I had my surgery yesterday. Well, I suppose it hardly counts as surgery - "surgical procedure" is probably a better way to describe it - but to make it easier and save on explanations I just say "minor surgery".
Anyway...We got picked up by the taxi at 6am to deliver us to the hospital by the 6:30am admission time. We're only about 10 minutes away from the hospital but I'm paranoid about relying on transport options other than my own car so I always leave plenty of time. I filled in a sheaf of forms and we sat in the waiting room for about 15 minutes before a nurse came to take me through and Dave trotted off for coffee.
The nurse took me a little admissions room where I filled out yet more forms and had my blood pressure checked. Then I was given a basket to put my clothes in and a stylish paper outfit to change into: paper robe, paper hat, paper booties, and the dreaded paper knickers. They also gave me an old-fashioned cotton gown to wear as a kind of light dressing gown and to keep my back covered up. They weighed me, then I sat in another waiting room swaddled in a lovely warm snuggly blanket and reading Australian Womens Weekly until the anaesthetist came.
The anaesthetitst, Joe Someone - Swartoski? - ran through my anaesthetic prep form with me and then explained he'd be putting a little doodad in the back of my hand or my inner elbow to administer the anaesthetic. I asked him to put it in the back of my hand if he could because my poor elbow veins are getting a bit rough from all my blood tests, and he said he'd see what he could do. Then I was taken through to the theatre and hopped up on the bed and covered with another warm blanket. I guess Joe decided he had to put my anaesthetic in my arm, though, because he said there'd be a little prick there and I felt him put a needle in. I didn't think he'd actually given me the anaesthetic at that point but then the ceiling started swirling round and round and I just managed to glance at the clock to see it was 7:10am before I went out.
About an hour later I woke up in recovery, confused and disoriented and sleepy but actually feeling better than I expected. I didn't feel really groggy and there wasn't too much pain, just a kind of uncomfortable crampy feeling. I lay there for a few minutes to wake up properly and then the nurse brought me my basket of clothes and I got dressed by myself. There was a bit of blood, but nothing a hospital-grade pad couldn't handle.
After I was dressed, I went out to the recovery room (where Dave was already waiting) and sat in a comfy recliner chair and had some sandwiches and a cup of tea and some shortbread. Then the nurse came back and gave me my card with my follow-up appointment booked (in two weeks, on the 29th) and organised our return taxi. We were done and heading home before 9am, an hour and a half earlier than predicted.
I was expecting that I would crash out in the afternoon and have a nap but I felt pretty good all day: I read my New Scientist magazine, played a computer game, watched TV, and just generally relaxed. I felt good enough to help Dave cook a delicious risotto for dinner. I went to bed quite early but didn't manage to get to sleep until around 10:30pm.
Overall I felt that this surgery was much better than previous ones - I know it's not on the same scale as my laparoscopies, but I just generally felt that everything went better than expected for a change. This whole fertility journey has been plagued with things not going according to plan since the start and it was a pleasant change to have something go better than expected!
This morning I woke up quite late and I'm feeling a bit shadier - it's kind of a hungover feeling, my head is a bit fuzzy and I don't really have an appetite. I'm glad I took the extra day to rest and recover. Now we just wait for the follow-up appointment in two weeks and can hopefully go straight into a new IUI cycle right after that! We really want to fit in our last two cycles before the end of the calendar year, because our Medicare Safety Net resets at that point and we get quite a bit more money back while we're over our Safety Net limit. That's also a good time to reassess and determine what the next step is. Even though I want a child very, very, badly, I really can't see myself going through IVF. Coping with the IUIs has been enough of a struggle and IVF is 50 times worse. I'm still not ruling it out 100% (how many times have I said that now?), but the chances of us going to that point are very close to zero. Dave is dead-set against it as well. So I suppose we just have to wait and see what happens with our last IUI cycles.
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