Spinal or General Anesthesia???

My doctor said that the anesthesiologist will give me the choice on Tuesday morning. I can either go with a spinal or general. She also mentioned an Epidural but I immediatley cringed and crossed that option off. They never worked when I had my chidlren, I won't try them for something like this!

But she said that I could have a Spinal or General. I am leaning more towards General because of my fear of soemthing in my back after my really bad episodes with Epidurals. Btu she siad that most VH are done with Spinals/Epidurals with no problems at all.

I'm not sure what to do. What did you do and why?

TIA!!

My TAH-BSO was 10-16-03 and I had the epidural and general, just remember everyone is different. I had both my kids natural and was always afraid of the epidural. But due to a heart rythym problem that I was experiencing before hand, my dr. wanted to keep my post-op pain at a minimal. I found out that I was getting the epidural just minutes before I went in for surgery. But for me it worked great, except for the itching. (side effect)
The thought of post-op pain had me a nervious wreck, because my sister had a TAH a couple years ago, and her post-op pain was really, really bad, I couldn't bare to see her in so much pain and had to leave the room, this stuck out in my mind. Due to a mishap, the epidural came out the evening of my surgery, and I went fron 0 pain to about 150 %. Then came the moriphine pump, but to me the epidural was better. Best of luck to you!

HUGS

valjosmel

I went for a pre-op evaluation, and the anesthesiologist recommended a spinal, "hands down" as I had recent bronchitis. I was totally prepared for this. Then the day of surgery another anesthesiologist was assigned to my case, and said a spinal only lasts 2 hrs, and then she would have to convert me to general- why would I want to do that? My spine was curved so was not good for epidural. I told her I wanted to talk to the surgeon. I got to the OR and he said whatever she said, his concern was basically below. So here I was in the OR obviously holding up things- 10 or so people standing around with arms crossed. So finally I went ahead and said just give me the general, and I closed my eyes and "surrendered." I did decently, but made it a point because of my lungs to force myself up and start walking in the hall the day after the surgery. So my advice is- be prepared for anything! Sharon