Asklemmy

Life just stops. It's like there was a portion deleted from your living record. No thoughts. No dreams. No fuzzy memories at the edge of thought that you can't quite recall. None of that stuff you get even when blackout drunk. One moment you're alive, counting or talking to the nurse, then suddenly you're back and someone's removed a piece of your body and apparently a piece of your timeline.

Yes, a few times. Each time I went from feeling awake and alert to suddenly being somewhere else and feeling groggy and hungry. Nothing strange otherwise.

The profound nothingness is almost hard to believe. I’m not talking an empty sleep—I mean it feels like someone cut a segment out of the film strip of your life.

The first time I was fully knocked out like that was for tooth surgery, and I thought the doctor was messing with me when he said they were done already—from my perspective I had barely closed my eyes for a moment. Sure enough, there was gauze in my mouth and the sun was setting outside. It had been over 90 minutes, and I didn’t even feel like I’d slept.

To me it felt like THE BEST dreamless nap.

Instantaneous time warp. One moment, I'm relaxing on the table before the procedure. Next moment, I'm being told the procedure's done.

It's like a human SIGSTOP, for all you programmers out there.

They told me they were starting to put me to sleep (can’t remember the exact words), and I must have gone under before they finished the sentence. Next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery ward, feeling completely at peace. The most peaceful I have ever felt in my life. I fell asleep again and woke up later in the same ward.

I was a kid when I last had it. Really uneventful. "Count backwards from 10" and you're out by 6.

My wife had it a few months ago to fix a deviated septum. Her native language is Turkish. When she came to she was only speaking English. The doctors couldn't understand her "but she seems fine." I told her she was speaking Chinese just to fuck with her a bit. "Oh no! We need to get a dictionary!" It was really strange.. She understood Turkish perfectly fine but was completely unable to speak it.

Other than some funny after effects, it was mostly a non-issue for her as well. She was fine after a couple hours.

Nothing. You breathe twice, then blackout. You wake in a bedroom, feels like an unpleasant and quite huge hangover. Then, as the anesthesia fades away, you might feel the pain coming progressively (depending on what you have).

I've had one surgery in my teens. I was immediately knocked out, unconscious, no dreams that I can recall. When I woke up I was so groggy I couldn't even really move for a while, everything just felt heavy. I would just kind of look around with my eyes and then close them to try to get more sleep.

Twice, for my wisdom teeth and my colonoscopy. The first time I didn't feel anything and I was out as soon as he put the drug in the IV. I blinked and woke up in the waiting room afterwards. I was groggy and my cheeks were packed with gauze, but I was fine after that

For the colonoscopy I felt the slight chill in my veins, and it felt like I was giving into a very deep sleep that I really wanted. However I was exhausted from shitting my brains out the night before so I definitely did want to sleep lmao.

When I woke up I felt a little high and super well rested, it was great, like I had just smoked a small bowl. One thing they don't tell you about colonoscopies until the day of is that they put air up there as the camera goes up so they can see inside more clearly, and you "expel" all that air when you wake up.

The nurse told me the procedure was finished as I came to and as I lay there high and half asleep, I RIP HUGE ASS. I'm holding in laughter like a little kid because fart jokes are still funny especially when I'm high lmao.

I get into the car and my gf has a sandwich waiting for me. I hadn't eaten solid food in about 24 hours and I was still kind of high. Best fucking sandwich of my life.

what’s it like coming back.

Waking up and asking the same questions over and over. "It's over?" "We're done?" "It already happened?"

I remember thinking it's taking surprisingly long for the gas over my mouth and nose to do anything. A pretty surgical assistant was staring at my eyes and talking to me calmly, saying I was doing great. And I was doing great. Then the next moment I was suddenly startled awake again as completely different people were shouting and holding my arms, trying to bring me back to consciousness as I was flailing around in confusion. Apparently the surgery went well.

Yes, just last month. It was my first time. It wasn't a long procedure, took like 40 minutes ish. Anyway, I didn't feel anything. I just remember them telling me that they're gonna try to put me to sleep and that I should try to relax. Next I knew, I was waking up in recovery. I didn't even have any idea that I was in recovery already unless I noticed that the surgical room was different.

It felt just like sleep, I didn't even have any dizziness afterwards. When done properly, that's how it should be.

Arm feels cold as it goes in, the feeling spreads, taste of copper in the mouth... wake up in recovery. Pretty straightforward.

I've had several surgeries. Two types of anaesthetic.

First was when I was 4 years old, in the 1980s. Was a gaseous anaesthetic, through a gas mask.

