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surgery memory
No matter the intensity or body part, surgery is a serious event, and like any complicated procedure, things can sometimes go wrong.
One of the more interesting, and horrifying to think about, things that can go wrong is a person waking up mid-surgery.
While these experiences are painless and dreamlike, they can lead to some surreal memories for the patient.
Fascinated, Redditor LawAbidingPotato asked:
"People who woke up mid-surgery, what happened?"
Not The Time For An Anatomy Lesson
"I woke up mid-colonoscopy. I turned my head to look at the screen and said, 'Is that my colon?'"
"The Doctor said, 'Say night night.' I went back to sleep but remembered it all."
- Ruby-Skylar
Halloween Shopping
"I kinda woke up during twilight sleep when I was having my wisdom teeth removed. The nurse was saying she needed to find a pink cat Halloween costume, and I kept trying to tell her to check Party City."
- VividCheesecake69
Jumpscare
"I was awake for both of my hand surgeries in 2023. One time, I was watching them quietly, and the surgeon and assistants were talking about getting lunch after, and they wanted tacos."
"I said, 'Have you ever tried (local taco place)?' and the assistant said, 'Holy s**t, I forgot you were awake.'"
"I guess they don’t operate on a lot of local anesthetic patients. We all got a good laugh."
- David_Golfs
The Twilight Zone
"My dentist said, in a fairly relaxed tone, 'You're not supposed to be back yet.'"
"I tried to say, 'Well, do the thing, then,' but I wasn't awake long enough, and there were metal instruments pokin' around in my mouth. It was a weird feeling, but not scary in any way."
- Tylensus
Off The Clock
"A pal of mine (we all work in healthcare) woke up during a kidney stone surgery."
"And the doctor (who we worked with) was looking at the X-ray screen and said, 'Where did that thing [stone] go?'"
"My buddy, an X-ray tech of 30 years… woke up… looked at the screen above him… stuck his finger on it and said, 'It’s right there.'"
"The urologist said something like, 'What the h**l? Put him back out!'"
- Sure_Tree_5042
Keeping Up With The Gossip
"I heard some gossip about a date, and then I was out again."
"When I woke up at the end, I was instantly wide awake. Then I was hungry and the food was so good!"
"I was getting a sebaceous cyst removed."
- deadpaneiane
Longer Than Expected
"I just barely woke up getting my wisdom teeth out. I could feel them like breaking up my teeth."
"They noticed I was awake and just reassured me to hang tight. They said I had very twisted long roots and it took a bit longer than expected."
"I didn’t feel pain but I remember thinking, 'F**k, I’m awake.'"
- skipjackcrab
Listen To The Patient
"I was having cataract surgery (late 20s, thanks Mom and Dad for the cool genes). Beforehand I let them know that I needed a bit more pain meds than most people, and they were like, 'Aww, you’ll be fine.'"
"I see this crazy bright red gross s**t and it’s completely silent. Somehow I was able to get out, 'Guys, I’m awake' (at least in my brain that’s what I said), and it was silent."
"I was trying so hard not to move my eye because, you know, scalpel near your eyeball/melting your lens is terrifying."
"I started shaking my hand to get their attention and they finally said, 'We’ve got a mover,' and praise God, something about more drugs."
"Everything went well, but I get in a panic thinking about that often."
- JTen87
Not That Kind Of Lights
"A fire alarm had gone off and they were evacuating. Luckily, it was only a colonoscopy, so they just ended the procedure, and I woke up to them wheeling me out."
"Unfortunately, I had no idea what was going on and thought I died because there were red flashing lights and bullhorn sirens. It was a stressful experience."
- Birdlord420
Notorious Redheads
"I have woken up for one tooth extraction and two colonoscopies. Spoke to the anesthesiologist on all occasions when I was supposedly under. They topped up the dosage and I fell asleep again."
"For context, I am a stealth redhead. The hair in my head is dark but when I was younger, my beard was red. I also have a redheaded kid, so I clearly carry the gene. Redheads are notoriously tough to anesthetize."
- VH5150OU812
"I’m fully redhead, never had surgery that required full anesthesia but I’ve definitely had local dental anesthesia wear off before they were done."
"When I was younger, the dentists always seemed so annoyed to have to inject me again or just asked me if I could handle it for another 10 minutes. That created a huge fear of the dentist."
"I finally went back and had three fillings done, and the dentist was so fast, and unprompted said, 'Our textbooks say that redheads require more anesthesia so just let me know if you feel anything.'"
- jinjaninja96
A Surreal Experience
"I never woke up mid-surgery, but... I had a special case of a 'half-state coma,' where I was sedated but still half awake. This was because for the surgery, I had to move my body when the surgeon told me to. With a full coma with narcotics, this is not possible, so I had this state between being normal & sober and being high as f**k because of the propofol."
"It was a very strange experience. What I remember is that I drifted off with my mind. Like for some time, I thought I'd be on a beach, like on holiday in summer, and then I'd suddenly hear the surgeon again give me commands and I had to concentrate to be barely able to move my eyes in the way he wanted."
"It was an eye surgery, so I had to look left, right, up, down, and so on, while I was sedated."
"They actually used cocaine drops (and yes, cocaine, not lidocaine, like in most other cases) for the eyes, but I had no drug effect of this. It's very rare that cocaine is still used in medicine, but it's still available. Anyway, I had to go through this surgery about strabism and it went well."
"But again, I was always in some dreams, until I got awake again when they spoke to me, whenever they stopped to speak to me, I again drifted off to the world of dreams."
"Guess, this is not what OP wants to hear. But it's very rare that someone wakes up and stays awake (!) during a surgery. When you'd just get awake for a moment, that would not be bad, you are sedated and numb because of the painkillers, oxygen mask, etc., anyway."
- Diacetyl-Morphin
Laughable
"I woke up and said, 'That tickles.'"
"The doctor laughed and said she was almost done."
- headhunterofhell2
Boop!
"My mom was having surgery last year and woke up in the middle of it. She couldn't feel pain, though she could feel being touched in the areas they were doing the surgery."
"She was in a similar state to people in loopy 'after the dentist' videos."
"She told the surgeon she was a ninja and booped the surgeon's nose and then mumbled incoherently until they were done."
- PckMan
At Least He Looked Supportive!
"I woke up during my wisdom teeth procedure to my dentist's hands and tools in my mouth. No feeling at all in my mouth, I was just able to see it."
"He noticed I was a wake and gave me a wave followed by a thumbs up."
"He told me a week after that the thumbs up was him telling the other doctor to jack the f**k up the anesthesia because he’s awake right now. I thought he was being supportive, lol (laughing out loud)."
"My mom and I still laugh about this."
- ABG12399
Not To Worry
"I have a surgery scheduled for tomorrow. Just found the right thread to get into."
- Revolutionary_Cap241
"Try not to worry. Most of the 'wake-ups' during surgery mentioned here are instances of twilight sedation. Notice that people aren’t saying that they woke up screaming in pain, they were just a little aware of what was going on with no pain involved."
"Surgeries that involve deep sedation and paralytics also use a monitor that picks up brain signals to monitor awareness. We use them in the ICU when sedating and paralyzing really sick patients. We’re frequently monitoring how aware someone is and no one 'wakes up.'"
"CRNAs and MDs who provide anesthesia for these procedures are very well trained and very liberal with their use of sedation for routine procedures."
- Neurostorming
Surgery is already a stressful concept, so it's eerie to imagine waking up mid-procedure. Fortunately for these Redditors, waking up sounds not only painless but also a surreal and sometimes funny experience.