The digital dials also don’t give us the drama in the movies of tapping and unsticking the indicator to reveal the crisis situation. Although I wonder how common that cliché is in real life.
Was my 2nd general anesthesia only, so i've been a little nervous because i don't like to be 'switched off'.
Anyways, been in the preparation room on that rolling stretcher thing, got some IVs and electrodes while looking around.
All very modern, many, many flat panel displays mounted on swivel arms from down the ceiling, showing and beeping my vital signs. Interesting for biofeedback, i thought.
Got the mask on, got asked how i feel: 'pleasantly light'.
Then all the beeping died, and all the screens froze. No reset, bluescreen, static or other unusual stuff. Just frozen.
Heard a loud 'SHIT!' from behind, and the clacking of running shoes on the tiles. Clacking shoes came back in an instant and rewired me to some shoebox-thing covered in orange rubber with some mini-displays, knobs and sliders.
'How do you feel now?' i've been asked... Lifting the mask i only growled: 'very confidence inspiring...'
'Sleep deep sweety!' was the last thing i heard.
Afterwards i had a surreal night at the 20ieth floor or so, with hot and cold shivers running up and down my spine and the harbour in my view.
Anyways, next morning i asked the surgeon if i hallucinated that, and she answered: No, you didn't. But it was a first!
I LOLd hard.
edit: It had to happen this way/to me, because all my life i've been an open-source fanboi.
Incompatible 'fates', so to speak :-)
If one reading is out from where it should be relative to the others (for the given load/condition) it is investigated immediately so anomalies don't usually go unnoticed.
One gets a sense.. a feeling for the whole.. like a simulation running in your own head to feel whats going on as well.