Thanks for the replies. I am still trying to answer whether it is appropriate for me to take the approach of "this is my patient, I prescribe the postop meds and will handle the pain after the case, please don't give 10mg morphine after I have given a block and please don't give toradol as my post op protocol includes ibuprofen 400mg every 6 hours and my block will last as long as toradol anyway" versus "I'm just the surgeon and anesthesia is your domain and I won't tread on your territory."
If you aren't going to deal with the patient in the PACU yourself, and you're not, a suggestion like "try to limit opiates" is probably enough.
Don't be closed minded to multi modal analgesia. It's a good way to limit opiates for one, and it can smooth out the post op course. It's not as simple as DC to home in an hour and start home meds when block is wearing off. If you ask to limit opiates and they are shotgunning 5-10 mg at a time, vs titration to effect that's a new problem.
0.5 mcg/kg of Precedex 30 min before wake up might smooth your .mil potential PTSD patients with minimal post op discharge delays. Suggest that instead of opiates.
PS fentanyl is actually a better drug for you as it is easier to titrate than morphine for tourn pain, etc and is more forgiving than morphine if they are a little heavy handed. Your lack of understanding anesthesia is becoming more apparent.
Feel free to do the cases alone with a Tylenol and Music if you want, but your patients will be the losers.
Communication is the key to smooth things out, explain what you want, and then you have to trust that the anesthesia experts actually know what they are doing with regards to anesthesia.
PPS perhaps the morphine did cause your patients post op issues, but unless they gave a dose of narcan and things suddenly got better, there's really no proof that was the cause. Though 10mg in an elderly patient sounds excessive if given as a bolus.