Anesthesia and Me

So today I had the common privilege (common to me) of seeing one of my children go through the “anesthesia metamorphosis”. It is a great experience; one I have come to realize is unique to every child and oddly enough reflects their own “unique” personality. I shall explain:

You see I have in my 5 years of mommy-hood gone through this “metamorphosis” with my children 4 times, yes you read that right, FOUR! I have seen different sides of the “anesthesia metamorphosis” with each child and now with just going through this with Rebekah I truly believe a person can predict the outcome with a child by simply evaluating their (the child's) everyday behavior. The following is an over view of my study with each child.

Name: Brittany
Current Age: 9
Age(s) at time of study: 5
Personality: Quiet, Pleasant, easy going, a “Miss Priss”, and VERY dramatic (no idea who that’s from).
Synopsis of experience(s): We get the call she is out of the OR and the surgery went well, she is starting to wake up. So we file into ICU and peek at her. This is what we see: a “gown” and blankets draped upon the royal bed and in the midst of these “royal” garments we see pale, fragile, weak little Brittany and as she starts to awaken her eyes flutter once, then twice, and yes, yes even thrice, and then she smiles ever so slightly and asks in a low and weak voice for a drink, “yes we shall get it for you is there anything else” the royal nurse subjects ask….”some flowers would be nice” she says with a voice so faint you have to hold your head just right to hear. And that is how we spend the next two days. No drama there.

Name: Justin
Current Age: 8
Age(s) at time of study: 5 & 6
Personality: Goes from sun up till I tie him to his bed at night, loud, Fun loving, and energy like you will never believe.
Synopsis of experience(s): The first time with Justin we get the call that the surgery just ended and we can come back to the recovery room. 10 minutes later, no joke, 10 minutes later we walk back and he is standing beside his bed and the nurses are laughing as he has just told them a joke!! 10 minutes!!! Later we find out the anesthesiologist had to more than double the dose he gives a child of his size!

The second time I was with him when the anesthesiologist started to “do his thing” he asked me what was Justin’s last experience was like, I told him he has a very high pain tolerance and he had to be given WAY more drugs than normal, he scoffed and 4 hours later apologized and said he has NEVER seen it take that long for a child to react! And once again by the time we got to recovery he was sitting up in bed hamming it up with the nurses.

Name: Rebekah
Current Age: 3
Age(s) at time of study: 3
Personality: The queen of Sheba, her way or the highway, Takes her own sweet time, dramatic (NO idea where that comes from!), and a hypochondriac.
Synopsis of experience(s): We get the call that the procedure went well and that we can go back, she is laying in bed like she has a hangover, and is drifting in and out. About 20 minutes later she says “I need you Mommy” so I pick her up and hold her as she continues to “come out of it”. About 30 minutes later she starts screaming and throwing up, this continues for the next 2 hours!! And then like flipping a switch she is fine, ready to go home and move on with life. We do however still experience whines and "clingingness" through out the day.


Yes the “anesthesia metamorphosis” is an incredible thing. I am pretty sure I could just put MD at the end of my name. Yup, this is THE Bethany J. Bennett - MD. Gotta go my editor is calling...