understand why. It was a dental surgery. Probably performing one of those is challenging while your patient is nervously blabbing.
The last thing I remember before waking up is the doctor saying “okay, you get one more question” and me saying something irrelevant.
For my first surgery I had been told something like the above. I was twelve and didn’t have much to be embarrassed about, other than the things that might worry every twelve year old boy, but I was still concerned. When I was in recovery I asked the surgeon “what did I say while I was under?”
He responded “I’m sworn to silence.” I worried about that for months if not years, especially because I had to have two more surgeries under his care.
Nothing embarrassing was ever publicized AFAIK.
The jokes on you! I don’t know what my bank account number is and I can barely remember my phone number!
My bank account number is 10…9…8…7…6…5…4