spinal?

My Dr. mentioned that he was going to do a spinal with my general anesthesia. I hadn't thought much about it until today I was like wait.... Don't then have to do those when you are awake and upright (I've had 2 c sections) I know he is doing it for extra pain control because of my very high tolerance to pain meds, but MAN! I hate those things! Can't they do them once you are out cold?

I have a friend that had a "walking epidural" with her hysterectomy and she said she does not even know.when they did it. She said if worked really good for pain relief and was able to still get up and walk

Hi JodiF,

I'm not sure if you are referring to an epidural or a spinal block. I had no desire to have an epidural, but I did have a spinal block and it was wonderful.

The difference is:

For the epidural you will have a catheter to the epidural layer of your spinal chord where local anesthesia and pain meds can be delivered as necessary to the spine.

The spinal block is one injection into the base of your spine for local anesthesia and pain. It lasts several hours and eases the transition from IV pain management to oral.

I'm not sure what kind of pain I would have had without the spinal block, but can assure you I had very little pain with it. The best part - I don't remember a thing past switching beds in the OR. If I felt it, I have no recollection.

I had an epidural with my general anesthetic - I would do that again in a heart beat. My anesthesiologist recommended it because she could give me less anesthetic and I would wake up quicker. I liked that. For me, they put the first part of the epidural in while I was standing and leaning against the bed. She then gave me verseds in my IV, and my head started to swim pretty quickly. The next thing I remember I am waking up from surgery.

The other nice thing about the epidural is that they can administer pain meds directly into the tubing so you don't have to worry about orals for a bit.

Good luck, Jodi. We will be waiting for you on the other side.

(((Hugs)))

I had a spinal and was sedated down for surgery. They also did a pelvic block. The spinal wore off in a few hours. The pelvic block slowly wore off in about 24 hours. Pain management from that point was pretty easy.
Good luck to you. See you on the other side!