On To The Operating Room...

[annabell]

If you had been given an oral sedative or valium prior you usually could care less what they are going to be sticking in you - namely IV's. If you haven't been given a sedative, it can be more stressful for some patients. It feels sort of like blood being drawn, but for a shorter period of time. It's the initial placement of the IV catheter that may sting a bit. After the needle is injected into the vein it is pulled out and a little plastic tube is left in your vein. The catheter is taped to your skin so it is not knocked out and is ready to be used as a sort of "doorway" for anything they deem suitable for your body. This is usually done before you get into the actual O.R. - by a nurse - and you have a saline bag hooked up to you. The medications will be given with a drip system with this saline. The saline will keep you hydrated both during and post-operatively.

Some people get it in the crook of the elbow, some the hand. I dislike the hand ones as it's a nasty place for a bruise to be, at least with the arm you can hide it - it all depends upon your veins

You are then brought to the O.R. if you aren't on the table yet. They insert a hypodermic into your tube that you are attached to or they attach the bag of it with a drip system to add a few drops every few minutes and when they spring open the stopper and it starts heading towards your body. The the effects of the anesthesia are felt soon after injection or opening the stopper - a few seconds in fact. It feels like "heat" going into you veins then creeping up your arm - then it "jumps" from your shoulder to a metallic-like taste under your tongue and then you are anesthetized.