baybeasts

yesterday we presented ourselves at the RWH at 7am as instructed, but it was all dark, because we got there before any of the staff. the receptionist, when she finally arrived, was rude and we felt a bit despondent - after sitting in the dark for ten minutes it would have been nice to be greeted with a smile. luckily all the other staff more than made up for her crankiness. the admitting nurse was warm and chatty, bean knew the anaesthetist and was relieved that he was one of the nice ones, the theatre nurses were unobtrusive and the recovery nurse was a fellow dyke who we had met before and who treated us with extra special care. and you all already know how we love Dr David. did we say that on the first scan we took him some garden produce (potatoes, onions, basil, tomatoes)? ever since he has been telling us the meals he made out of it!

the procedure was over very very fast. bean was desperate to stay awake, but we didn’t realise until the very last minute that this was unlikely to happen. when they say ‘light sedation’, we think they mean ‘woozy happy good feelings’, but what they really mean is ‘fast asleep’. ‘woozy happy feelings’ did get a look in for about two minutes. bean said “i feel drunk” and then got very chatty, telling me i looked spunky with my blue theatre hat on and cracking jokes with the anaesthetist and nurses.

then suddenly she was asleep, and it all got a bit scary. Dr David was lovely, talking me through the procedure. it was fascinating and kind of full on to watch on the ultrasound screen as the big dark follicles bent with the pressure of the needle, popped back as the needle penetrated, and then slowly collapsed as the fluid was drawn out. small test tubes of pink fluid were passed from between bean’s legs over to the scientist, who was searching through it for eggs in the next room. there was a palpable sense of relief when she called out ‘first egg’. i was transfixed by bean and the screen, but at one point one of the nurses tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to a video screen above my head, which was showing a big lump of mucousy looking stuff - an egg.

because bean had said she wanted to be awake to see what was happening, about a minute into the procedure the anaesthatist let her come out of sleep a tiny bit. it was horrible. she started moaning and writhing, trying to twist her body away from the needle as it probed her ovaries. he immediately gave her more drugs, and soon she was fast asleep and breathing heavily (not quite snoring - just deeply asleep as if she was at home in bed). i still feel freaked out when i think of it - it is so hard to see someone you love have pain inflicted on them. in fact, watching them do all sorts of stuff to her was really weird - moving her body around, poking and prodding, controlling her mental state…luckily, she doesn’t remember a thing. and i am still glad i was there, to hold her hand and witness the eggs - to be part of this strange way of making a baby.

the whole thing was over very fast - it only took maybe 15 minutes. recovery on the other hand took about two hours, and bean is still very sore and swollen. transfer is tomorrow - a much less invasive and scary procedure.

and we are pleased with our results. we got a good number of eggs, and more than half fertilized, so we have just the right amount of embryos - enough so we feel we have a good chance of getting pregnant, but not so many that we will have heaps left over. another hurdle down…