CPAP use during/after medical procedures

[Kiralynx]

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[Slinky]

Take it with you - and someone who knows how to set it up, put your mask on and get you started on your CPAP. Your doctor is correct, you are monitored continuously thru out the procedure - its Recovery where you are NOT being continuously monitored where you can run into problems. Insist before the procedure that your "driver" be brought into Recovery AS SOON AS you are taken to the Recovery room and then let your "driver" handle it from there getting you set up w/your CPAP and mask. You will PROBABLY only need it 30 to 45 minutes but a lot can happen in 30-45 minutes. And as long as you are feeling tired and sleepy from the Versed/Demeral cocktail use your CPAP even when you get home. I'm usually wasted the rest of the day and still can sleep thru the night after a morning colonoscopy w/the Versed/Demeraly cocktail. "We" now either use Propofol (diprivan) and Fentanyl or no sedation, just Demeral, for my colonoscopies. The Propofol is great because you are awake, alert and not tired, sleepy and confused w/in 10-15 minutes!!! But in most state the use of Propofol requires an anesthesiologist, not just a CRNA.

[Debjax]

Oh, and as an aside, anyone here been given Versed, and if so, how was your reaction to it?

I've had it, but can't remember events just before or after.

[bairdbeth]

Take it with you. Your gastro may say you don't need it, but the anestheasiologist may feel differently. I have had 2 endoscopies before I started CPAP. They give the same sedation as your colonoscopy. I fell sound asleep the 1st time and didn't believe them when they woke me and said I was done!I could understand not using it for an endoscopy as they are inserting the scope down the throat and all the air would just rush out, but yours is at the other end and a mask would not be in the way. Any escaping air from that end would not be from your CPAP! (By the way, they will not let you leave recovery until you do let air escape. The older gentleman in the cubby next to me was too embarrassed to pass "air" and they kept explaining that he couln't leave until he did!)

[Kiralynx]

Your doctor is correct, you are monitored continuously thru out the procedure - its Recovery where you are NOT being continuously monitored where you can run into problems. Insist before the procedure that your "driver" be brought into Recovery AS SOON AS you are taken to the Recovery room and then let your "driver" handle it from there getting you set up w/your CPAP and mask. You will PROBABLY only need it 30 to 45 minutes but a lot can happen in 30-45 minutes.

Thanks, Slinky. That's what I was fairly sure I had read, both here and on that one site Ozij pointed me to. But sometimes, in the face of a doctor's medical certainty, you can doubt yourself.

I would much prefer the "immediate awake and aware" effect... the last time I got hit with demerol, I was a week recovering. And I've got a science fiction folk music, aka filk convention, to go to the next weekend! I can't sleep through THAT!

[Kiralynx]

Take it with you. Your gastro may say you don't need it, but the anestheasiologist may feel differently. <snip> (By the way, they will not let you leave recovery until you do let air escape. The older gentleman in the cubby next to me was too embarrassed to pass "air" and they kept explaining that he couln't leave until he did!)

I had pretty well decided to take it with me (without the humidifier, just for ease of transport, even though I usually use it). Sometimes it takes a bit before they understand that you're SERIOUS about something. (I went through some of that with the hospital staff for my surgery before they understood that "No food not on my diet means no food not on my diet. I will NOT eat it." Pretty appalling when a hospital can't provide a special diet for a patient!)

I know about the pass gas. <wry grin> My oncologist was in to see me the morning after the operation and in mid conversation, the gut made a noise like a farting dirigible and released a vast quantity. I muttered, "'Scuse me," and the oncologist laughed, and said, "Oh, no, it's wonderful that you did that this soon!"