On the operating table, she felt her legs were "sticking up"

30-year-old Xiao Li couldn't get pregnant, so she decided to go to the hospital for a thorough checkup. Unexpectedly, the results shocked her: both fallopian tubes had cysts and there was also a fibroid on the uterus. Without unobstructed fallopian tubes, which are the passage for the egg, it is impossible to get pregnant.

After making up her mind, she chose surgery.

She had never been in an operating room before, so she was extremely nervous. When the nurse gave her an IV, she was even shocked when the disinfectant was applied to her skin.

When it came to the anesthesia stage, my heart rate soared.

It's no wonder, after all, it's on the back. If it was on the front, it might be better.

Since the operation was limited to the lower body, and she refused laparoscopic surgery and chose open surgery, the anesthesiologist developed a spinal anesthesia plan for her.

Spinal anesthesia is a puncture in the back of the spine. After the puncture is successful, local anesthetic is injected into the spinal canal to achieve the effect of lower body anesthesia.

There is another major difference between this type of anesthesia and general anesthesia: the patient must cooperate with the anesthesiologist throughout the entire process. The spinal canal contains important tissues such as the spinal cord, nerves, and blood vessels, and any of them cannot be injured. If the patient does not move around, the anesthesiologist will have the greatest confidence in ensuring the success of anesthesia and preventing accidental injuries.

After the anesthesia took effect, her severely curled up body made her feel a little short of breath.

Fortunately, the anesthesiologist was very skilled and completed the puncture in just a few minutes.

According to Xiao Li's understanding: After the anesthesia, the numbness should have gone away! How come I still feel it?

The anesthesiologist told him: Don't worry, it will take effect after a while.

Half believing and half doubting, she cooperated with the doctor and lay down again.

However, after lying down, she immediately said that her legs were "lifted" and asked the doctor to help her put them down.

When the anesthesiologist heard her say this, he immediately comforted her: Your legs have been put down, don't worry!

When she heard this, she didn't believe it and thought the doctor was lying to her because her legs were just raised there.

In order to understand the situation, she tried to look up.

Seeing this, the nurse at the side immediately held her shoulder and said: Don't raise your head, otherwise you will have a headache after the operation.

In fact, the nurse was not trying to scare her: after spinal anesthesia, she was required to lie flat without a pillow for six hours.

It should be noted here that this requirement began in the last century. At that time, because technology was not as advanced as it is today, spinal anesthesia needles were relatively thick. After anesthesia, the puncture hole was relatively large, so that more cerebrospinal fluid leaked. Because of this, there was more pain after surgery. Lying flat without a pillow can reduce the chance of cerebrospinal fluid leakage. However, today's spinal anesthesia needles are very thin, and postoperative headaches are rare.

Then, someone will say: Does this mean that we don’t have to lie flat on our back for six hours in the future?

No. Different hospitals have different management and different speeds of knowledge updating, which determines the huge differences in clinical treatment.

Hearing everyone around her assuring her that her legs were flat, she had no choice but to believe it.

As soon as she got up after the operation, she looked up when no one was paying attention. She was finally relieved when she saw that her legs were flat.

[Knowledge Point] The loss of limb spatial position sense after anesthesia is a manifestation of the loss of human proprioception. The senses of human beings are, from shallow to deep, sympathetic nerves, temperature sense, pain sense, touch sense, movement sense, pressure sense, and proprioception. In other words, the disappearance of proprioception is the strongest effect of anesthesia. When performing a surgical operation, it is generally only required to block the pain sense. Some parts are rich in muscles and need to block the movement sense.

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