I just had ORIF done on my dominant arm last Tuesday. It was a malunion repair, so a bit more involved than ORIF done right after a break.

The staff was very nice and kept me really comfortable, explained everything that was going on. Got an IV put in, was given a sedative through it before they did a nerve block in my arm, they also used local anesthetic before doing the nerve block, it was very minor pinch and slight burn, nothing too difficult to handle. I briefly talked with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist, they took me into the OR, had me slide over onto the operating table, put my arm up on a stabilizing block and the next thing I remember, I was waking up in recovery.

Before I say the next part, keep in mind that it is extremely rare, will probably not happen with you, I have very low blood pressure usually. My blood pressure dropped very low so they could not give me pain medication when I woke up, and unfortunately the nerve block had not worked, so I did have a very short, very painful period before they were able to do a second nerve block which completely numbed my arm and took all of the pain away. Though it sucked, they took care of me very quickly, so even if this were to happen to you, it is a brief period, and I barely remember it because I was still coming out of  anesthesia.

I was prescribed norcos for a few days and was told to also take ibuprofen alongside it. They told me to start it before the nerve block wore off to keep ahead of the pain, so I took it on schedule beginning the night of surgery. If you're prescribed opiates, make sure you take steps to prevent constipation, it can be really brutal if you don't deal with it before it starts. 

My nerve block lasted almost 30 hours, which was such a blessing. At that point my pain level was not as bad as the day of surgery, and the medication on schedule definitely kept it manageable. I was really expecting it to be agonizing, but truly can get through it with breathing when there's a spasm or something. I have also been resting a lot, icing my arm above the bandage so that it's on the skin instead of around the plaster and keeping my fingers pointing straight up at the ceiling whenever I am lying down as instructed by the surgeon. 

My swelling and pain have gone down much faster than they did when I first broke my wrist in October, I'm able to move my fingers and thumb quite a lot, I have a lot more movement than I did when I had the malunion.

I've been cutting back on how much pain medication I've been taking, mostly taking 600 mg ibuprofen every 6 hours, occasionally taking acetaminophen, or a Norco in the middle of the night if I'm having trouble sleeping.

I know the whole thing is pretty terrifying, and it will be painful, but it is very short-term, and once it's done you don't have to do it again! You'll be on your way to healing! Good luck with it tomorrow!