Scared of Anesthesia

Are you scared of anesthesia? Is this fear making you dread having surgery?

At anesthesiamyths.com our goal is to help you lose this fear. Many people have been emailing us to let us know they are scared about anesthesia and they are wondering what they can do to help.

Besides trying to find some answers here or on the forum, I have a suggestion that seems to have calmed the fears of a few readers.

I suggest that you talk to your anesthesiologist the day or night before your surgery. But how do you do this if you don’t know who your anesthesiologist will be?

You can call your surgeon’s office and ask to have the anesthesiologist call you to talk with you about their plan for anesthesia. If you can actually talk with the physician who will be taking care of you, it may help reduce your anxiety. Of course, you will speak with them on the day of surgery, but it is nice to ask questions the night before.

When my wife had surgery, the anesthesiologist called her the night before. She had not requested this, but he called out of habit. And my wife and I really appreciated it. He was able to get her medical history and answer her questions about the anesthesia plan. We were both a lot less nervous about that part of the surgery the next day.

In some cases, it is not possible to talk to the anesthesiologist the day before your surgery. Sometimes, I finish my cases at night and it is too late to call the patients for the next day. Or if you are having emergency surgery, you or your family member will speak to the anesthesiologist just before the case.

Due to changes in the daily schedule and flow of cases, the anesthesiologist you spoke to the night before may have to cover another case. But it is still nice to have spoken to someone on the team the night before.

Do not hesitate to ask to speak to your anesthesiologist prior to surgery. Both the surgeon and the anesthesiologist want to keep you safe during surgery. And part of this is making sure we can decrease your anxiety as much as possible.

Feel free to let us know if you are scared about anesthesia and what we can do to help. Hopefully this small tip will work for some of you.

If you want to help some others out as well, post your anesthesia experience in the forum. Thanks so much for visiting us. Talk to you soon!