Egg Retrieval

June 7, 2013

I had egg retrieval yesterday (June 6) morning and woke up today at 2am with the  most excruciating pain I have ever felt! I felt like my insides were rupturing. All of a sudden I was drenched in cold sweats and ready to vomit. I grabbed my pillow and sat on the bathroom floor waiting for the  inevitable.

Let me rewind a bit!  My husband and I were at the surgery office  yesterday at 6:45am excited to see how many  good eggs we were about to retrieve.  I don't get nervous for these outpatient procedures anymore,  as I feel like a pro now. The first nurse that tried to insert the needle for the IV into my left hand, missed the vein and all I could feel was the needle dragging under my skin as she pushed harder and harder.  After that I freaked out and started crying!  At  first I was crying from the pain,  then I was crying from a  deeper place not even sure I can comprehend what exactly I was crying about.  The anesthesiologist  ended up making the second IV  attempt,  this time in my right hand,  no pain!  The rest is a blur, I vaguely remember the doctor telling me that they retrieved  six eggs,  five of which looked good! We will know more this week once the eggs begin to fertilize.

So for now I sit on my bathroom floor at 3am trying to get comfortable and researching "post egg retrieval  pain",  slowly realizing that this is no joke and the pain can last up to five days  and  can be dangerous  if certain symptoms arise. Nobody at the surgery today warned me about this or maybe they did and I was too drugged up to remember!  Thank goodness for the internet! I caved in and took a Percocet,  even though I dread taking pain meds,  it seems to be cutting some of the extreme pain down to moderate pain.  Through my internet research I learned to AVOID lying on my back (prop myself up instead), to drink Gatorade and to use a heating pad on my stomach and back. The reason for the pain is that during retrieval,  they  pull out the eggs  from the follicles leaving behind poked through ovaries and the follicles that housed the eggs then become filled with fluid.  Until that resolves you will be in pain.

I would like to thank all of the women that post their experiences online to help women like me who have only a fraction of a clue about what this IVF adventure entails!