I have a different story of pain medication gone awry.
My wife had surgery and there was a hydromporphone pump where she could press a button. The button was then blocked for eight minutes. She didn't understand the system. Then I realized that it had two different beeps, one if the pump delivered a bolus and the different one if the pump was blocked. My wife and I we are both Deaf so we just didn't know. I requested then the pump turned around so she could have a look at the GUI of the pump.
But my wife already lost her confidence, refused to press the button and a few hours later the hospital removed that contraption completely and switched to a different regimen.
Slightly funny story similar to yours: we were having our 2nd kid and my wife was given no2 gas as a painkiller. I got to be in charge of the dial that controlled the no2/oxygen mix. We started at, like, 40% no2 but then she said she was in pain so I dialled it up to 60%. She was still in pain after half an hour so I increased to 80%. 30 mins later she was in a lot of pain and I noted you could actually set it to 100% no2, but didn't understand how she'd get any oxygen at that setting. I should probably have figured it out at that point, but was pretty sleep-deprived. I asked a nurse why the no2 wasn't working and she said "why, you're almost on 80% oxygen now!"
Kind of similar? I've woken up under NO2/Desflurane 2 times in my life and another time had NO2 just didn't seem to have much effect. After the first time I've made it a point to tell the anthesoilogists of my previous experience but with no personal record it just keeps recurring.
Litocane seems to metabolize or otherwise fade in effect faster in me too than what most dentists expect but at least they listen.
My wife had surgery and there was a hydromporphone pump where she could press a button. The button was then blocked for eight minutes. She didn't understand the system. Then I realized that it had two different beeps, one if the pump delivered a bolus and the different one if the pump was blocked. My wife and I we are both Deaf so we just didn't know. I requested then the pump turned around so she could have a look at the GUI of the pump.
But my wife already lost her confidence, refused to press the button and a few hours later the hospital removed that contraption completely and switched to a different regimen.