Hi Nancy,
It's Sue again! Okay. I was given a little white pill. I must have dumped the info, because I can't find the piece of paper that had that information on it, at the moment. Your doctors will most certainly give you something, especially when you tell the you are anxious about the procedure. The pill I had, which may have been ativan, certainly did the job well. I am assuming that nobody gets "knocked out" entirely. They do not have anesthesiologists there. This pill makes you relaxed and compliant and you can follow instructions, you can sit up if they need to change the helmet thing they put on your head (not the headframe, but the other thing that has holes in it that the gamma knife beams go into - I think!), you can talk with them, and you will not be the least bit concerned as to what they will be doing nor will you remember much of your procedure. You could be dancing the fandango in there, and you won't remember!! This is a similiar or the same kind of drug that they give you when you get a colonoscopy, which you'll probably get to do someday. From their perspective, you are awake and they can work with you; from your perspective, you will become relaxed and then more relaxed, and then it's very "foggy" and then it's like you're asleep. They attach all this hardware on you, lay you down on the table, and then they click things into place, bolt you down, whatever it is they do so that you cannot move your head. This is likely to freak people out, and this is certainly not in you best interest to freak out when radiation is pinpointing a target in your head! So, the little white pill is a "good thing"!
It works very quickly, and it starts to wear off after the procedure. You will likely be a little goofy the rest of the day, depending on your tolerance level, of course. I went home , ate lunch, took my pills, and passed out in my bed all afternoon. I don't think I even moved. I woke up in the exact same position as when I conked out. I visited with my family, who came and brought a Deli dinner, took my decadron pills, stayed up til midnight, cause I had to take more pills, chatting with my aunt who came to be my caregiver. I don't really remember much about that either, except the dinner! HA
Didn't really need the caregiver! The next day, because of the decadron, I was HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. Feeling good and loving life.
Of course, NOW, I read that you already know about Ativan, but obviously, the dosage is different. Nobody could function with what they gave me. I have no idea what else they could do for you...so obviously a long talk with the doctor is needed. I'll leave my post in, just in case it helps somebody else. And Kudos to Grace1, because I think going through this without a sedative would have raised my stress level. I can do the MRI just fine, so maybe I would have gotten through okay, but that's not the procedure where I was treated.
Sue in Vancouver USA
