Pre-op anesthesia

I have my pre-op anesthesia appointment in the morning. Taking a break from admitting patients to the cardiology service I pause to fill out my paperwork. It occurs to me that they are exactly the same forms. Random heart patient presenting with right sided chest discomfort and shortness of breath. Ortho patient (me) presenting with left acetabular labral tear with underlying pelvic dysplasia/ femoral impingement.

They ask if you have ever had difficulty with anesthesia. The truth would be yes. With my miscarriage I was a big girl and did not cry. That was until they dosed me with Versed in holding and then I sobbed all of the way to the OR. Two months later got conscious sedation to set my broken arm. I should have been asleep. Cry I did not, but more embarrassing I babbled about my weight, my calculated BMI and how I would get fat not exercising post broken arm. These experiences leave me feeling very exposed. Emotionally exposed- similar but not exactly the same as the exposure our patients experience in the cath lab while waiting for their groins to be prepped. The thought brings the memory of my hip injection, where I, completely awake was far less embarrassed than the resident who had the duty of preparing my groin for the injection.

These juicy details will not be shared at my appointment in the morning. Because I know what they really need to know is whether I, or a family member ever developed malignant hyperthemia with anesthesia. So I will check the box for no next to "difficulty with anesthesia", but pause to recognize that the physician is privy to only a small part of the whole story.