That line made me think of the post operative recovery. So far, this conversation has been about the person who has had the surgery. The other side of the coin is that there will be family members and/or friends taking care of the patient after the operation. They need some attention too since they will have to be taking care of themselves and you. In my experience with too many family surgeries to count, the worst part of the operation for the patient's family is when the patient is in the recovery room. Everyone of my family members has had a difficult time coming out of the anesthesia. They would moan, grown, cry, and say things that can be disturbing. This can be very upsetting to the family member(s) who are in the recovery room. I don't know if this is common but it seems to occur at least frequently from listening to other patients in the recovery room while my family members were coming out of the drugs.
Flip side is that the patient does not remember much, if any, of the angst they were going through. Which is a good thing. I had one family member who when being taken from the recovery room asked another family member to apologize to the nurse because he had cussed her out. :shocked: This family member never would have said something nasty to anyone but the drugs messed him up. This is the only family member who remembers anything from the recovery room.
After sitting in the recovery room way too many times, my theory is that the drugs turn off the brain's filters and all of the anxiety, fear, etc, the patient had before surgery, erupts, and maybe is magnified by the drugs, as the anesthesia wears off. It is not pleasant to watch.
This happened with a family member who just had by pass surgery and it was very upsetting to the other family member in the recovery room. I told them to leave the room and let the nurse handle the situation. There really is not much one can do if this happens except deal with it and I only know of one family member who remembers only a small part of the recovery. It just seems to be part of the process but given it is after a very stressful time on the patient, but especially the family members, the time in the recovery room can be very, very difficult on the family.
It would not be a bad idea to ask the doctors about this and mention that this might happen to whomever will be in the recovery room with you. Hopefully it does not happen, and if it does, it really is just part of the process, but if one has never experienced it before, it can be unpleasant.
Later,
Dan
