Susan's Posts

I had a bypass and aortic valve replacement on 3/12/18. At some point during (after?) the surgery I sort of "woke up"- totally inside my head as I couldn't feel my body except for intense pain in the heart area. I was confused and panicked- thought I may have had a heart attack and they were working feverishly on me. I heard voices but couldn't process the language. Then I heard someone laugh and thought to myself "wait- no one would be laughing if I had had a heart attack, would they? Then I reasoned "since I'm thinking, I probably didn't have a stroke either. But this is taking sooo long..." next memory I have is opening my eyes, hearing someone say "she's breathing on her own, let's get this tube out." Then my memory goes blank again until the next morning. The anesthesiologist said it could have been a hallucination during the time I was in recovery. Another anesthesiologist (good family friend) said partial wake ups happen "more frequently than the docs care to admit" - that it's rare but tends to happen more often in redheads, and that if I ever need to go,under again, to make sure and tell the anesthesiologist!! The funny thing- both my daughter and I had trouble with the epidural "taking" apprpriately- she ended up with a spinal for both her babies. Just FYI:-)