Then you weren't getting the right drugs. When I had severe gallstone problems, the pain was excruciating. A shot of Demerol made me utterly pain free within a few minutes (got one every 3 hours). When I was leaving the college infirmary, to be taken to the hospital, I reached to open the door of the car I was to ride in, and the doctor quickly intervened and opened it herself. After my surgery, she explained that my liver had been in danger of rupturing and that any exertion was really dangerous. I had no idea what bad shape I was in, because of the Demerol. I felt like I could have headed off to gymnastics practice right then.
When I broke my humerus on 2/11, I got morphine and dilaudid IV. It barely touched the pain. Frankly, the only thing that'd make that pain go away was being completely under. For about a week.