Question:
A friend of mine has to have surgery with anesthic (sp). He also has asthma and they need to put a breathing tube down his throat BEFORE they put him under. He did not know this until they went to do this in the hospital and he had a major panic attack – his blood pressure went up to 190! They called off the opperation and the dr. wasn’t helpful about how to address this problem. How can someone who has a history of panic attacks handle this? Any ideas would be appreciated. Christie
When I had surgery about three years ago, they gave me Valium or some similar medication intravenously before the procedure. The anesthesiologist then asked me if I felt calm enough and I had them give me more. After that I don’t think I’ve felt calmer in my life. And I didn’t even tell them I had panic disorder. I had assumed that pre-surgical sedation was standard procedure since they did the same thing to my wife when she had surgery several years ago. rjb
Response:
A friend of mine has to have surgery with anesthic (sp). He also has asthma and they need to put a breathing tube down his throat BEFORE they put him under. He did not know this until they went to do this in the hospital and he had a major panic attack – his blood pressure went up to 190! They called off the opperation and the dr. wasn’t helpful about how to address this problem. How can someone who has a history of panic attacks handle this? Any ideas would be appreciated. Christie
Hi! I have been suffering from PA’s on and off for some years. It has become a lot better today. Was worse during 1992-1993. The I had to remove a wisdom tooth. It was located so bad that my dentist wanted the oral surgery department of the hospital to perform the surgery. Of course in the middle of panic attacks I feared the worst. Since this operation was going to be done under local anast. I was afraid that my panic was going to screw it all up. I called the doctor a few days in advance and explained my problem. I also said that I sometimes took "Temesta" (similar to what you in the US call "Xanax"). I asked him if there was any interaction between Temesta and the Xylocain he said he was going to use. He said no and that Temesta was sometimes used as a "pre-medication" in order to calm down patients. Normally I took only a 1/4 or maybe 1/2 tablett if I got a panic attack. This time I took 1 tablett 1 hour before I was going in to surgey. It really calmed me down. On the surgery table I was of course waiting for my panic attack to come. But I was lucky it never did. The following are my own tips for a surgical adventure for a person with Panic Attacks: 1. Tell the doctor well in advance overything about your PA problem. 2. Make sure the nurses and the staff around you knows about it too. 3. Get some kind of pre-medication to calm you down. 4. Never be afraid to let them know if you are feeling uncomfortable at any stage. Dare to say "hey, wait a little… let me calm down.. let me breath… " 5. Enjoy surgery 6. Enjoy the fact that you did it and that you have now come one step further in NOT leeting PA stop you from things! I think that the situation of having a doctor and nurses around you and at the same time feeling the need to NOT get a panic attack creates performance anxiety of the First Degree… Best regards from Sweden John
If you like this post and would like to receive updates from this blog, please subscribe our feed.