My husband had surgery today for a ruptured bursa sac and had anesthesia/sedation as well as oxygen during the procedure. He also has had more energy today than he has had in YEARS. He asked me to try to find out why he would be feeling this way. I googled "energy after surgery" and found this page. He also suffers from depression, but not to the point where he stays in bed for days at a time. He`ll check back with his doctor for follow up to the surgery in a few days and he`ll ask exactly what kind of anesthesia/sedation was used. I`m very curious if anyone else has had this same reaction. 

Anesthesiologists in this era of outpatient surgery do not have many opportunities to directly observe or even talk to their patients after they have been sent home from the facility. When we do hear from patients it is unfortunately usually because they have had unpleasant experiences. So it's a pleasure to hear of the opposite occurrence! 

Until a couple of weeks ago I had not known directly of any patients who'd had the experience that you report. But you are the second person to write in with this sort of description of increased energy - or even euphoria - after anesthesia. This is something we'd really like to take credit for! There are however no scientific studies documenting this exact phenomenon and so I'm not exactly sure how to account for it. 

It's probably not surprising that sedative and anesthetic drugs would have some effect on mood. Typically though, the effects of pain and the disability that results from surgery, are the predominant features. It would be interesting to know what your husband was given for sedation or anesthesia. A drug like propofol, commonly used for sedation, is well known to sometimes produce a sensation of euphoria. The drug ketamine can also produce a feeling of well-being but can also cause dysphoria or even unpleasant hallucinations. Some narcotics, such as alfentanil can produce adverse mood changes but of course are well known as drugs that can get you "high" as they are chemically related to heroin. Each of these drugs acts on different receptors in the brain - and each are potentially drugs of abuse. 

As the action of drugs used in modern-day sedation techniques are short-lived, your husband's mood change is likely also to wear off quickly, but don't tell him so....perhaps it will trigger by psychological means a sustained period of elevated mood and energy. 

Your husband could ask for a copy of his anesthetic record which will document exactly the drugs and dosages used. These might give some insights that would be useful to the physician treating his depression. It's not that you would want to be taking any of these anesthetic drugs on a long term basis, but the information may provide clues as to the biochemical basis of his depression, and the best long-term anti-depressant(s), if any, worth trying. 

My now 21 year old daughter underwent an almost 12 hour heart cath/electrial mapping under general anesthesia 2 years ago. At first we joked that afterwards she could run faster and was now cold natured, instead of hot. This past March, we discovered that our previously loving, selfless child had been charging at least $15,000 on my credit cards that I thought she was pay for me every month. This is also the child who once said she wanted a house full of children. She can barely tolerate children in her presence now. She is very self-centered. I am not looking to blame anyone for these problems, only to see if there are others who have experienced similar changes if there is anything we can do to get our girl back? 

This must be awful for you. I can easily understand why you might think the anesthesia responsible. There is no scientific evidence I am aware of that a prolonged anesthetic can cause the type of personality change you describe. I think it is more likely that your daughter is suffering from some type of psychiatric problem, such as bipolar disorder, which unfortunately has happened to coincide with the heart procedure. How long after the procedure did these changes occur? If the unusual behavior started immediately afterwards I suppose there might be reason to inquire whether things went poorly during the heart procedure. If not, I think it is particularly unlikely to have had anything to do with the psychologic changes. If there were serious problems, such as a long period of low blood pressure or low oxygen you would very likely have been told about this already. And, even if there were major problems, such events are thought usually to produce profound brain damage, not personality or behavioral change. 

I have been trying to find out why after having two proceedures in two weeks I felt more energy after each than I normally do. I have extreme depression and anxiety issues and regularly sleep straight thru 1 or 2 days. When I don`t do that I typically am alert for only a few hours a day. But I had a colonoscopy and breast surgery on consecutive fridays and after each one I was up for about 8 hours and more than that, I was up cleaning house, doing laundry, etc. I did more in the time after each of the procedures (when I was supposed to be resting) then I can normally accomplish in a month`s time. 

They gave me anesthesia/sedation. They said it was something like lithium (I think it might have been Diprivan). I also had oxygen during both of them. I thought it was the oxygen that did it and my Dr. got me oxygen, but after using it for 2 days I have not seen any improvement. It must have been something about the anesthesia, I just can not figure out what. My life could be soooo different if I can determine what brought on this energy. Any help or thoughts would be so very much appreciated. 

Very interesting question. What you're describing is pretty much the exact opposite of the experience that most people have after surgery and anesthesia! It takes most people at least a couple of days to get back completely to their usual state of energy, sleep and so on. So I'm actually wondering whether you are kidding me! 

Diprivan, also known as propofol, is a common anesthetic drug that sometimes produces a slight sense of euphoria after its use, but the pronounced increase in energy you describe is something I've never encountered or heard of. Are there any other drugs you're taking on a regular basis? Drug interactions can produce unexpected results. Its also possible that you stopped taking one or more medications before your surgery and the withdrawal of these drugs caused an improvement in your mental state. 

Another guess is that perhaps you were experiencing a lot of anxiety in anticipation of your medical procedures and now that it's all over the anxiety is gone and you are feeling tremendously relieved, contributing to your overall sense of well-being. People's underlying psychologic state can have a significant affect on how they react to psychoactive drugs which themselves affect emotions or other aspects of mental function. 

Although oxygen bars are, or were, popular in the chic neighborhoods of major cities, there is no evidence that oxygen, above normal ambient concentrations, improves energy levels, mood, thinking or anything else of that nature.