This thread relates to an experience I had in August when I had two
bony-impacted wisdom teeth removed. I did not want to have general
anesthesia, but agreed to have an anti-anxiety drug and pain drug (both IV)
in addition to the novocaine. The anti-anxiety drug was a valium-type,
Versid (sp?). The oral surgeon started the IV and asked me if I was feeling
relaxed. The next thing I remember is realizing that my mouth was full of
gauze, and my daughter was waiting to drive me home. The really weird part
to me is that apparently I really was conscious the whole time (according to
both the surgeon and my daughter). The surgeon said Versid is an amnesiac
and I am assuming it interferes with short-term memory, but I'm not sure.
It just seems weird to me that I could be "conscious" and not have
experienced any awareness of what happened during a period of over an hour
(or at least any memory of being aware of what was going on.)
Kris Lewis
Saint Michael's College
Colchester VT
> ----------
> From: Gary Klatsky[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Saturday, October 16, 1999 10:37 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: RE: Memory, birth, and general anesthetics
>
> I don't know what anesthetic I received but I did have memory loss also
> following general anesthesia. This may have been confounded by the car
> accident that preceded the surgery. In fact while I was in the hospital I
> participated in a study that looked at cognitive functioning following
> general anesthetics. In retrospect, much of the difficulty I experienced
> was attention related. I had difficulty focusing my attention on the tasks
> they had me do.
>
> I was told that I was conscious and lucid while I was in the emergency
> room
> prior to the surgery. The anesthesiologist spent about an hour prior to
> the
> surgery describing the procedure and the possible outcomes. I remember
> none
> of that but when I regained consciousness the next morning. I asked the
> nurse questions that I could only ask if I remembered what the
> anesthesiologist told me. With the exception of a few images, I have no
> recollection of anything that took place from the time I got in my car
> until
> the morning after the surgery. Although this is anecdotal information it
> seemed to me that the problem was retrieval not encoding.
>
> Gary J. Klatsky
> Department of Psychology [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Oswego State University (SUNY)
> http://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky
> Oswego, NY 13126 Voice: (315) 341
> 3474
>
>
>
