Pain
"The only times I have had the medicine is when I have had arterial surgeries and Dilaudid was administered by IV. As previous posts have stated, it goes into effect 30 - 60 seconds after administration, but with a slight heating effect in the injected vein. Soon after the blissful pain relief has occurred. I was able to intently listen to a book or watch TV: sleep was also easy if I wanted. This was only a 1mg dose, but surprisingly effective. It killed the pain while allowing one to be mentally alert (if desired), unlike morphine. I highly recommend this medicine for hospital pain relief, but for longer term pain relief, up to 6 hours, it was supplemented with 5 mg of Vicodin."