Hi everybody!
My sister is a nurse anesthesiologist and I've been talking with her about my surgery and what happened with my hemorrhoidectomy. I can't tell you how painful that surgery was - the first 2 days were the worst days of my life and I'm not exaggerating. And thus, my question. I'm unsure if my anesthesia was to blame or if it was just the pain and anxiety and no food plus anesthesia that caused my throwing up, but that's the last thing I want to worry about. I went into surgery with my hemorrhoidectomy with a horrible migraine, felt like throwing up- no food in my stomach, surgery was in the morning and awoke with a horrible headache, I couldn't even cry or move my eyes my head hurt that bad. I ended up throwing up a few times after surgery....so my question to my sister and to you ladies/men is, did all of you under-go general anesthesia or did any of you opt for a spinal plus a sleeping agent? My sister said the choice is up to me, but there would be less chances for the awful headache, etc if I just did a spinal plus a sleeping agent. Of course with a spinal, I would not be able to walk for about 2-3 hours after surgery, but there's less risk for having that anesthesia hangover that I had I think. Now, I don't want to blame it all on anesthesia, like I said before, it could have been the stress of the surgery, plus no food, plus the anesthesia..... and extreme pain afterwards. Off the charts pain ....so I'm confused as to what I should do...just do the anesthesia and endure possibly another bad headache and puking or do a spinal with less complications afterwards?

Hey makem3,
I'm not real smart about all the anesthesia stuff (LOL), but I had MAC with my LIS and I've had GA with other surgeries. I've also had a epidural with one of my child births. The MAC was pretty awesome. I usually throw up form being put to sleep but didn't with it. I even threw up with my epidural but they gave me something that took care of that.
I was worried that I would know or feel something with the anesthesia they used for my LIS, but that wasn't the case.... I had an hour ride home in the car and wasn't even nauseated.

Same as Dawn i dont know a lot about the anesthesia stuff either but i know when i had my spinal with the birth of my daughter they told me that the changes i would get a spinal headache is a lot more and worse then if i had general because they can go to close or thru ur spinal tube or something.
also with my spinal it didnt wear off till about hr 7 after.

Thank you for your responses. I know I would have no feeling for about 3-4 hours after surgery if I did a spinal, which that might be okay for me, less immediate pain afterwards; however, I could also ask for a local anesthetic when she's done, so after the surgery I will be atleast pain-free for a few more hours, until that anesthesia wears off. I'm not sure what to do. But thank you for your advice.

I've had three epidurals. They were okay, I guess, but I'm not doing that again willingly. I also have a very long history of intense migraines (although I'm fortunate that I haven't had one for about ten years now!). I literally started having them by the age of three. My point is that migraines alone can make you vomit, they always did for me. So I would NOT blame the GA alone for the vomiting you experienced.
That being said, I had GA for my sinus surgery in July, and when I woke up, I felt some pain. So they zapped me with morphine and then I felt nauseous. So they gave me phenergan. I recommend asking for it if you decide to go the GA route and you feel sick. It really counteracts the nausea. It does make you sleepy, but I had no vomiting or any more nausea after that. Once when I was pregnant with my third child I had stomach flu and was vomiting so much I was going into early labor, so I went to the hospital--they also gave me phenergan that time and it stopped the vomiting. Good drug, if you need it.
With my wisdom tooth extraction I wasn't so lucky. The vomiting afterwards was awful, and they didn't even use GA! I don't know what type of sedation that was. I hope I never experience anything like that again.
Good luck!

Thanks alpine- yeah.... like I stated before, I think it was a combination of a lot of things that contributed to my vomiting after my thrombosed hemorrhoid was removed. I think I'm just going to stick with the GA, not going to do the spinal, I don't want to be staying around for 3-4 hours afterwards, this is an outpatient surgery, just want to go home, in my own bed and drug up. :)
Thanks.