Surgery without general anesthesia

[Tommy]

A while back, I asked about the experiences of folks who had carpal tunnel relief surgery. Yesterday I had it done on my left hand and I want to comment on the use of anesthesia.

My surgeon and the anesthesiologist both wanted to give me a light general anesthesia via an IV to make me "relaxed," "drunk" or "drowsy". This was in addition to the local anesthetic injection used to deaden the surgery site. I know that these drugs commonly cause a loss of memory of the event, leaving the patient with no memory of pain or discomfort. But, it occurred to me that the pain couldn't be very bad if it allowed the surgery to proceed. And as I am not fond of the groggy, out of control feeling of general anesthesia, I declined to take it. I can report that the only discomfort came when the the local anestetic was injected in my arm, and that was not as bad as those given by the dentist before filling a tooth. I could feel pressure on my hand as the surgeon worked on it, but there was absolutely no pain. Being wide awake, I was fully aware of what was going on and could carry on a conversation with the staff. The bottom line is that doing the procedure without general anesthesia was no big deal. If you don't like the feeling of the general stuff or you want to save a few bucks, I encourage you to try it.

BTW, a day after surgery my carpal tunnel symptoms are already diminished.