PTSD and surgery/anaesthesia

[Scarlet13]

Hi all,

I am hoping you can help me fairly quickly.
I have to go have facial reconstructive surgery this afternoon under general.

I am highly triggered because:
1. I have a history of not responding to sedation readily. My nervous system fights sedation of all kinds. I have extreme hypervigilence which started in early child hood.
2. I can tell them I have PTSD and hypervigilence and anxiety and they will give me valium. I am a benzo withdrawal survivor (always took as prescribed, but horrible withdrawal) and this valium will help but I will be hypervigilent still. If I never had to withdrawal and experience the damaging effects of benzos then this would be a comfort.
3. I have had pressure and even anger from doctors in the past because I wasn't readily becoming sedating. So the pressure to respond and be sedated makes me fight it more.
4. I have had responses from doctors to crank up the propofol or sedating drugs to get me fully sedated and this makes me me nervous because I don't know how safe that is.
My surgeon told me last week when I asked about the worst out come, he said, "you could die."
So obviously THAT raises hypervigilence.
5. I also cannot eat or drink anything or take anything like CBD. They will give me valium there, again which I am not overly comforted by.

Can any one relate? Any ways to cope?

 

[blackemerald1]

Hey @Scarlet13 - I've just noticed this thread you started and I am so sorry I didn't see it earlier.

I imagine by now you have had the surgery and are in some kind of post operative situation.

I hope you are okay and that surgery went very well.

Sending you many :hug:

Btw all surgery including where local anesthetic is used can have serious side effects. Of course there is a chance you may not make it. But did this surgeon really have to say it like that? I'm shaking my head... I've written this before - doctors seriously need to do a Major in bedside manner etc.

Hope to hear that you came through just fine. :)

 

[Scarlet13]

Yeah so I did make it as I am writing this!
They gave me a HUGE dose of valium on an empty stomach which made me loopy.
I told them all I had PTSD because that explains both my anxiety and sensitivity to meds.

The weird thing is that after the surgery, while I was waking up, a nurse leaned in and said, "So tell me, what gave you PTSD?"
I was still very out of it, shivering, and vomiting. The only thoughts that were in my mind were m, " Do I want more apple sauce? Is the vomiting done? Are my children safe?"
I couldn't think about and describe what caused my PTSD.
I mumbled something about assault and just bad luck.
I have never really had a stranger ask me point blank like that.
I guess she thought she could because she was a nurse?
Anyways, after our conversation she and another nurse walked me to the toilet and watched me pee, so that was awkward. I guess if you pee your ok to go home.
I am in personal hell now trying to heal a skin flap. I am taking a lot of drugs and sleeping a lot.

 

[bellbird]

The weird thing is that after the surgery, while I was waking up, a nurse leaned in and said, "So tell me, what gave you PTSD?"

Totally not the time or place for that conversation.

I'm currently preparing for a surgery with general anaesthesia next week. My surgical and postoperative care team all know I have PTSD, and I was asked what the cause was (presumably for them to get an idea of what my triggers may be), but that is a conversation to be had in pre-op appointments and not as the patient is waking from anaesthesia.

I guess if you pee your ok to go home.

Yeah, there are different things you are required to do before you can be discharged.

It varies between surgeries.

I'm pretty sure mine are being able to keep food down, pass a bowel movement, and walk up and down stairs.


Wishing you a smooth and swift recovery :)

 

[blackemerald1]

I am in personal hell now trying to heal a skin flap. I am taking a lot of drugs and sleeping a lot.

I'm thinking of you @Scarlet13 - healing takes it's own time. :hug:

Sleep is critical to healthy healing so don't fight it.

Though you will not recall this experience with fond memories it will also be relegated to the past.

Take care.

 

[Friday]

I guess she thought she could because she was a nurse?

More likely, the other way around. Nurses are so used to making conversation about anything they know about the patient, and are privy to so many otherwise unmentionable subjects (what color was your poo?) they often don’t stop to think about a topic being off limits, or diagnostically unsound (like they would never offer a diabetic a cookie*, but will quiz trauma victims, not knowing the consequences of such an action). How to handle individual pyschiatric conditions isn’t really covered in nursing school. That’s an advanced degree or speciality that takes 1-3 more years of focused study only on psych. And they staff surgical recovery with operative specializing nurses, not psychiatric nurses.

I’ve actually been in a quirky enough mood I said the above, by the by. Someone started making conversation about combat, and I answered with “Would you like a cookie? She said to the diabetic.”We ended up having a pretty cool conversation after that, said asking a vet about combat isn’t any different from asking a rape victim about all the “juicy details!” :woot: of their rape... :sick: ... So that’s one nurse who got a reality check... but I get in these DGAF moods pretty rarely.

Yeah so I did make it as I am writing this!

Congrats :) It’s a big thing

 

[bellbird]

Someone started making conversation about combat, and I answered with “Would you like a cookie? She said to the diabetic.”

Bloody brilliant.

 

[Scarlet13]

It was just so weird. My mind was a swirling mess that my first thought when she asked that was how on earth do I even answer that? My head was bloody, bandaged, a section of my forehead had been placed on my nose, I didn't know how to stop shivering.
It is hard to answer that question in the couch at an intake with my face intact.
So I mumbled something about assault. Let her think I am a rape victim, which is true in a sense, but there are a lot of layers.
There is a certain trauma to surgery, even when it all goes well and doesn't end as a medical trauma.
It's just hard on an emotional level.
Loss of control, lots of drugs, the bloodlines of the surgical wounds.
I am excited to put some of this into my art work but unfortunately I cannot wear contacts of eye glasses.

 

[Adeline Rush]

As a nurse about to look after a veteran patient with a history of disorders including PTSD I would like to comment on how helpful this thread has been compared to the dusty articles of research that Google first provided me with.
I have an advantage that one of our theatre staff has a husband who has a similar history, so she can personally relate to this situation. Reading this thread has given me some pointers on how to proceed in the immediate postoperative recovery phase, and yes general training does not prepare theatre practitioners for dealing with every disorder, so I hope you don't mind that I have used this thread to seek some education for people living with PTSD.
Thank you to everyone who posted above and I wish you all best possible health.

 

[grit]

Wow that was so insensitive of the nurse. Poor judgement. Hope you are feeling better.
I had eye surgery one time during the height of my dissociation during therapy, and I must just left the body as the laser hit my eye ball and I still think hmmm wonder did that impacted my eye sight.
I hope you have time to process and talk about this experience so it does not become a burden memory.