DeeDoo’s Digital Scrapbooking Blog

Don’t watch this movie if you have surgery planned. Or maybe you should. Forewarned just might be forearmed.

Hayden Christensen plays a 22-year-old gazillionaire with a failing heart. During his surgery he finds himself wide awake but unable to move, even to blink an eye, to alert the doctors and nurses. From watching the movie trailers we already knew that the doctors were plotting to kill him and he is able to hear them discuss it. You think this is going to be a ho-hum, formulaic movie, but you will be pleasantly surprised at the unique way the story unfolds. Jessica Alba plays his gorgeous and doting girlfriend, and does an excellent job. Plus she is so beautiful, who cares if she can act or not. But she can, so bonus! Lena Olin has been off my radar for a long time, and I was glad to see her again. She does a terrific turn as the mother of Hayden’s character. Even Don, who is not easily entertained or impressed by most movies, said he enjoyed this one. Probably because of Jessica Alba, but oh, well!

Curious about whether or not anesthesia awareness is REAL? So was I. It is. Apparently 20-40,000 people out of 20 million who have surgery every year in the US experience it. This is less than 1% of surgeries. Not very comforting if you are one of the 20-40,000 who experience it. That’s equal to the population of a small city, folks. Pretty scary.

I experienced something similar, I think, during a surgery I had years ago. Afterward I thought the anesthesia was probably too light, and I know they often try not to put you under too deep. At any rate, I could smell the blood and feel the skin folded over allowing them to work. I could ‘see’ the light in the operating room through my closed eyelids, too. It didn’t last long, perhaps only a few seconds, but I’m very sure it was real. Thank goodness I couldn’t feel anything!

If you want to learn more about this very real phenomena, I’ve included links to a couple of places with some good info at the bottom of this entry.

Oh, and don’t forget to rent the movie! It’s pretty good!

You can CLICK HERE to go to the movie’s official website.

CLICK HERE to go to information on Anesthesia Awareness from Wikipedia.

CLICK HERE to go to MedicineNet and read “Awake During Surgery:How Rare?”

My gosh, how I LOVE the Internet!!