Egg Retrieval

Well the next big step has come and gone. My egg retrieval. I stayed up all day with David. Now, thankfully here and on time. We took a cab at 2p.m.- my same faithful cab drive Nilkanth pronounced something like (nil.kon.ti) I had followed my 5 or so instructions for the day and we arrived unscathed. In just a few minutes of arrival we were ushered in to our own private room. It looked like we would be in for a long wait. I could see out the windows and looked out at a point on the ocean where I saw two large ships. I had no idea we were that close-but this window provided me a small glimpse. Through the other window I saw palm fronds. The breeze between the two windows, and the two ceiling fans gave me the perfect temperature. I said: "David I wish we had a thermometer right now- because this would be the perfect temperature for me to go through life with." I was so comfortable, lying on the antique hospital beds with fresh clean linens on the bed. The breeze in the room was warm and caressing, and as I looked out one window, I thought- right now I could be anywhere, Greece, Spain-Los Angeles, and it wouldn't look or feel much different than this. I thought of the Meditteranean and drifted off. Not too much later I was awoken- the nurse had to give me an enema. I guess here, instead of drinking a gallon of water like in the U.S. - you get an enema. I thought it was a good trade off. Suffer the indignity of a nurse putting an enema in, but not suffer a full bladder through surgery. There were a few more indignities requested- although TMI- but, all managed. When I looked around the room it reminded me of a WW11 kind of hospital room- everything was a bit antiquated looking- but all functional -even the nurses stethoscope was in a thin metal box. The mattresses were thin, on metal beds. It felt like I was in a setting from the 1920's- I rather liked it, in an old school kind of way. I put on a gown and hat- David took my picture. The attending nurse was a short lady, and had been nursing for 30 years. She had worked most of it , in a nearby hospital and had never married, but she had delivered many babies in her life. The Dr. came in and told us that we might be going in around 7pm. I drifted off back to sleep. Pretty soon it was time to go. I followed the nurse out through to the theatre complex- Another woman was being wheeled asleep, in to another room. I thought- wow, her baby would be conceived on the same day as mine. It was kind of cool. There were several people in the room- and there were little stairs leading up to the bed. On the other side was the anesthesiologist, he asked "Are you nervous". I said, "no, I am in good hands!" Dr Malpani said, "All the right answers." The anethesiologist began to prep to put the needle in- he asked if I was afraid of needles, I said "no." What was so great though was I didn't have to have some huge needle- It looked like a two inch baby needle. I was happy about that. In it went, and out I went- and I was finally getting some good sleep around here.
Before I knew it- I was wheeled back in to my room. David was able to get some shut eye too. David remembers that moments after I was wheeled in- that I came up from the depths of unconsciousness for a moment and asked-slurringly- how many eggs? David informed me 11. "good!" I said slurringly again" That is good, very, very good." And I went right back out and slept another 1.5 hours before waking. Dr. Malpani had come in the room a few minutes before I asked the one question and told David, if she comes awake- the only thing on her mind will be how many eggs, tell her 11. David really got a chuckle out of that string of events. He wrote close family an e-mail telling them this little story.
So I weebled out of the building- with David as my guide, and went back to the hotel. Later I asked David- what time did I go in? He told me I didn't go in until 9:30 p.m. I thought, what a late night for those poor doctors.
I did get some good sleep again that night- I woke up feeling awesome. I thought, wow, no pain!- I sailed through that operation. We went down and had breakfast- my usual oatmeal. David was impressed that I knew so many of the people going in- I thought, pretty good for ol' shy one here. I was feeling good until half way through breakfast- then- whamm! My stomach started to rock and roll. I told David I needed to get back to the room. The room and my bed has been where I remained until now. I just got out of bed to take medications given, painkillers too, and to eat a peanut butter sandwich- and now I am writing. I found out my painkillers are muscle relaxants. No wonder I have remained in bed- besides the pain I was feeling, I have drifted easily in and out of sleep for 36 hours or so. Feels kind of good. I finally am catching up on much needed sleep. My stomach has gotten better, just cramps now. I am headed back to bed now- but am glad I could get an update in.