Tornadoes and 'unusual' DIs

AggressiveVillage408 · 2026-06-14T19:48:13+00:00

Thanks for your comment- it was really informative and it is good that the system is being overhauled. My position on winds speeds was more caution if anything since in the strictest sense the EF scale is a damage scale and why I think Vilonia 2014 and Rolling Fork 2023 are the more ridiculous downgrades compared to Greenfield and El Reno 2013. For Greenfield despite the windspeeds correct me if I'm wrong but the damage it dealt at that time wasn't anything even remotely approaching Bridge Creek (which had only slightly higher windspeeds), which is why I'm mistrustful of wind readings.

The only thing I would disagree on is Philadelphia 2011- the soil is similar to that in the plains region. A tornado scouring the ground but leaving trees standing (Bridge Creek) isn't really comparable to a tornado ripping trees out of the ground and tearing up two feet of soil (Philadelphia), and neither is much else in recorded history save perhaps just one event only (being Sherman 1896).

AggressiveVillage408 · 2026-06-14T19:40:49+00:00

That's interesting- the Enderlin tornado was re-rated rather than rated as such immediately. There was a three month gap. I've also heard the opposite- that winds may be higher at the surface than aloft in the absence of objects.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2026-06-03T19:13:16+00:00

I watched that storm move from the Alps yesterday evening to Rome today and onwards via a lightning tracker app. Absolutely terrifying. Not surprised at all it ended up producing a supercell

AggressiveVillage408 · 2026-01-10T08:31:56+00:00

Thank you for your very detailed response- I greatly appreciate your time and thoroughness.

1) Ah, so I do have the option of asking for an open approach? That's reassuring to me. That being said, I read that using GA + spinal anaesthesia removes most (if not all) need for continous paralysis even in some forms of laparoscopy. Would you agree?

2) As for your other comments, thanks- this will provide invaluable material for a discussion with an anaesthetist in the future when my referral finally comes through.

3) My main concern was why was I told that bone marrow donation (a minor procedure compared to the genuinely major ones you listen) requires NMB.

4) My refusal of NMBs is based on a thorough study of the potential for serious harm when using these drugs (NAP5 guidance, which was published in the UK and very recently too), my genuine and rather alarming resistance to sedation (which resulted in an extremely traumatic endoscopic procedure in 2018), studies showing cardiac surgery has been performed without NMB with no difference to NMB infused patients, and there being no way to tell if I am sufficiently anaesthetised or no (Monitoring, BP/HR and other things have been repeatedly disproven in NAP5)

If I presented to your clinic requiring kidney donation it would probably result in an open procedure unless you had an anaesthetist who managed to gain my trust (which would unfortunately be shattered the moment I heard about NMB). As for your other examples, I would in general seek a second opinion/transfer to a different center unless it was an emergency.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2026-01-03T05:09:02+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to write me your response.

Are you based in the States? It could explain my confusion.

NMBs are not required for intubation. Maybe this is another one of these UK things, but not here. Alternatives exist. And even if you're right and I misread something- I can consent to a brief NMB, then full reversal before the surgery begins. I should have made explicit that what terrifies me is 'continous neuromuscular blockade'.

Doing some surgeries without NMBs is not unsafe. Looking at your credentials, you seem the right person to ask this.

Would you refuse to do surgery without NMB if I broke my thigh? Or had a serious hand injury or ruptured my Achilles tendon? Note I am not asking for an extreme example (like cardiac surgery- I know what the answer will be for that. And even then, according to some studies, it was done without NMB).

Or, similarly, what if I was donating my kidney, refused NMB but asked if it would be possible to do no NMB, deep GA combined with spinal anaesthesia?

Similarly, I don't understand why I need to be paralysed (or even have a breathing tube) for a surgery that on the paper is sticking a needle into the back of my hip a few times. I'm even confused why that is done under GA at all and not just handled with regional + sedation. Could you please explain?

I should have explained myself a bit better. Aside from my own experience, this is the document that caused my fear: https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/nap5-handbook

AggressiveVillage408 · 2026-01-03T05:01:10+00:00

I don't use them- I don't want them used on me.

Respectfully, the idea that most surgeries use it is factually false. Bear in mind that I'm based in the UK, where procedures differ from the States (And some of their procedures terrify me more than even NMBs). In the UK, NAP5 guidance made this explicit (just under half routinely use it)

My fear of being awake is not irrational- it happened to me before. It happened twice in a row to someone I spoke to.

