Sedation? Anaesthesia?

After 2 weeks’ of self injection on the belly, finally it came to the day of egg retrieval. I had ultrasound 2 and 4 days earlier and doc said the eggs were growing well and the number looks good too which was assuring. The only downside is with all the injected hormone and the unusual egg growth in both sides of the ovaries, my belly became super bloated. Quoting others’ word that I heard once was, the size of your belly turns from not pregnant to 4-month pregnant within only 10 days.

Doctor had recommended me to take around 4–5 eggs (only the egg white) per day but it’s a bit difficult to actually put it into practice but I tried my best to have at least 2 eggs (with the yolk) per day.

Base on my recent research on the IVF/ICSI process (mainly through YouTube), usually those who are from the US, Australia and even Taiwan mostly said they had undergone anaesthesia during egg retrieval so they basically felt nothing during the process. However, a few days ago I happened to see a post in a Thai infertility group on Facebook which the lady mentioned the egg retrieval was excruciating and she could not even relax on the operation bed.

Two days earlier when I tried to ask the nurse whether anaesthesia would be given and the nurse just said they only give patients sedation medication rather than anaesthesia for egg retrieval, which in a way confirmed what that lady mentioned in her post. It made me a little worried.

So today after I got myself ready on the operation bed (in the usual ultrasound pose), the nurse slowly injected the “relaxation medication” into my arm. After a few seconds, she checked with me whether I felt sleepy but at that time I was still wide awake, probably because I was a bit nervous as well! Then she said now the med was probably running up your arm but yet I could feel nothing. However, after a few seconds, I started to feel a bit sleepy and blurry and I think within a second or two after that, I just went unconscious.

The moment I woke up again I was already in the resting room. Hubby said he went down to get all the payment done while waiting and came back up with some painkillers the doctor prescribed. The nurse administered the shot while I was still “asleep” and by that time I had already gone under for 2 hours. I didn’t have the faintest memory of the nurse injecting the painkiller in my arm.

I guess I woke up at around 5ish (the operation started at 3pm) and waited for quite a while before the nurse came check on me. She said my husband told her that usually I sleep quite deeply and he’s worried that I’d continue sleeping till 7 or 8.

So after a 3-hour wait (mainly Hubby waiting), we were finally able to leave. It had been quite a strange feeling to still have the sedation med in your system. It felt in a way like you were in a deep sleep at night and someone wake you up at 2–3am. A bit light-headed and the it took much longer for my brain to process things and to think of the things I wanted to say.

Anyway it’s my first experience with this kind of sedation med and actually I did appreciate that it gave me the chance to really relax and sleep without worrying about work even in my dreams. Fortunately it didn’t come with serious side effects like feeling nauseous.

So the results?

22 eggs were retrieved and I hope most of them would continue to grow into healthy embryos and eventually become my baby one day :)