No PreMed and walked into theatre..did anyone else?

hi sally.
I asked for a premed as i thought theyd forgotten it and they gave it me only cos i kicked up a fuss!!They don't seem to give it as a matter of routine here in the uk though, it's probably a cost cutting thing like everything else here nowadays!!I didn't have one though when i went to be restitched and that was a lot worse as i was kept awake and it was very very painful!!

Sorry to hear about your experience! They gave me something for nerves right after I changed clothes. It's funny, I remember someone telling the residents who were in the hall on the way to being rolled to the OR to wave to me (I must have been feeling very friendly, lol). The thing I regret is that my husband was not with me for very long, which is the oposite of when he was allowed to attend my C-sections years ago. I guess this surgery was a bit longer and I doubt he would have enjoyed the scenery.

In my hospital they turned the waiting room into a storage room so all of the surgery patients had to sit in a freezing cold narrow hallway facing the wall to wait! They told me it was time and I walked into a pre surg area and then walked into the operating room and they had my epidural in, my IV in and I was strapped to the bed stoned out of my face within minutes.... I too felt very uncomfortable being stone cold alert and in the room they were about to perform surgery in. but it didn't take long before they made me feel wonky.

[QUOTE=erica.j]NHS health cuts for you,lol, mine was the same, i was scared to death and i knew i wouldnt be getting a pre-med as i'd had the hot wire loop treatment in may as a last resort . i supose they think that cos were british were made of strong stuff,lol,stiff upper lip n all that rubbish, i felt like i was on death row walking to the chair n i swear you could hear my knees knocking throughout the hospital,lol, hope you're recoverin ok.x[/quote]

Hi that is sooo funny, I felt like Ann Boylen did too lol. I am recovering fine thanks, just have the odd day when I have overdone things and feel like I have been run over - but those days are getting less now, thank goodness. Hope you are recovering well too x

[QUOTE=candypops]hi sally.
I asked for a premed as i thought theyd forgotten it and they gave it me only cos i kicked up a fuss!!They don't seem to give it as a matter of routine here in the uk though, it's probably a cost cutting thing like everything else here nowadays!!I didn't have one though when i went to be restitched and that was a lot worse as i was kept awake and it was very very painful!![/quote]

Ooooh Candypops that sounds really painful to be restitched, hope you are doing well x

That was an awful experience you had, Sally. I had my op in June in the N E of England, same as Collie (wonder if it was the same hospital, Gateshead). My op was first thing in the morning and I did get a pre-med, possibly because I had told the anaesthetist when he came to see the previous day how nervous I was of waking up in the middle of the op. I knew it was stupid, but he was very understanding. I had to change into the gown and they transformed my bed into a trolley on which I was wheeled to the prep room. I remember being lifted onto another trolley when I arrived, and the anaesthetist making me laugh with silly jokes, bless him. Next thing I remember was waking up in the ward. I would have hated to have had to walk to the theatre - it would have completely unnerved me, in fact at that hospital you didn't walk anywhere, you were always taken in a wheelchair for Xrays and other stuff.

I have read on another forum about patients being made to walk to theatre and always assumed it was because it was a cheap way to get them there - it never dawned on me that it was supposed to make you feel relaxed, and I know I would have hated it.

I am so sorry that you had that experience. I went through the same thing with the first surgery I had 4 years ago, no "happy juice" nothing. They told me to get dressed in the gown and I then sat and waited. I was so scared and nervous by the time I made it into the OR. I remember waking up in horrible pain and the nurse was trying to get it under control. This time around I was at a different hospital and they treated me like a princess there. They answered all my questions as silly as they may have seemed. I was scared and they did their best to calm me down. Honestly by the time the operating staff showed up and introduced themselves to me I was pretty calm and ready for it to begin. I was given the "happy juice" and the next thing I remember I was being asked to slip over onto the operating table. Last memory I have was the anethesologist saying he was giving me the drugs and that it would burn, then he said, "say good-night." lol I woke up from this surgery in little pain. Thankfully I said something to the anethesologist of my other experience and he promised me that it wouldn't be the same this time around, and it wasn't. He kept his promise and when I woke up, I was still in pain, but it was nothing like it was in my first experience.

I received my IV in my pre-op room. I joked with the nurse about the size of the IV (I'm a paramedic and wanted a smaller needle). I told her to get one from the peds floor. I was given 2 meds right outside of the OR suite. I do remember moving over to the table and asking my doctor if she got any sleep the night before (she has an infant about 7 months old). That was the last thing I remember until I woke up in recovery and being told my the nurse to press the button on the PCA pump when I was in pain. I kept dropping the button, so I asked the nurse for some tape to tape it to my hand. I think I would have run out of the hospital if I had to walk into the OR suite.

I was escorted to the pre-op area, where hubby got to wait with my until it was time for surgery. Yeah, I had to do the "walk" too. But I've done that same walk for 2 c-sections previously, so it didn't bother me too much. The only thing they gave me before surgery was a warm blanket and a chair to wait in. I was also awake for most of the surgery, I had a spinal instead of a general (my choice, control issues LOL). I could have requested more sedative so that I would have slept through the surgery, but like I said, control issues. I'm sorry it was such a frightening experience for you. They really need to re-examine their processing procedures.

One of the best things my surgeon did for me was to give me a Rx for Xanax 1 week pre-op. I started taking them 2 days before my surgery. I was relaxed and calm the morning of surgery, and when I got to pre-op,they gave me Versed. After the Versed...I never felt a thing! zzzzzzz So sorry you had that experience in the UK!