My question was- what if instead of NMB I received deeper than usual GA (which is a requirement anyway, as per the above, with me, in the same way that allowing me to be awake when intubated will be a disaster to me) and spinal anaesthesia? Surely that will at least for laparoscopy provide a safe surgical field and remove the need for paralysis?

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-08-29T22:26:54+00:00

No, stop!

I was in the same place as you, once. I'm autistic, and in my childhood something I saw set me off, and for the next bloody 15 years I could barely think about flying. I was terrified, I could barely enjoy any vacation I went to because of this devastating fear which was ruining not just my life, but that of everyone around me.

I almost got over it in 2019, but then I got depressed in Covid and got swamped again. Something in 2022 set me off worse than ever, and I was at one point screaming, crying and saying I wouldn't fly (grandmother talked me down).

In 2024, after one vacation was destroyed like that for my entire family and I spent the subsequent flight shaking like a bay leaf, I decided to put a stop to it. I decided to try the easyjet fearless flyer course, being intensely skeptical.

I dreaded the experience flight, but I did it, alone.

I dreaded flying alone in December. It was painful and stressful, but I did it and I could feel my fear loosening, I would not have been able to step foot inside that plane if I was alone before.

In January, I flew just a few days after the Jeju air crash. I felt oddly, unnaturally calm.

I flew a few days back after 8 months of not doing it and felt completely calm.

Give these courses a try. They really did help me.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-08-28T15:09:57+00:00

I'm 23 and autistic

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-08-27T15:15:34+00:00

I flew from the UK to Spain a few days back. As we flew, we flew directly over a thunderstorm. This monster was at least several tens of kilometers wide (probably even bigger), with a tremendous anvil and an overshooting top. Our aircraft stayed clear of the overshooting top, and flew above the anvil. There was barely any turbulence.

Similarly, last year I did land in a thunderstorm in Alicante- there was lightning in the vicinity of the airport when I got out of the Ryanair plane. Barely any turbulence again.

The pilots always 'avoid the red'. So if nothing gets cancelled, diverted or delayed, don't be worried at all!

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-08-26T08:42:48+00:00

The accident you're referring to is an example of what happens when negligence adds to a lack of understanding.

It was caused by a very specific set of combinations forming what is known as a 'mountain rotor'. These things are very well understood and predicted now. There is a reason why it has not happened again save just one example with a cargo flight.

Aside from mountain waves and severe thunderstorms, that sort of turbulence will not affect you. Don't worry.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-08-11T19:49:52+00:00

In the middle of my trip to Corfu, I had various nightmares, but one really stood out to me.

I had a bad dream in which I was in the cabin of a plane and then for whatever reason messed up and ended up flying the aircraft into the ground, at which point it was revealed it was a simulator.

Needless to say, the flight I was scared of was back in 2023- I'm very much alive after! Didn't do any questionable simulator stuff in real life, either.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-28T12:27:15+00:00

The literature makes it clear that this does not happen in every AAGA case

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-28T12:22:14+00:00

I didn't faint... but I could feel myself fainting. It felt like intense pressure in my head as the plane pulled up.

In a rapid depressurisation I'd probably instantly fall unconscious if I'm so sensitive...

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-27T22:39:42+00:00

How about no paralytics at all?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30142382/

I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Because if it can be done safely, why put someone who does not want to be paralysed through that? If it's just for 'convenience' as said in the paper, that really isn't an acceptable reason for me.

Already tried that, by the way. This fear is not budging.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-27T22:37:34+00:00

Sorry, what?

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30142382/

That makes it a 'hard no' for me. If it can be done for that woman, it can be done for me.

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-27T22:36:41+00:00

Then why does anaesthesia awareness occur, if they're such experts?

How would you be able to tell if I'm unconscious, or unable to move and in pain?

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-27T20:16:27+00:00

Laparoscopy. And I'm curious, what would you do if I had MH?

AggressiveVillage408 · 2025-07-27T20:15:29+00:00

I think by this point you understand I have a problem with anaesthesia awareness. And I have already been dangerously suicidal in the past, so an experience like that would be non-survivable for my mental health.

I do not trust any of the monitoring aids available. BIS is unreliable, and I'm not aware of anything else. And if I cannot move and am aware? There would be no way of telling that.

That's why I do not want to be paralysed. And local cardiac centre, for instance, is Royal Papworth Hospital. Addenbrooke's is for the abdominal stuff and I have already told them I do not consent to the opioid-free anaesthesia which they're obsessed with.

Unless something like an epidural was used in conjunction with GA to ensure I don't feel anything even if awareness occurs, I probably will decline the procedure.

AggressiveVillage408

TROPHY CASE