I can see clearly now

[.308 Norma]

Some prefer to remain awake but to have enough of a sedative being administered in order to make it a very calm, laid-back experience.

That was me. I was awake (barely) and I was vaguely aware of what was going on. It didn't bother me.

Some prefer to be totally knocked-out and not remember anything.

That's my wife. She doesn't do well with valium (or needles either for that matter) and she prefers to be completely out, even for dental work. The funny story about her coming out from under the anesthesia after her first cataract surgery is she deals with atrial fibrillation, and when she started to wake up (right after they removed the monitoring equipment) she told them, "I'm in afib, you know."
I guess they sort of panicked, and hurried up and hooked the monitoring equipment back up. Sure enough - my wife was in afib just like she said she was, even though she hadn't been in it through the surgery.
So they came out and asked me if it was normal for my wife to know when she goes into afib. It is, but she usually doesn't talk about it.
So I just told them to let my wife rest for a few minutes, and her afib would probably go away. It did.

 

[AlexanderA]

So I'm interested in knowing .... everyone here who has had the surgery, did you all do it with our without the anesthesia?

My doctor didn't give me a choice. It was done with a local anesthetic (something like a paste) that was applied around the front of the eye. Plus, a sedative to keep me calm. The doctor wanted me awake so that I could obey his instructions. Actually, it wasn't bad at all.

This was in contrast to another unrelated procedure where I had to have 2,000 tiny laser burns placed around the retina (to prevent bleeding and detachment). The 2,000 burns were divided into three sessions. I told the doctor I wanted to tough it out with no anesthesia. Well, by the end of the first session I was in so much pain that I nearly passed out and they had me lie on the floor to recover. For the next sessions they used an "optic nerve block" where a long needle is passed around the eyeball to pump Novocaine into the optic nerve. The laser burns were tolerable, and I had an incredible psychedelic "light show" as the anesthesia wore off. As a result of all this I don't have much peripheral vision left, but at least it saved my eyesight (central vision). (This happened about 35 years ago.)

 

[Robert]

We have wandered way off topic for THR.