[KB] Medical FYI

[Wess, Robert Victor]

On the chance that you might one day have the option of choosing "epidural," a popular anesthetic, I thought I'd pass along my experience with it this past week as a cautionary tale.

Epidural definitely relieves pain. I felt no pain when I woke up from surgery around 2 pm (colon cancer; chemo is in my future), nor at any time afterwards. That explains epidural's popularity.

Meanwhile, my blood pressure, checked repeatedly, did not do so well. When it first fell below my normal range, I asked the nurse if she could think of any reason why. She answered with one word: "epidural."

By 2 am, the nurse put in a request to the anesthesiologist to lower the dosage, but she didn't expect to get an answer until he came in around 9 am.

By this point, I was determined to stay awake no matter what. I feared that if I fell asleep I might never wake up.

Around 4 am, my blood pressure fell to 89 / 38. Thankfully, at 4:30 am, the nurse called the anesthesiologist at home to request permission to lower the dosage. But by this point, I'd had enough. I insisted that they remove the epidural connection altogether.

Not long afterwards, my blood pressure returned to its normal range. I did begin to feel moderate pain, but it was pain that never felt so good.

Bob

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