Post Retrieval

I apologize up front if this doesn't make sense. My head is still foggy, but I wanted to give my post ER report.

I slept terribly last night. I was up half the night with my cold, and just felt miserable. When I checked in to the procedure room, it was pretty obvious to the nurses that I didn't feel good. I just have to say, they took such good care of me.

First step, was to get and IV and vitals. My blood pressure was 168/98, my heart rate was up, and my oxygen saturation was low. They got the IV started to give me fluids, turned on a mellow CD, and shut the lights off so I could rest. Nice.

The fellow stopped in to introduce herself and give me the report on my stimulation cycle. I was disappointed to find out that I only had 8 mature follicles, and could only expect 66% of the follicles to produce eggs.

They got me all settled in the procedure room for the retrieval and made me all cozy with a nice warm blanket. Then, they started the drugs - versed and fentanyl. Unfortunately, they weren't that effective. Thank goodness for my personal hand-holder. Anyway, there were 6 people in the room, the nurse who kept calling me "lovie" who was in charge of my sedation, the other nurse who was helping out Nurse Lovie and was responsible for holding my hand, the attending, the fellow, a resident, and 1 or 2 other nurses. A party. The fellow started the retrieval, and I felt the pain. At several points I was moaning, and squeezing the hand, and writhing around. They tried to give me more meds, but my blood pressure was dropping so that was it. I felt like I was wide awake. I don't recommend this at all. It wasn't horribly painful, but definitely uncomfortable. I'd say a 7 on a 10 pt pain scale.

The attending recommended that I watch on the screen, which was a good idea. A nice distraction from what was going on. I think the fellow did the retrieval on the right side, and the attending worked the left because my left ovary hides behind my uterus and is harder to get to. They kept taking breaks to let me rest. At one point, the attending said they had one more to go and asked if he should go for it, or if they should stop. I said go for it.

They ended up with 8 eggs, for which I was happy. I"m holding my breath for the fertility report tomorrow. (I did give my eggs a pep talk last night).

So, I just woke up from my nap, and am planning on diving into a lovely novel in a few minutes. I was given the "all-clear" to take some cold medicine, so I'm feeling a bit better.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post. Wish me luck!