rafwife

I'm being referred to a consultant for the rest of my pregnancy, partly because of this, so I will ask when I meet them but I was wondering if anyone on here might know the answer.

I'm allergic to General Anesthetic. So far, it's not be classed as life threatening, I just go into seizures for about two hours afterwards, and I drift out of consciousness, have trouble breathing and I have a very rough recovery which takes much longer than normal. I've only had a GA twice, with exactly the same results.

My question is this:

Is anesthetic related to epidural and other types of pain relief involved in labour? If so, I imagine I won't be offered this.

Beltane

I was too late for an epidural with my first child and was given a shot of demerol during labor. Im not sure what they will offer you in the UK but I'm sure they will allow you pain relief of some sort.

rafwife

I'm sure I'll be allowed gas and air, and maybe something else. Not sure about anesthetics though. I've never had a local, so I don't know if it would have the same effect, or if an epidural is related.

rafwife

Hmm, maybe not. Nitrous Oxide is what makes up gas an air, and it's present in anesthetic. I suppose I'll just have to wait to speak to the consultant I know that after last time they were quite concerned.

Heather.78

Oh thats a crap allergy I havent got a clue what you'd be able to use what about dentists do you have novacane??

sam's mum

Do you know what part of the anesthetic you're allergic to? I was given pethidine when I had a general anesthetic years ago and had an allergic reaction to it (but they told me that the reaction was to that specifically). I was fine on gas and air, and they gave me a drug called meptid which is an alternative to pethidine when I was in labour. Didn't help much with the pain but it did make me very drowsy and not care about the pain quite so much!

rafwife

No unfortunately they couldn't tell. I've also been given a local with much the same results. I'm also highly allergic to mifepristone which I was given when I miscarried and caused hemorrhaging, blackouts, seizures and vomiting.

I imagine I will be allowed something if needed, it's a shame that I don't know exactly what I'm allergic to as GA is made up of different drugs.

rafwife

Never had anything like that at the dentists as I've never needed any work done, so I don't know.

Heather.78

I know that herbal things are defo not like the real drugs but if you cant have any painkillers have you thought of things like hypnotherapy, rescue remedy(probably wont help much) or acupuncture. dont know if any of these would help but they might do.

rafwife

I will definitely be looking into that, thanks for the suggestions