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Anesthesia | When Will I Wake Up After My Hysterectomy?

From the Pre-Op Hysterectomy Articles List

When and how is a patient awakened after a hysterectomy?

When and how a patient is awakened following a hysterectomy can depend on the type of anesthesia used. Under normal circumstances, when a patient has general anesthesia, the awakening process, known as emergence, begins in the operating room using a step-by-step process.

If you were given muscle relaxants during your hysterectomy, you will be given reversal agents as needed to counteract them as part of the process to awaken you from surgery. Next, the anesthetic agent will be reduced and then turned off, and you will be ventilated with oxygen. If the anesthesiologist has been controlling breathing for you, either with a ventilator or squeezing a bag, he will begin to allow you to breath on your own. If you had not been given muscle relaxants, then you may have already been breathing for yourself.

Your anesthesiologist will monitor your pulse, blood pressure, and breathing pattern to decide whether you need some additional narcotic pain medicine before you wake up. During that transitional period, there are quite a few things going on, one of which is that the breathing pattern is irregular for a time. Your anesthesiologist will generally wait for that period to pass and your breathing to become regular before removing the breathing tube (extubating).

After extubation, you are likely "awake" in the sense that you are arousable and may open your eyes; however, you probably won’t remember this part of emergence depending on the anesthetic technique used. Once you have been moved to the recovery room, you will continue to come around. During that phase, you may ask the same questions over and over again: "Where is my husband? How did I do?" This will be an indication that you are thinking clearly but not yet remembering. You will feel you have finally woke up from your hysterectomy when you start remembering things, even though you were technically awake much sooner!


This content was written by staff of HysterSisters.com by non-medical professionals based on discussions, resources and input from other patients for the purpose of patient-to-patient support.



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