Once Upon A Surgery

I was reading something just now about what 'actually' happens when a patient wakes up after surgery. I literally have no way to know if any of it is actually true. I mean. I assume it is?

It's not that I've never had surgery; I have.

Apparently I woke up in the OR with a tube down my trachea and probably started talking just after it was removed. I was definitely talking on my way out of the OR and into the recovery room at which point I told the nurse that my pain was at a three and they put me on some sort of narcotic IV painkiller. No idea which one.

Not that I actually remember any of this happening. I don't. At all. Not even a little bit.

To my memory, the anesthetist injected a 'mild anti-anxiety' medicine in my IV drip, told me about it, and then I got a mask put over my face. The next thing I remember is being in the recovery room and crying. Not sure why I was crying. I suspect I was either that happy, or the lady in the bed next to me threw up and I was having a panic attack. I remember up to a few minutes after that, then there's a missing section and the next thing I remember is that it was snack time and when I was done eating I got to go home.

The reason I know what 'probably' happened from when I woke up until I remember is stuff I got told by the nurses. Well. The anesthetist told me I'd wake up with a tube down my throat and to not chew it, so that's how I know that bit. I don't know if I chewed on it or freaked out or gagged when they removed it. The nurse in the recovery room told me if I kept talking I'd make myself sick, which shut me up straight away. That was before the missing bit. She also told me I'd been talking since they brought me out of the OR. I laughed for a solid five minutes when I was asked if my pain was still a 3. I asked when I'd even said that and apparently it was also when I was brought to the recovery room. I don't know if it was the narcs, but the fact that I totally didn't remember that made me laugh so much.

Anyway, hopefully next time I have surgery, I won't be given crazy amnesia drugs and I'll know what it's actually like to wake up from sedation rather than to have Versed wear off.