If it helps -- it's still quite rare, and orders of magnitude less likely that you'd feel or remember anything other than a general haziness after three days. They put a whole cocktail of drugs in you so there's more overlap and less likely for one failure point.

Yes there can be things that go wrong, but that's true with daily life (car crash, etc). You're far more likely to get hit with a case of comparatively mild post-op nausea as any kind of complication, and there's so many more ways to immediately fix that painlessly than even 20 years ago. You should be able to talk to your doc and anesthesiologist in the preparation process 30 minutes before if there's any private questions, concerns, or fears.

Best of luck, and I hope for your swift recovery. Happy to answer any questions if there's any about the process. (Have had ~17 surgeries, some for life threatening issues, and one last week for complicated eye stuff so it's fairly fresh. Just wanted to send words of encouragement.)

Hello, I’m not the person you replied to, and I hope its not against the rules, but: I’ve had a terrible couple of years with debilitating anxiety and fear of physical illnesses after a panic attack one year into covid (diagnosed OCD, and talking to a therapist, and orders of magnitude better now w/o medication thankfully). One of the triggers that I still have is this (fear of anesthesia wearing of, and feeling painful procedures) so thank you for the post. (Sorry for the elongated ty note xD)

No worries, been exactly there on a real emotional level. Wishing you personally the best of luck too, and proud of you for meeting the anxiety-head on with therapy. :)