The weirdest feeling

So I had a little hernia op, nothing really, but got a so-called 'spinal' anaesthesia; what pregnant woman might know as an epidural. I was not certain about this, having heard stories of complications from my friends who had their children with form of this anaesthesia. But that was almost 30 years ago, and things might have changed. So I thought I would try it out.

Never again! If I can avoid it!

The process itself was perfect. You hear stories about the pain caused by injections into the spinal canal, but either that process has changed a lot, too, or the anaesthetist was extremely skilled - it hurt no more than having your blood taken.

But oh, the experience! It numbs you from the injection site down (I assume that pregnant women get it at a lower point in the spine to be able to push), and starts with your legs tingling.

Then it all goes dead. Wow! As it happens, I got some gas up my nose as well, and knew nothing about anything until the gas was removed afterwards, when I was completely and totally conscious again, in the recovery room. Bouncing off the walls and ceiling conscious, that is. Could have done with my Ipod there, had I known.

But oh, the legs. Still totally dead! You have no idea the weight that they have when they are, effectively, paralysed. Tried to lift them with my hands (but could not do very much anyway, under the watchful eye of the nurse). But somehow I must have had some feeling in them, because the mattress felt so soft around them, as if it was a duvet, molded just around the shape of each of my legs, with the knees slightly bent.

After an hour's screaming boredom which I finally ended by starting to use the metal cot sides of my bed as a percussion instrument, trying to 'play' some pieces I knew (we haf vays of getting our own way...), I got let back down to my room.

Was I glad when eventually I was able to move the toes of my right foot! I tried to sit up, seeing as there was nothing wrong with my arms, but my balance was totally out of kilter, and the different bits of the bed under the legs kept moving and unsettling me. If I tried to lift my legs, the bed followed them. Slowly, slowly, I began to get some control back - only to be told that after this anaesthesia you need to stay in bed for 24 hours (to prevent headaches or something). Oh 'eck!

But you know what? There was nothing wrong with the bed - it was a normal, one piece mattress, the same I spent almost all my time on - but the sensation while it lasted was totally different!