Anesthesia

I passed out twice today.

Well, not literally passed out. I got super close the first time, and the second time, since I knew it was coming, I got out of there before I actually hit the ground face first.

Where is “there,” you ask? Well, today I was at the Coalition for Community Cats (http://www.coalition4cats.org), hosted at the SPCA in Sacramento. I was invited to come help out here by my friend and mentor, Krissi, who also writes a blog about her journey to and through veterinary school (http://livingmydreamkn.blogspot.com). She is a 4^th year vet student at UC Davis, and has been an immeasurable source of help and guidance as I figure out what the future holds. Krissi picked me up at 7:30am this cold Sunday morning, and we headed out of Davis into Sacramento, itching to alter some kitties.

I was a bit shocked when we arrived and I found out that I was the only undergrad student that was going to be helping out that day. Usually there is a whole group of us there, bustling around and helping out the vets and vet students. Thankfully, the vet students are not intimidating. Far from it, in fact; they’re very kind and helpful, and encouraging! I guess they remember how it feels to be me.  Maybe the yummy donuts from one of the grateful cat trappers that gave us a sugar high of niceness, who knows? My maple bar sure was delicious!

Back to the passing out part of this story. I have always had an inkling that I might have some kind of adverse reaction to anesthesia, but I think today my suspicions might have been realized. I started the morning out helping out in the surgery room, monitoring the cats and making sure their color was good (pink tongues/gums, good capillary refill), their heart rates were solid (not less than 80 bpm, and not more than 160), and their O₂ saturation stayed around 100. I also had to make sure they didn’t wake up, which was the beginning of the problem.

The first cat started to wake up while I was listening to the heart rate of a cat across the room. I didn’t hear the vet student when he said his cat was light, so by the time I got over there, the cat was actually meowing while open on the table. I came over and started the isoflurane, placed the mask over the cat’s face.

After a few moments, I started to feel strange. Very nauseous, then my skin when cold. Like the blood left me. My head spun, I started seeing spots, and then I saw all black. I was on the ground right after that; caught myself in a crouch but I dropped the mask. I reached up to press it on the cat’s face again before leaving the surgery room.

Suffice it to say, I lost the donut. That wasn’t fun, but I felt better after that, and after getting some fresh air.

I went back into the surgery room and assisted again for a while. I did fine until once again, until one of the cats started to wake up. I walked over and got the mask going on the cat, watching closely to see if she was going back to sleep.

The feeling started again, almost immediately. I started feeling nauseas, my skin went cold and the room spun. When I started seeing spots, I excused myself and ultimately had to switch to another station.

I went over to post op, and had a blast! I vaccinated, administered pain medication, cleaned ears, gave ear mite and flea treatment, and, for the first time ever, tipped ears! It was very cool, the process is very simple: all I had to do was clamp the ear near the end, cut off the tip with scissors, and pack the wound with a blood clotting agent. The pace is very fast at time, when we’re rushing around to draw up vaccines and get the cats finished before they start waking up. Then, at other times, we had a lull and could catch up from the previous flood of anesthetized cats.

They look so pitiful when they come to you, all spread eagle on a spay board, paws tied with strings. It’s a nice feeling to be able to release them from that and run your hand over their soft, relaxed bodies. They’re all feral cats, so they would never want to be petted while they were awake. The colors are fascinating, and striking. I will probably never cease to be amazed at how many colors cats can come in. In fact, last month a male calico came in! What’re the odds? (They’re actually about 1 in 3,000).

After the car accident, when I had to have my knee straightened under anesthesia, even though I was only under for a couple minutes, it was really hard for me to wake up and when I did, I was very sick and freezing cold. The same thing happened after they gave me gas at the dentist when I was a kid. My mom was with me when I passed out in the grocery store, sick and green and freezing. We thought I had some kind of reaction then, but the doctors laughed and said it was nothing. Now that there have been a few similar instances, I think there really might be something to this.

It’s not necessarily the end of the world, though, if I do have a reaction to anesthesia. Obviously it isn’t the best thing, since I want to be a doctor and perform surgeries, but there are other types that I can try beside isoflurane, or I can not use it at all, or I can only use it on a tube administered through intubation instead of with a mask. There are all kind of options. Sean even said they have special masks that can block that tiny of particulates.

To finish off a nice day, I came home to two happy, healthy kittens and a crazy happy dog. The best part was checking the score on my statistics midterm and finding out I got my very first A on a midterm at the university level. And that was raw score,  without a curve.