Hi All,

Please forgive me for the rambling nature of this, I'm just super anxious (hence the rambling) and any words of comfort would be greatly appreciated :-)

Tomorrow, I'm having a short electrocautery treatment to my nose to stop nosebleeds. I've had several in-clinic silver nitrate treatments and none have worked long term, so my doctor thinks this is the next thing to try as it is more effective. The only thing is, it has to be done in hospital under a general anaesthetic. Even though he reassures me it will take "5 minutes" I can't help feeling really frightened, mainly about the actual sensation of going under and the fear of having a panic attack and/or not waking up. I don't like hospitals either!

I have actually had a general anaesthetic before for a much longer operation, but I had a pre-med before it which helped a lot. However, my doctor has said that this time, it wouldn't be worth having a premed because the anaesthetic is so short and I'd end up being in hospital for longer whilst the drowsiness went away.

What is the sensation of going under actually like? What do you feel in your body and is it scary? Is it a horrible head-spinning like fainting?? (I don't even like the feeling of getting super drunk!)

I also just wanted to run one last thing past you, please. Knowing my anxiety about the general anaesthetic, my doctor DID say that I could have local anaesthetic instead, HOWEVER, he said I would have to experience intense heat, the smell and taste of burning tissue and possibly bleeding. He therefore thinks it would be better for my anxiety to be asleep! Would you go for a general anaesthetic if you knew it was only for 5 mins?...

Thanks so much everyone. The alternative is to live with the nosebleeds but they cause me daily anxiety as it is!!

Thank you so much for reading x