LIFT procedure went well but anesthesia not so well – worried about future surgeries
Yesterday I had a LIFT procedure for my perianal fistula. The surgery itself went very well and the wound looks clean. I was even discharged the same day and I'm recovering at home with painkillers.
The anesthesia part was rough though. This was my 7th general anesthesia in just 1.5 years (last one only 25 days ago). Normally with propofol I go out instantly and wake up smoothly. This time my brain seemed to fight it — the induction phase took much longer. They ended up giving me 600 mg Propofol (roughly 3x a normal dose) to get me under.
In recovery I was lying there for over 3 hours basically paralyzed: I could hear everything around me but could barely move or speak. My breathing kept getting weak, O2 saturation dropped to 85%, alarms kept going off. The nurse had to shake me awake repeatedly and tell me to breathe deeply. Every time I dozed off it happened again. When I finally started waking up I had severe pain and got Catapressan + Dipidolor, which helped the pain but made me even groggier. It took about 4 hours before I was somewhat awake.
Has anyone else experienced something like this with repeated propofol anesthesias, especially with short intervals? I'm now quite worried about possible future procedures.
Any tips on how to discuss this with the anesthesiologist next time (different agents, premedication, etc.)?Thanks in advance and good luck to all of you dealing with this awful condition