Has anyone else had issues with their egg retrieval under sedation?
My partner and I (both 25) are doing ICSI to prevent passing on a genetic condition. I was on the short protocal and my stims went as planned and my egg retrieval was booked for Monday 30th January (day 12 since stims started). For the type of IVF I'm doing (mitochondrial donation) they need to collect at least 10 eggs, or the stims cycle has to be repeated until I get 10.
I was first in to have the egg retrieval Monday morning, I took lorazepam as instructed a few hours before the procedure and was feeling pretty chilled and calm about the retrieval. When I went into the theatre room I had a cannula put for the sedation and Fentanyl. I felt pretty dizzy and the room was spinning but other than that I was fine. The procedure started and I could basically feel everything, it was excruciatingly painful so the nurse decided to put something else into my cannula (either more painkiller or sedation) and also offered me gas and air which I accepted. I didn't have a good concept of time due to the sedation but I was sucking on the gas and air alot and still felt in intense pain. My memory is a little hazy but like I said I could feel everything going on and before I knew it I was hyperventilating and could not get control of my breathing. I remember the nurse saying to the doctor that I was having a panic attack, but despite being in severe pain I wasn't panicking. I remember being fully aware I was hyperventilating and couldn't catch my breath but I still wasn't anxious or freaking out about it. So after a few minutes the doctor said I was all done and as soon as he took the needle out my breathing went back to normal immediately.
When they were wheeling me out of the room they said that they only managed to collect follicles from the right ovary and didn't even attempt the left one. When they said I was done I thought they meant the procedure was finished and I wasn't aware they stopped half way and didn't continue. I started crying hysterically begging them to continue and telling them that I'm fine but they wouldn't. They explained to me that it was too dangerous for them to carry on, I carried on begging but they were not having it. They told me that I was having a panic attack during the procedure and it wasn't safe for them to continue and they needed to keep me safe.
They managed to collect 4 mature eggs from 5 follicles from the right ovary and told me that that was a good result. But I was so upset that after all the stimming and our 5 hour journey to the clinic that they didn't get chance to attempt my left ovary especially since they were expecting to retrieve from 12 follicles. I just kept crying to all the nurses and nearly made one of them cry too. They told me that I will have to repeat the stims cycle and my next egg retrieval will be under general anaesthetic as this is a safer option for me. They said that they don't know when I will be able to start this next cycle of stims as there are other people on the waiting list before me now, and I am heart broken, it took us over a year just to get to this point.
I just do not understand what happened, why didn't the sedation work? why would I have a panic attack during the procedure so bad that they had to stop when I've never had a panic attack in my life and I WAS NOT panicked at all. I just feel like a failure, I know they couldn't continue because of safety reasons but I don't get why my body reacted like that, I just wanted to continue through the pain but they wouldn't allow it. I've read so many stories about people falling asleep under sedation during the egg collection and not feeling a thing so I really don't understand. My nurse is ringing me tomorrow to discuss next steps but until then I'm just confused and dissapointed. Has anyone else had a bad reaction to their egg retrieval under sedation?