It was a kind of quasi-consciousness, not that I remember having trains of thought or self-actualization, but I remember there being a feeling of the passage of time. I remember seeing colors. No pain during the procedure.

Second type of anaesthetic was for my second and third surgeries (aged 13 and 17), a normal liquid, IV-administered anaesthetic. This one was just a complete knock out blank for me. No cognizance of anything. I was just out in one moment during the backward from 10 countdown, and aware again in the recovery room, in what felt like 3 to 5 seconds later (it was, of course, a couple of hours later).

This second type of anaesthetic had the interesting post-surgery side effect of continuing to knock me out (with no time passage perceived) for hours after the surgery. I would, in my perception, blink, and my visitors would suddenly warp across the room because my eyes hadn't been shut for .1 second like it felt to me, but actually a couple of hours per occurrence, of dreamless, non-time-passing "sleep". Not an experience I'd had before, or since. The last surgery (17) was a bit less disconcerting because I knew from the previous one (13) about the effect.

When I got my wisdom teeth pulled I was put in general anesthesia. Funnily enough, like everyone probably, I tried staying awake. Doc told me to count down from 10, I was very determined to get it done, just closed my eyes for a bit but I managed to pull it off. Only thing is, that I was out between 6 and 5, and counted half the numbers in the wake up room. It's literally like a time warp. Super interesting imo.

Best sleep I've ever had in my life.

Loss of time. Scary, because apparently I was lucid for the ride home, talked with my friend who picked me up, but I remember NONE of it. Also, constipation.

You pass out, and then you wake up with no memory of anything that happened in the meantime.

That is, unless they messed up the dosage and allowed you to regain consciousness. It happened to me once as a kid, I had to have a tooth removed but I was so scared that they had to put me under, but I woke up briefly during the operation and I remember the surgeon giving me nitrous oxide (I think that's what it was, because it had this sweet smell and taste) with a mask and telling my mom (who was in the operating room), "let's turn this down a little bit so we don't pass out too". Then I passed out again and woke up in the recovery unit.

Counting down from 99 ... 98 ... 97 ... Wake up after surgery.

I had general anesthesia, some kind of pretty strong opioid. "10... 9... 8...", then the room felt like it was spinning very briefly before everything went black. Only thing I remember about coming out of it was a sore throat due to intubation.

I remember them wheeling my bed from the staging room to go to the operating room, then waking up in recovery. No memory of ever being in the O.R. at all.

I actually have a story. I was very young and was under for 10 hours. It was terrible, I felt every moment, I was trapped in a video game, Link's Adventure. Just repeating over and over. This isn't a joke, the experience was so traumatizing I won't go through surgery again. This was over three decades ago. I don't know what went wrong, why I experienced the passage of time. I thought I had literally gone to Hell, it was torture.

You know when you nod off/nap jerk? Imagine that except you're groggier. You've probably also said some silly shit while you were under. My wife was a short stay nurse and people are essentially sloppy drunk before regaining consciousness

Worst case scenario story: my dad was put under for a detached retina. He "woke" up halfway through the procedure but couldn't move or speak. The anesthesiologist realized something was up when his heart rate spiked. Needless to say my dad was pretty shook because they literally had needles in his eye at that moment

Yes, when my wisdom teeth were pulled. They said, "count backwards from 10." I said, "10, 9, 8, 7," and then they were transferring me from a wheelchair to my mom's car. It was like no time passed between those two moments.

8 weeks ago, June 26. I remember getting ready, they put an IV in. I don’t remember anything after that until I woke up. When I woke up I was shivering, but I wasn’t actually cold. They immediately gave me some cookies and water and 2 Oxycodone pills and I got dressed and my mother-in-law took me to her place where I was staying the night.

I went under for an appendectomy in 2004. I can remember the feeling of the anaesthetic moving up my arm (they put it in through a wrist cannula). It was weird. It felt like nothing. My hand just disappeared from my senses. I felt it moving up my arm and into my shoulder and into my neck and

I've been under general once, and it was like losing time. The surgeon started counting backwards from 100, my eyes crossed, then a nurse was offering me a sandwich in the recovery ward.

I was once in an operating room repairing a printer while there was a surgery going on. A nurse hustled me out when the patient started moving and groaning like he was in pain. An anaesthetist told me later that despite the movement and noise, he never woke up.

Twice, and they were completely different experiences.

