Posted by sooshi on August 6, 2004, at 10:57:50
In reply to Sooshi, posted by sb417 on August 1, 2004, at 22:17:20
I had major surgery with general anesthesia on Monday, Aug. 2, and so far, so good! I brought a detailed list of my meds to the anesthesiologist, who, at the beginning, really wasn't interested and felt that there would be absolutely no interaction between my meds and his anesthesia or anti-emetics, or any possible ensuing depression that might follow. He insisted that the gases were very temporarily in the brain, and were all the way expelled afterwards!? (then why do they make you get up and walk, cough, etc. to expel these *gases* after surgery??) But, upon MY insistence that he listen to my past history with a severe depression after having surgery with general anesthesia, and showing him some other "research" I had done, he lightened up a little, and said he would "do what he could....". I have no idea whether he really followed up on this promise or not, but I have so far not experienced any problems, other than expected mood downswings from painkillers, being confined to bed and indoors, etc.
I feel like I did the best I could under the circumstances, although next time I think I will definately try and find out who the anesthesiologist will be the day of surgery. This surgery just came up rather fast.(do hospitals use who is "on call", or does each Dr have their own anesthesiologist.....??)
I do think that because I am doing VERY well on my anti-depressant and mood stabilizer (Effexor XR and Zonegran) and have been stable for the past 5 months, I will have a heads-up in fighting off post-op depression.
Thanks to all for your concern. My surgery went well (had some abdominal tumors removed... PATHOLOGY REPORTS NEGATIVE! YEAH!) and am doing fine.
poster:sooshi
thread:371976
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040805/msgs/374680.html