Hi everyone! I am now almost 8 weeks post op and am creeped out about something during my time in the hospital. I noticed not too long after being released from the hospital that there were huge chunks of time that I do not remember while in the hospital. I just chocked it up to pain meds and didn't think too much about it. I was lucid and coherent the entire time I was there, and I remember chit chatting about how great I felt.
I was on dilaudid for only the first day because it made me dizzy, then put on toradol for the rest of the time. I am unaware if I was on any other oral pain meds, but intend on looking into it. I have had a couple of previous surgeries with HIGH doses of morophine to the point I couldn't even open my eyes, but I remember laying and listening to everything around me and remember my stay in the hospitals.
Over these last several weeks, I have been made aware of things that happened in the hospital when people have said to me: "wow, remember when this happened....?" etc. It could be something as simple as me never finishing the vitamins my doc prescribed to a HUGE incident (this was the final creep straw for me) when my daughter was treated very wrong by someone in the room and became very upset. I have been told that I told her that she better respect so and so and she left and went to the hotel in tears. Apparently my mom called me at the hospital after this and in my discussion, i told my mother that my daughter needed to just get over it. It was a lucid, chatty conversation. First of all I am shocked that I responded that way but that is beside the point (I have worked it out with her and apologized through tears) , but where I am very concerned is that i have NO MEMORY OF IT WHATSOEVER...any of it. I was literally sobbing when this all came out. And different stories keep rolling in (most trivial). I feel like I am being told about a movie I never watched, but I was front row center at the theater.
I have been told about chatty conversations I had with nurses, about several phone conversations I had with a close friend, and more.
I now have a theory and need feedback from those of you who were decompressed. I think it is possible that the release and changes in spinal fluid had some effect on my brain as it re-adjusted....a severe amnesia effect. I can not find info that toradol causes amnesia, and none of it makes sense. I was completely lucid, animated, and chatty. This is all so creepy. My memories are sparse and the reality of this completely unsettling. If you look back and this has happened to you..maybe it wasnt because of the meds.
Oh my goodness I thought I was the only one to have this! Yes I did have this, and still do have this ((six years since my surgery) just less ofte. I argued with my insurance company when I was re admitted a week after I was released from my surgery. I have no memory of the entire hospital stay, the second stay! I really can relate when you say it’s creepy, it was really scary for me. I even called my husband and demanded that he come and get me because I was released, I wasn’t! My memory lapse then were due to seizures that I started having after surgery, and pain. My family have learned to handle it now, we actually have started using humor. We find it funny now.
My dr believes that it’s not seizures now (they are under controll now with meds). I was always a sleep walker and talker. He believes that when I’m in sever pain my brain reverts to a sleep state to handle it (I am allergic to pain meds so I’m on none). Even after surgery I was only on NSSAIDS.(that was fun!lol!). On one occasion I actually convinced my husband to help me find a frog that was in the basement. He helped me look(god bless him!). He said that what made him realize that I “wasn’t right” is when I told him that I was going to “cook it up” because my son wanted to taste frog legs (our youngest son had moved out a year before that!lol!) I chase faeries in my plants and skunks! it really is quite funny! i have learned that they arent dangerous for me so i had to learn to find the humor in my “spells”! I still get these but they are a lot less often! Thank goodness! I had an EEG while I was having one and they found that my brain waves showed I was sleeping. It is not narcolepsy, its just my bodies way of dealing with severe pain.
I hope this helps knowing that you are not alone in this bizarre side affect.
You might also want to try to be tested for seizures, that was the cause right after surgery for me, and I have never had them before.
Hugs, and hopping this doesn’t last long,
Barb
BOY, YOU HAVE JUST BROUGHT ME BACK TO AUGUST OF 2008 WHEN I HAD MY DECOMPRESSION!!! FOR ME, I THINK IT WAS A COMBO OF EVERYTHING..MEDS, THE SURGERY, NOT EATING DUE TO NAUSEA, STRESS.
My daughter (14) was decompressed on Nov. 20. As she was taken off of the morphine, put on meds and time went on, she became more and more chatty with us, visitors and the staff. She remembers almost nothing of it, which is so weird. Just little pieces poke though: like small cups of ice cream and new pink lip balm. She recalls noticing the cute puffins on the wall (children's hosp.) and the NASTY "Thanksgiving" food they delivered but not her brother's visit that same day. I agree with others. Combo of drugs, exhaustion, SHOCK and trauma, the brain limiting itself and making adjustments, etc,...