First was gas at the dentists for taking 3 teeth out as my mouth was overcrowded. I was kind of asleep, I could hear people's voices in a really trippy flanged way, and I could vaguely feel some tugging at my jaw (but no pain). The gas tasted awful.

The second was for an operation at hospital after an accident (requiring 6.5 hours of microsurgery). It was like jumping forwards 7 hours in time, literally counting the seconds after the anaesthetic went in at night, then immediately waking up in broad daylight. It is completely unlike deep sleep (where you still are aware that time has passed).

Quite often! Like everyone else has mentioned, one moment you're in the OR, and then the next moment they're waking you up and making sure you're alright.

A lot of times they don't even seem to ask me to count backwards anymore, I remember one time I asked if they wanted me to and they said "Nope, we've already started the meds so you should be asleep in a few seconds", I remember getting very sleepy and saying something along the lines of "Oh, well that explains a lot" and then I was waking back up. There was a time where they did have me count backwards, and when I got to 80 they were quite confused - apparently my IV had an issue so I wasn't actually getting the meds (they generally use propofol and a local anesthetic over here, the local one first since propofol can have a burning sensation). They fixed it quickly, had me restart the count, and I don't even think I made it to 95 before being out.

I have never had any negative side effects from it thankfully, but I have noticed that the longer the procedure is, the more tired you feel after you come out of it. It's common for me to fall back asleep after a 7 hour procedure, but for one that is an hour or less once they wake me up I'm generally awake for the rest of the day.

My biggest fear is that you are aware of everything and can feel the pain when under, but forget it all - men in black style - to leave a relatively ok experience if not a little sick feeling.

I was under anesthesia a couple of years ago for a minor procedure. The medicine they gave me to put me under made my insides feel really warm before I passed out. When I woke up I couldn't stop coughing and thought that I had contacted COVID while under. I did not, but it took a while before I was fully coherent.

Was under for a facture correction. Specifically asked to not be given drugs that would cause amnesia.

I was out for 2 to 3 hours. I dreamed. Woke up ready and willing to jump out of my bed; took me a fraction of a second to understand I was still at the hospital.

The weirdest thing I can mention is being extremely aware of all my senses, except for pain, which was what woke me. I was aware how many people were in the room by the sound of shuffling feet, the smell of disinfectant and sweat from the nurses nearly made me gag, the air in the room was too cold and the temperature under the sheets and blankets to warm. That part of me that had been cut felt hot and aching but the feeling of pain was distant; I was aware it hurt but it was not important. I just felt this need to run when I first opened my eyes.

Not a very good feeling.

I had a larger surgical procedure done when I was 7. They gave me the calming pre meds maybe half an hour before the operation to make sure that I wouldn't freak out with the IV. I remember clearly how strange it felt when the pre meds started to kick in, the whole world slowed down and everything felt "good".

Then they wheeled me into the OR and took my robe off. The operating table was cold and I commented on it, the anesthesia doctor just laughed and said "don't worry, in a minute it won't be". Then she put the IV in and asked me to count down from twenty. "Nine" was the last word I managed to stutter before I went under.

Then I woke up in the recovery room, about 9 hours later. It felt like I had slept a really long, dreamless sleep. The operation had gone as planned, but the recovery period in the hospital was still pretty painful.

There's always a risk when getting anesthesia, but I've had it a few times for minor procedures and it's been "fall asleep, things happen, wake up groggy, back to normal after a while" for me.

It was almost scarily smooth for me. I laid down on the operating table, they started prepping me up and I was out before I realized it. When I woke up minutes after the end of my short surgery I had clear memories of the moments before. There was no period of time where I felt confused or realized I was passing out or waking up. I went from being conscious, to unconscious, to wide awake pretty darn fast. The only numbness I had came from the painkillers. Or at least it's how it felt to me. Modern anesthetics are amazing.

It wasn’t general, but I lost the memory. Sort of. Signed up for a study involving donating my wisdom teeth. Got them pulled for free in return. They described how they were gonna give me an “amnesiac drug” which would help me forget the whole disturbing experience, or maybe even forget the pain I don’t know.

I sat down in a dentist’s chair. A lady in scrubs came in and said “Do you like drugs?”

“Yes”

“Then you’re gonna love this. Start counting backward from 100 for me.”

So I started counting down and then I came to walking down the hallway pushing an IV thing. I was walking toward the waiting room after the procedure.

What’s strange is the memory of them taking my teeth out isn’t gone, it’s just squished down to like 5 seconds. The entire thing, like a move in ultra fast forward. My head whipping back and forth as pliers grip and there are crunching sounds. But it’s all ultra fast.