Well, I survived. The anesthetist was unable to put the nerve block in place for some reason, although he did try.

Should have been more specific on what kind of surgery - left shoulder rotator cuff tear. Turned out to be more severe than the MRI report stated (60% thickness tear of the biceps tendon).When my surgeon went in, he found that it was closer to 90%! He told me that in order to repair it, he had to "break" the last 10% , then put some screw anchors in the bone and tie it all back together. Going to make recovery a lot harder and longer - surgeon said at least 6 months (which really sucks because I haven't been able to work for the last 6 months; thankfully I have short and long term disability plus my military retirement).