h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm currently still feeling washed out a week after my third general anaesthetic this year - seems to take me a good fortnight to be pretty much back to normal. That was only being out for about half an hour!
The hospital info sheet says not to drive for 24 hours & to take it easy for a few days as though they expect patients to be OK after that.
Just wondering how long other hootooers have taken to fully recover from anaesthetics.

Months, but I was under for hours and the long course of antibiotics I was on really screwed with my system as well. Plus I gave up smoking, which might have contributed.

When I was in hospital, other people in the recovery ward seemed to think a fortnight was about as quick as recovery from a GA would be, and some of them had form.

Hope you feel better soon!

I hope you feel better soon too. I think I was told that it takes a fortnight for the drugs to get out of your system, and to not start expecting to be 100% until then.

I think taking just enough drugs to chemically "knock out" the body,
is still quite a shock to the system that it will need a little time
to fully recover. Also I am not sure how long it takes for the drugs
themselves to fully leave the body and how long it takes for the
body to heal from the actual hospital operation/procedure itself.

Best wishes

Definitely months. It seems to come back at you in waves

Hubby had an operation on his shoulder in May, the first since childhood, and he was complaining about it for a good 8 weeks later.

Hope you make a speedy recovery

lil xx

Glad it's not just me that's a wimp then!

I think you go through the stage of being so tired it's good to just slob out with books/TV, now I'm in the frustrating stage of feeling like doing more & regretting it afterwards. About day 10 seems to be a real low point, then a real turn for the better. Next week I should be looking back on it...


Ready for a really big op yet to come.

with the next op, hunny

lil xx

I've had them a few times, and I generally do ok with them. I don't usually have any consistent grogginess or the like, but sometimes it blind-sides me out of the blue and I get a weird dizzy turn. That's happened for up to a week or two afterwards, but as I say, not constantly.

Basically the answer depends on:

1) What drugs were used in the GA (eg, Ketamine, Sux, propofol)- you probably won't know, but basically they take differing times to be metabolized. Also the op you had too + the duration (skin-to-skin)
2)Your state of health- ie the fatter you are, the more the fat souluble drugs used stay in your system
3) Any other medication you are on (including if you smoke or drink)
4) How long you were intubated for + how long you were sedated for + whether or not they used an anti-emetics (anti-sickness drugs)

It can vary from hours to days generally. There is a condition called Post ITU psychosis, and post hospital psychosis, which are severe nightmares + 'weird dreams' post discharge. I don't think you have these- but its worth being aware of

Hmmm, I don't think I had any real problems, but then, there was some nerve damage from the surgery so I might have been attributing any general feelings of "bleurgh" to that. But if you know it takes you a while, just plan ahead for it and schedule nothing stressful for two weeks...

Here, I just came to quite suddenly and took a few seconds to figure out where & why. No after-effects that I can recall (but it was a while ago).

Nerve damage typically causes pain, or tingling - but not nausea

It does depend a lot on the drug that hospital uses. I've had ops at two different hospitals over the last 20 years - in one place I tend to wake up and carry on the sentence I started when I went down and in the other, it seemed to be in my system for months afterwards.

Sounds like you're going through a lot of trouble at the moment Teaswill - we can't help you get out of your anaesthesia, but we can cheer you up and give sympathy and comfort.

Ta!
I'm feeling a lot better now. Perhaps next time if I tell them it takes me 10 days to get over the anaesthetic, they can use something different. It all seems to depend on the preference of the particular anaethetist on the day.

It is partly anaesthetists preference- and thats mainly due to the nature of the operation you are having, its expected duration, etc.