General question about reactions to anestesia

[FormerCallingCardRep]

In the last two years my youngest daughter has had two surgical procedures. When she was waking up after the first on she was crying so hard they were afraid she was going to open her incisions up. The second procedure, back in February she woke up afraid of everything that moved in her room. Has anyone else had these type of reactions?

[Hermione]

I think that reaction is more common in kids than adults.

That's usually why the surgery center/hospital will allow you to bring a clean toy or two and a blanket to comfort them.

I know when I was little and had a surgery I was more scared of the big black gas mask they used to put me to sleep than anything else. I still hate that part of any surgery to this day, and I've had several.

[Teskeria]

Yes. People can respond poorly to different types of medications. For example, my Stepdad and I both respond very badly to Morphine. when the doctor didn't listen to my Mom, and put Dad on morphine he was giving them a very hard time. My Mom came in to see him, asked what the problem was and Dad explained there was a gold rat running all around the room, up over the ceiling and everywhere. Mom asked if it was coming near Dad, he said no, and Mom said, then you don't need to worry. it isn't after you. He relaxed and she went and reamed the Doctor a new one. Dad was off morphine and on something else within the hour (don't know the exact time new med was given, just that the order hit the nursing floor w/in an hour)
For me it puts me into a twilight zone state where I keep reliving the same scene over and over again.

Make sure you have the names of those anestesia's so you can be sure they don't get used on her again. And have them mark it in her charts.

[Sapphire Silk]

Sounds like she was a bit disoriented. Waking up after a procedure like that can be very scary for kids.

Nightmares are a common complication in kids who are given Ketamine.

[Dips]

I think it's pretty normal.

My daughter was 20 and had a pretty bad crying jag after she woke from having he wisdom teeth out last year. It wore off and she was fine.

I'm watching her son and driving her in for another day surgery today. At least I'm mentally prepared for it this time.

My little boy also had a lot of procedures with anesthesia when he was young. Most of the time he was fine but one time he did wake up angry. We had to talk him down and distract him. Again. It wore off and he was fine. If you don't have some good toys with you ask if Child Life can bring something by to help you with distraction. The novelty of a new toy can sometimes get them to focus on tbe toy and forgot whatever was bothering them.

[Seshat]

Quasi-educated vague hypothesis here, please don't treat this as one of my usual 'this is what I know' statements.

Anaesthetics are all inherently psychoactive drugs: they screw with the brain chemistry. In this case, the intended purpose of the drug is to put brain and body to sleep.

The thing is, because the human body - and ESPECIALLY the human brain - is so very, very complicated, we (humanity as a whole) still know so very, very little about what Anaesthetics (or other psychoactive drugs) ACTUALLY do. We're learning more and more every day, but it's a lot like trying to learn about a whole beach, one grain of sand at a time.

Anyway, my point is that anaesthetics are affecting the brain chemistry of the patient. Temporarily, and it's certainly better than being awake and traumatised during a surgical procedure! But brain chemistry can be delicate, and emotional responses to a change are common.

Example: variations in oestrogen and progesterone (such as when taking a contraceptive pill) can throw women's emotions haywire. One woman does perfectly on this pill, but that pill turns her into a banshee. The next woman over, vice versa.

Anyway, my hypothesis is that anaesthetics have semi-predictable side effects on the emotions, in much the same way the pill does. You as a prescribing doctor can know that a percentage of patients have crying jags (or turn into a banshee) on this one, a different percentage have nightmares on that one, that these are the known factors that might suggest using drug A vs drug B....
.... but that's only statistics. You're treating an individual patient, and you have to use your best judgement and educated guesswork.