Anesthesia Question

This past Tuesday I had to have the 2nd of my carpel tunnel surgeries. The first one I woke up pretty easy from. It was all that twilight sleep stuff. It was two weeks ago. This second one I had a heck of a time coming out of it. The anesthesiologist told me that she gave me a five year old's dosage if the meds because my friend and I had told her I am sensitive to anesthesia. The first surgery in my adult life was on my eye in 2013. It took me about 4 days to shake it off and not sleep constantly. I didn't have that much of a problem this time, but seriously! A five year old child's dosage??? Am I the only one that is that much of a lightweight? Yes...one benedryl will knock me out too.... :/

Breaze

Sensitivity is different for all humans (and living animals) but it depends also of the weight of the human.

Now imagine the effect of a such drug on a lightweight sensitive person like you (milligramms/kilo) and the same dosage on a person two times heavyer, and the effect on a person two times heavyer and two times less sensitive, difference will be a multiplicator or divider by 4 !

My wife weight 106 lbs, she never drink alcool, and because she is a "female" her resistance to alcool is +/- 60% of a "male",

I weight 180 lbs, drink some times wine and alcool, let us calculate, to be so dizzy as her I need to drink +/- 1.8 times more as her because our weight, and because the difference of gender I need to drink 1.6 more as her, 1.8 X 1.6 = 3 .When she drink one glass wine I have to drink 3 to be in the same state . . .

Well, I am very far from skinny....I gained a lot of weight when I got put on insulin, which oddly enough, I am resistant to!! I take more insulin than my friend who us also insulin resistant and taller and heavier than I am. Go figure!

Arthur I like your logic. In my case its moot,as my wife is on big time arthritis meds so I have to drink her share.

breaze That's why there are diabetes clinic, particularly in you case. they can actually change things to make them more tolerable

I am working on that part, lol, the diabetic clinic thing. The problem is that the closest place to me that will take my insurance is over 2 hours away. Welcome to Small Town, USA! I have been trying to arrange a ride there for a few months now. It's complicated, but I will get it sorted eventually. 😄

Breaze

Breeze having worked in ITU ( British equivalent of ICU) for over 20 years, peoples sensitivity to certain drugs like those used in anesthesia will vary according to age, weight and state of your health as well as your use of alcohol and other drugs. In addition patients that are pyrexial tend to metabolise sedation at a much faster rate than those who are not . With reference to alcohol and drugs use, they tend to build up a tolerance and do require much more anesthesia than someone who does not.

it always reminds me of an incident as a student nurse in theaters where I was assisting with the induction of an elderly women around 74 years of age , we gave her twice the amount of propofol that we gave to much younger patients, when I asked the anesthesiologist why it took that much , he said that she normally drank about a 1/4 bottle of rum at night , every night . That incident had stayed with me all through my career as a poignant reminder and I have seen it working in ITU, when trying to sedate patients.

... And then... there are the natural red heads in regards to any kind of anesthesia and pain medication etc...

but seriously! A five year old child's dosage??? Am I the only one that is that much of a lightweight? Yes...one benedryl will knock me out too.... :/

You are not the only one. I too am very sensitive to any kind medication and painkillers. This is because I never used them if I can avoid it.

After my lung surgery I was on pain medication for only 9 days. Then I stopped cold. The day before I had got a different pain medication and I totally zonked out on it, it was like being in a heroin dream (which I later read about and the symptoms accorded well, as well as the feeling of floating in the rain - think Dylan's 'Visions of Johanna': Louise holds out a handful of rain tempting you to defy it ... ha ha). Only I didn't like it and decided to just stop cold. Never took anything afterwards ever again for that, not even aspirins.

The same happened when I was given atropine once - I felt like my heart was going in overdrive and would explode. I never drink Coca Cola or caffeine drinks, but when necessary, when driving for instance, they do keep me 100% awake.

So yes, never taking medication, especially pain medication on a regular basis or even on a typical basis as so many people do, will make you extra sensitive to anything you do get. Don't think of yourself as a lightweight though, think of yourself as relatively unpolluted by unnecessary medication and drugs ...