Egg Retrieval, More details - October 10th, 2011

We drove RoBet down to a suburb nearby where our reproductive clinic is, to my sister's house.  My mom had been caring for my sister's two girls while she and her husband were on a short getaway this weekend.  Since we had to report no later than 8:45 this morning, we left plenty of time to get to this suburb and then into the city to the clinic.  We arrived at 7:45 and got to see both of our nieces before they headed off to school, which was nice.  At 8:00, I took a Xanex to get me 'relaxed'.  Then at 8:10 we said goodbye to RoBet and headed to the clinic.  We arrived there around 8:25.  Hubby and I had to first report to the office next door and fill out some paperwork.  I then left and he stayed to make his 'deposit'.  This same office is where the embryos are cultured and stored, and frozen if we make it that far.  But I get ahead of myself.  I went next door to my clinic and signed in.  It was 8:30.  As I sat in the waiting room, at least a dozen other clients (couples and singles) came in and were called back.  Hubby joined me at about 8:50.  We waited and waited as the entire waiting room filled and emptied.  I was getting more and more worried the longer we waited - why were all of these other people going back and we weren't?  Were they there for other purposes, or is something wrong?!  Finally, at 9:15, half an hour after I was instructed to be there, we were called back.  We were taken to a recovery room and told that our room wasn't ready yet.  Peachy.  The nurse came in with a dose of some medication and I was told to drop my pants so she could inject me in the hip.  Joy.  She said it was a narcotic that would help me get through the procedure.  Well, I was less unhappy about it then.  After that, I was instructed to empty my bladder and clean my external lady bits with 3 wipes.  I went in and did as I was told, but struggled to open the third medicated wipe.  I don't know why it didn't want to open, but it really just didn't.  I had to use my teeth to tear into it.  Finally, with that task complete, I went back into the adjoining recovery room and sat.  And waited.  About 10 minutes later, our room was ready.  We went in, and I undressed from the waist down.  And we waited.  At 10:05, the doctor finally came in.  I asked if I should feel loopy or something, because I was fully alert, and was told that the drug would kick in later and I would forget what was happening.  The doc had me sit back and inserted various items to clean out my vaginal canal and cervix.  It wasn't that bad.  Then he injected a local anesthetic to numb the vagina.  That hurt quite a bit.  I thought that was going to be the worst part.  I was very, very wrong.  I help Hubby's hand and turned to watch the monitor.  Doc put in the ultrasound wand, and then tried to move one of the stirrups that my foot was in to make more room.  The stirrup would not move.  I lifted my foot in the air, with the other foot in the stirrup and the wand sticking out of my hoo-ha.  He struggled for a minute, then asked the nurse to do it.  She struggled with it for a few minutes mumbling about where it should fit, but it wasn't going over there.  Hubby really wanted to jump in and help - he is an engineer after all - so finally they let him, and he had it fixed in about 30 seconds.  My leg was getting very tired.  After all that was over, I was feeling slightly amused and hopeful.  That ended very quickly.  Doc said, "Now, I've never had this done, but I hear it feels like pressure, then a pinch, then more pressure."  OK, I thought, I can do that.  Sure.  Instead, what it felt like was a jab, stick, and holy hell that hurts and burns and good lord, why?  Why, why, why?  He began to aspirate each follicle, and I figured I could take my mind off of it a bit by watching and counting how many he emptied.  That worked for the first 10 follicles (all on the right side).  He then said he had 4 more to aspirate on that side.  I was no longer watching.  I was gripping my Hubby's hands like my life depended on it, and desperately wishing that I would just pass out.  I would have given just about anything to pass out at that moment.  And it just kept going on and on and on.  All in all, I think this part of the procedure took about 10 - 12 minutes.  It was the most horrible 10 - 12 minutes of my life.  Seriously, I was gripping my husband's hands harder than I did during labor.  I was whimpering and crying on the table.  I was whispering, "No, make it stop, help" in between soft sobs and whines.  It was simply awful.  And it went on and on.  My left ovary gave at least 6 follicles, maybe a couple more.  After it was done, doc and nurse tried talking to me.  I don't really remember what they said, but I just didn't care.  I remember thinking that if I could talk, I would tell them to fuck off.  They, of course, didn't deserve that, but it was all I could think of in that moment.  Maybe it was good that I couldn't talk.  I'm not sure how long I laid on that table whimpering and sobbing softly after they left.  I nearly threw up several times and was given medicine to keep the nausea at bay.  I was given little sips of water to help with the dry mouth caused by the pointless narcotic that did nothing.  I was in excessive amounts of pain for several hours after the procedure.  I'm still in quite a bit of pain, but it is manageable now.  In all, they aspirated at least 20 follicles.  When the nurse came back, she said we got 10 eggs.  It is normal to have a couple of follicles not hold eggs, but for half or more to not hold eggs is very strange.  I don't yet know why this happened to me.  My guess is that it has to do with how quickly the follicles jumped in growth, but I am certainly not qualified to make that judgement at this time.  I will have to have a talk with my doctor in a few days to try and understand why this happened to me.  Meanwhile, I await my fertilization report tomorrow morning.  What we hear tomorrow will tell us whether we do a 3-day transfer or a 5-day transfer.  We were certain, until after the procedure, that we would be doing a 5-day transfer of 1 embryo.  We had so many mature follicles, how could we not have enough embryos to do that?  Now, we are nervous that we won't have enough to even make it to a day 5 transfer, and that means we will not know the quality of the embryos we transfer.  So, I am just in a bad way today.  I am depressed and expecting the worst now.  This process just sucks all the way around.