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Peripheral nerve blocks are usually done right before surgery in a private or a block room. The anesthesia doctor will perform a timeout. A timeout will consist of a nurse, an anesthesiologist, and the patient, which is you, to confirm the location of the surgery, make sure that you have any allergies, that you are the correct patient by checking your date of birth and your name. And after that, we’ll proceed to the block. We’ll clean your skin first to make sure that there is no infections. And then we’ll put a tiny needle in your skin and inject a little bit of medication to numb that area. Then we’ll bring an ultrasound machine and a nerve stimulator to make sure that we have the correct guidance to put the needle right next to the nerve. You may feel pins and needles as anesthetic takes effect.
For the nerve block, your feedback is essential. We wanna prevent any complications. We look for sudden pain down your arm or leg where we’re doing the block. Do we have any changes in your hearing? Changes in your eyesight? Change in the sense of taste, if you get anxious, if you get any muscle spasms or any change in your breathing. Right after we finish the injection of the medicine around the nerve, that part of your body is gonna feel tired. It’s gonna feel numb, heavy and weak, and you may lose muscle control. We always ask you to keep your arm or your leg rested. These sensations may last up to 18 hours, depending of the kind of local anesthetic that we inject.
