Curse of the Nurse

Get comfy, this could potentially be a very long post...one that I will probably have to do in shifts as I am remarkably sore.

Let's start with a couple of days ago. I had a massage a while ago, this woman as it turns out is primarily a therapist but does various types of bodywork to compliment her therapy. My massage session turned into a cranio-sacral session plus some energy work. I went for a follow up on Tuesday, expecting to continue with the work that we did last time. All it took was a simple "so how are you doing?" that prompted me to burst into tears. Next thing I know I am talking about my friends death from almost 4 years ago. She gently suggests that maybe the focus of our sessions should be emotional health with bodywork as an adjunct. Sounded perfect to me. During the session, a recurrent theme of fear surfaced. By the end, I felt like I had let go of some of those fears. Then, the most amazing thing happened. With some of the fear out of the way, I was actually able to let in hope and joy. For the first time during this cycle, I was able to say (out loud even) that I was looking forward to the outcome, that I had hope, REAL hope, that we might have another baby.

Fast forward to today - retrieval day. We left the house at 6:10 to be seated in the waiting room by 7:30. Anesthesia shows up 8 to start my IV and give me the good stuff. Three IV attempts later and I have some fluids running in and the meds were quickly to follow. Next thing I know I am waking up and the process of recovery begins. After about an hour I'm feeling woozy, but pretty good. C wants me to go into "assist" him with his specimen so we don't have another "incident". Finally around 10:00, we are ready to leave. C goes to get the car and bring it around front. I politely decline being taken out in a wheelchair. I go downstairs and almost immediately start to feel pretty awful. I feel like I am going to pass out and/or throw up. I dash over to the security guard and ask him to tell me husband that I had to go back upstairs. Now I'm back in the procedure room and my blood pressure is 89/43 - crap. Then the pain kicks in. The crazy thing is that the pain is in my right back - like kidney area - and it is sharp! They do a very thorough transvaginal u/s, (which is a special treat after retrieval) and in the middle of the scan the sonographer says to the nurse "can you go get the doctor" - well that is never a good thing to hear, is it? Turns out I had some internal bleeding. I got another IV (only 2 attempts this time), more fluids, blood work in preparation for the possibility of going to the OR. The doctor prepares me that I may need to be admitted for observation and pain control. So then I sit, or lay there rather for hours. I was able to doze a little, but with the blood pressure cuff going off in regular intervals, I can't say that I got much sleep. C left for a while to get something to eat, I didn't want to here about it as I had not eaten since 6pm and they were keeping me NPO just in case we had to go to the OR. When C returned he flipped out a little because my diastolic pressure was 54 and the machine was alarming. The nurse in me told him not to worry, my pulse was not rising so I was pretty sure I wasn't bleeding out, so I showed him which button to push to silence the alarm.

Finally around 1:00 I turned a corner and felt completely pain free. I had to stay until some lab work comes back, but I was finally discharged around 3:30. The nurse said the good news about planning on doing a 5dt is that my innards should be recovered by then. I just hope we can make it until then. On the way home I am so hungry that I could eat the seat of the car. I restrained myself and we stopped for some good ol' comfort food.

So the good news in all of this is: 14 eggs retrieved.! Not sure how many are mature, will find that out tomorrow with the fert report. I'm planning on 2 full days of laying low and regular Tylenol #3.