Is it pain if you can't remember being in pain?
Posted , 2 users are following.
Yesterday I had my third colonoscopy. Before leaving for the hospital, I put a very small mp3 player that also works as a digital voice recorder in my pants pocket. It was on and recording. I understand there may be legal issues with recording others but I wanted to know what was happening to my body when I was under sedation. At the hospital, I was led to a small curtained area and told to remove my clothes, put them in a bag and put on a hospital gown. The nurse placed my bag of clothes on the bottom of the rolling gurney that I was on. I was told that I would be administered Propofol and not feel a thing. I was rolled into the procedure room and had what I thought was a painless, uneventful colonoscopy.
After getting home and letting the last of the anesthesia wear off, I played the recording. I couldn't believe what I heard. During the colonoscopy, I was screaming! I think I used every swear word I know. I was begging for the doctor to stop. A day latter, I have absolutely no recall of this screaming event.
To be fair, I did ask the nurse anesthetist to give me as little drug as possible. I've had nausea from anesthesia before and wanted to minimize it.
Did I cause my own pain by asking the nurse to go easy on the drugs or is this the norm?
I wish I hadn't taken that recorder with me!
1 like, 1 reply
raffie paul65190
Posted
Hi Paul:
The Propofol is designed like a lot of other drugs they use here in the states to give the patient anterograde amnesia so you won't recall anything from the time they give it until it wears off.
Problem with a lot of those drugs is studies have shown that the effects go on longer then the medical field anticipated which can cause real issues with people especially senior citizens.
Patients also are not too comfortable with the drugs because if something goes wrong, they will have no memory of anything to defend themselves should the case go to court.
Glad your ok.