Heh. I usually think that when they’re trying to wake me up! Once I’m conscious, I realize why it’s so important that they wake me up, but when it first starts happening, my only thought is “Go away! I’m sleeping!” Kinda like when one of my kids wakes me at 2AM! 
i’ve had three hand surgeries, a necrotic cyst removed from my left upper arm, a shattered right big toe rebuilt – and more dental work than i’m comfortable recalling actually…
the first real operation i had was in the mid sixties. that came with the gas mask and i remember that the stuff smelled like shoe polish. i was also asked to count backward from 100. i don’t remember whether i did or not. the operation went fine but after i was sent to recovery was when we first learned how badly i would react to g.a. whatever they used, i was told that i woke up screaming – and swinging. the next time i came to, i was tied down to the gurney! i was about nine years old at the time.
fast forward about 14 years and i had to have 3 impacted and infected wisdom teeth removed. fortunately for all involved, anesthesia had evolved quite bit from the dark ages of the swingin’ sixties and they used iv sodium pentathol. based on my previous behavior, i told them to tie down my arms and legs after i was out. just in case. all went well, however and i had no weird reactions. since then i’ve had the knockout juice by iv and also the twilight drugs like versed for all of my various surgeries. all have worked well and there are no crazed-patient after-effects, for which i’m most grateful. 
the preheated blankies are a gift from god and most appreciated, given how frickin’ cold they keep the operating theaters these days.
i also experience the time machine effect and the burning sensation as the drug travels the vein. with one of the hand surgeries, i remember looking up and behind me at the anesthesiologist who was looking back at me upside down (to my perspective, anyway 
) and asking, “is it supposed to burn like this?”
he said, “uh huh,” and that was all i had to contribute to the conversation. in the next ‘second,’ i was waking up in the op room with a heavily bandaged hand while they were all busy tidying up the post op stuff.
no nausea problems ever with any of the various kinds of knockout, but i highly recommend you follow the pre-op instructions to the letter about food. and by all that’s holy, don’t do what i did after a surgery: go out and eat a big breakfast immediately after. i have NO idea what the hell i was thinking at the time other than i was hungry, i guess. you’d think a grown adult and a surgery veteran would put two and two together and realize that a post-op breakfast of sausage, bacon, pancakes, coffee, milk and orange juice, was probably NOT A GOOD IDEA! i paid **dearly ** for such foolishness later on.
elsewhere i’ve contributed to a doper thread about root canals from hell, but the iv sedation always works just fine. finding a good iv sedation oral surgeon in these here parts of central indiana is becoming a bitch and a half, however.
best of luck. you’ll be fine.
More on my wisdom teeth “twilight sleep” sedation:
They put the nitrous oxide gas over my face and they started to talk; asked about my family, etc. Once the question went to how my sister was doing, I burst out laughing and apologized but said I was stoned. That’s what they were looking for.
Then I felt the IV drugs hit. It was heaven. I could have died then and there and would not have cared. I was fully awake and conscious, but didn’t give two shits. They put the rubber block in my mouth and began cutting. At some point, the surgeon said “He’s still awake! Give him some more.”
I’m thinking that’s fine with me and I felt the second dose hit. Now, I was far less aware. I remember sights and sounds, but not much clarity Then I was coming to, and I was surprised that it was over. Already?
The nurse said that I took a hell of a dose of IV meds that she had seen some people take more, but it was still an amazing amount since I wasn’t unconcious. In comparison, my mom took the first dose and doesn’t remember arriving at the dentist’s office that morning.
So, I have a tolerance, and I don’t want some pussy little dose of drugs that will make me wake up before it is over.
Basically, I don’t want to sound like a drug addict asking for the max doses, but I want to be under. No memories and no pain. Let the drugs flow…
Thanks again, Dopers…
They knocked me out for my wisdom teeth surgery as a teenager. They were doing all four teeth, and I demanded (and got) general anesthesia for that.
So they strapped me into the mask, put in the IV, and told me that I’d be going byebye real soon. As best as I can recall, I just sank back into the chair and went out like a light. Sort of like falling asleep so fast that I didn’t have time to really assess the experience.
Weird thing was waking up – I woke up absolutely bawling, and bawled all the way home, and kept on crying until I fell asleep despite being a hard-bitten chica of nearly-eighteen who never cried. Literally couldn’t stop bawling like a two year old. :eek: I was so stoned that the logic of not being able to watch the dentist and assistants do their thing never really tripped for me.
No nausea for me, just complete loopiness.
This will be covered in your advance conversation with your anesthesiologist, when he/she asks if you’ve had general anesthesia in the past, and if you have any history of trouble with anesthesia. When they ask you this, just honestly tell them you have a history of being very resistant to anesthesia drugs, and often need large doses of them. Voice your concerns about not being “under” enough. Your anesthesiologist can then monitor that for you.
OP back with his story about general anesthesia:
Sedative before hand. Mask over the face, and asked to picture myself in Hawaii on vacation. I thought to myself: “I never go to Hawaii, on vacation so let’s pick another place…”
That was it. The next second I was in the recovery room. The pain after that was the bad part.
Thanks again to all replies!