Hi.
You can expect to fall asleep instantly once they inject their stuff to your iv.
Waking up can be with pain, but you can ask for a nerve block up front. They do want to see you wake up and able to move your toes before they do the nerve block. So you may have some pain for few seconds or minutes from waking up until the block works (matter of seconds to 1 minute).
This block completely numbs your legs so no pain at all.
After 24 hours the pain gradually appears. By then you can manage with pain killers, usually opioids, by mouth.
The general advice is to take pain killers before the pain really sets in, that way you don't "wake up" any nerve pain pathways... This may be the situation for few first days. After that the pain gradually decrease.
You also may feel nausea when waking up. They can give you something for that.
You may also feel some soreness swallowing because of the tube for inhalation they insert (if they do it).
The overall experience of LL makes the anesthesia part and anesthesia recovery really a non significant part..
Good luck