I did the exact same thing...I am almost 6 months post op and still now my mom will say "oh do you remember when you did blah blah blah at the hospital?" and I'll have no recollection of it at all. I was completely lucid, talking to everyone, but only remember bits and pieces, or don't remember things at all until I'm told about them. I had friends bring me gifts while I was in the hospital, and I found them about a week after I came home and had NO idea that I had gifts! I remembered them coming over (vaguely) but did NOT remember the gifts at all, and apparently I opened them in front of them. I know I was on so many meds, that those alone would have done weird things to my brain...but having the surgery on top of that? It didn't really surprise me when I started being told about things I did that I didn't remember. I was on a morphine drip, as well as other pain meds, and I just don't handle meds well. I'm sure your daughter completely forgives you for what happened, and probably doesn't even really care that it happened, just that you are OK.
I only spent one night in the hospital and they forgot my pain meds from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. I remember everything but luckily I have a very high tolerance to pain and also to pain medicine.
My husband on the the other hand goes completely loopy on even the mildest of pain meds and can't remember anything.
I am now 4 weeks post opp and had about the identical problems. While I was in the hospital, multiple family members came by to make sure everything was going alright. I do not remember several people that came by. I do remember a few but the ones I cannot remember were there for more than an hour. Don't know what causes this but have read in other articles and told by my NS it is fairly normal.
One medication I feel messed with my memory was Gabapentin. Did you take this for the first couple weeks? I am not positive on this but by timing, I kind of narrowed it down. Now that I am no longer taking it I have zero memory problems.
Some of my memory problems were also caused by contracting meningitis 4 days after surgery. I know meningitis causes many memory issues but I remember nearly everything the day I was remitted for meningitis. Btw, the reason my wife made me go to the hospital for this was because I was seeing bunnies running across our house.... We don't have any bunnies...
I kind of agree with Lori that meds had something to do with the memory problems. NS also said large amounts of vibration on your skull can cause temporary memory loss.
At 8 weeks post op, are you having any pains in your spine around t-6? I have been having pains where it feels like my spine is bending and for some reason feels like I have been punched in the back, causing breathing issues. Any ideas as my next appt with NS is not for quite awhile? If I land hard on my heels it also takes my breath away from pain in the same area (t-6).
I am twelve weeks post op and during my hospital stay i was on the same medications as you and i had the same exact problems. My family tend to talk about events and conversations that i took part in and i have no memory of it. I mostly have a hard time remebering the first 3 days of my hospital stay and i just attributed it to the medication.
I work as a Postoperative nurse. Let me tell you something that may ease this for you. Usually...almost standardly..you are given medications on the way into the OR...and while sedated that cause amnesia. These effects can last up to 24 hrs even in small surgeries (lasting 30 min or so)...I would chalk this amnesia up to those meds. Versed(midazolam) is the main culprit..other medications I'm sure you were given are Propofol (Diprivan-Michael Jackson's Magic Milk), maybe Precedex..and maybe Ketamine...plus a combination of paralytic meds (which are reversed as they are waking you up from anesthesia)...I know it's a creepy feeling..however..all of these possibles on board with narcotics...I believe what you are feeling isn't abnormal. Oh and I left out the gasses given in the OR that can cause psychosis and emgergent delirium...Sevoflourine being the most commonly used and proponent of delirium.
If you really want to investigate more..get a copy of your "Anesthesia Record" from the hospital..they list all of your meds..amounts and times given during surgery.
I had mine few days before Thanksgiving in 2009. I thought I was pretty aware of things! However when family talked about things I had no idea what they were talking about.
Sadly since I HATE hospitals with a passion, I found a way to sneak out of there. I told the surgeon I felt amazing and I needed to go home so I could sleep, cause the nurses bug me too much. He actually listened to me, one and only time, and sent me home. Only to be paged at 2am when my family found me passed out. Oops!
Again I said and did things I do not recall. I think that is a lot for the body to go through, therefore the blocking of some memories.
I’ve heard of this phenomenon, and it’s not just chiari patients. This is a common problem (the creep factor) that many people post op deal with. Just cut yourself a little slack!!
Kelly, not only did this happen to me, it continues 3 months later. I have gotten lost in familiar cities 3 times in the last month while traveling and each time, I "return from where-ever" disoriented, pulled over in my car, with 1-3 hours of time having lapsed with no idea where I am or where I have been. Needless to say that i HAVE HAD TO SCALE BACK ON MY DRIVING. For me, they think that it is post-concussive synrome complications or seizures (blah, blah, blah). Anyway, my sisters tell me stuff that I said to doctors in the hospital that make me think that I am Reagan from The Exorcist instead of a Jesuit priest. What is done is done - oh well. Just be gentle with yourself and repair the incident with your daughter by explaining it but you don't have to apologize. In fact, in the attachment relationship, the apology puts psychic pressure on your daughter (difficult to explain but true). In know that sounds weird, maybe it is Reagan talking again, but it is actually good psychological theory. Just emphasize that you did not have your wits about you, you are better now, and that it probably will not happen again. Take care - Fr. D
I am pre op and am doing these sort of things on a daily basis it’s due to the fluid or lack of from the syrinx and stenosis according to the docs the EXACT things are happening to me