What is it like to have regional anaesthesia?

So let's talk about what it feels like having, for instance, a spinal or an epidural anaesthetic for a procedure on the lower half of your body. Now I'm going to have to completely admit to you now that although I've been administering spinals and epidurals for 40 years, I've never actually had one myself. But I think I've experienced every possible response to my medical practice from patients over those years and can say that I've administered spinals epidurals to literally countless thousands of patients so I've got a good feel of what it's like and the answer is it's not pleasant. It's not pleasant having a needle put in any part of your body but you must understand that the skin at the base of your spine which is where the injections are going is possibly the least sensitive skin in the whole of your body and it doesn't hurt anything as badly as a needle that the doctors often put into the back of your hand in your forearm in order to give you antibiotics or other drugs. Very often the anaesthetist administering the block will get you to sit up and get you to lean forward to open out the bones in your back and before doing anything at all will put a little bit of local anaesthetic in the skin to make sure that you don't feel the needle that's going to deliver the anaesthetic. This feels like a little, it's not even a bee sting, it's just a tiny little scratch and a sting And that means after that, although you may feel some pushing, although you may feel some pulling, although you may get the tiny tingle going down your leg, it's really not a very uncomfortable thing to have done. And once that needle has gone in and delivered the drug, the needle is usually taken out, you're put on your back, and then the feelings you get are not the feelings of the insertion of the anesthetic, they're the feelings of the anesthetic itself. And it starts for The spinals and epidurals are the most amazing warm feeling in the lower half of your body. Your legs go warm, your bottom goes warm. And what that actually reflects is the increase in blood flow to the lower half of your body. Then you get pins and needles as individual nerves get blocked by the local anesthetic. You get this fantastic feeling of pins and needles that lasts a few minutes, and then it goes completely numb. You can't feel it, you can't move it. it's a spooky sensation, it's strange sensation but let me absolutely reassure you that in this context it's a completely normal sensation and not something you should be worried about at all and then as the anaesthetic wears off which will be after the operation has been completed you'll get a reverse of that you'll get the pins and needles will come back then you'll get the warmth then it'll all go back to normal so you do get strange sensations when you're having one of these operations, but the sensations are normal and can be expected and none of them should be distressing, providing you've had that explanation beforehand and you know what's going to happen.