IME, the anesthesiologist orders very small doses of pain relievers to be given in the recovery room, to allow for room for adjustment. I’ve had as many as five or six doses in about an hour, in order to reach an effective dose. If they give me a dose, and it doesn’t do the trick (and the first dose is almost never enough for me), I always ask for more.
Having had a couple of traumatic injuries, (and in extreme pain) going to the ER and then going to an OR for surgery, my experiences have been:
“Everything is ok, just breathe into this mask” or “We are giving you an anesthetic now (IV) just relax” and I got woozy, but both times I swear I could see the docs waving scalpels, and I wanted to scream “I am not out yet, STOP!” but I could not move or speak, and then as other posters said, nothingness, and I woke up in recovery with no problems.
You know, “they”. Like “everybody” in “everybody knows”.
Joking aside, I may have expressed myself badly. I’m not talking about patients who take drugs regularly for an extended period of time - obviously I’m aware that can cause addiction. When I was in the hospital I got a shot of morphine when I asked for it and I asked my mother, who is a nurse, why nobody seemed to worry that I’d get hooked. She said that you don’t get addicted under those circumstances.