I was called by Shamseah from Thomson Fertility Centre (TFC) a few days ago. She said she had a really difficult case for me to do. It's been months since I last did any work up there as they normally call another Anaesthetist.
Turns out, this was the second session of IVF at TFC. She had requested to be awake during the egg collection previously, and woke up hysterical when she realised she'd missed everything. She had undergone this procedure in London previously, where she had remained awake throughout!
Great! I always get the tough ones...
Anyway, I stood my ground with her this morning, and told her in no uncertain terms that if she wasn't coping with Fentanyl alone, I'd be putting her to sleep.
So with all drugs by my side and plenty of extra Fentanyl, we embarked on the procedure. Normally, all the ladies demand to be knocked out cold, so we were waiting for hysterical shouts of pain and struggling.
But no!
She was amazing! She was a bit light headed, but otherwise conversing happily and coherently away! She saw the entire procedure on the ultrasound screen, and the first egg under the microscope. Wow!
We were all so impressed with her, and found it amusing that her husband, on the other hand, has no tolerance for such things at all!
Her wise words: "pain is all in the mind". What an amazing lady. As Anaesthetists, we see many patients, but few stick in our memory. I'm sure she will! I wish her all the luck in her IVF treatments.
Hi!
I just stumbled onto your blog and i think that it is really interesting to read about perspectives from a doc!
Keep up the great work!
Hi Ed
Thanks for dropping by! It's still a very new blog (since revamp anyway...), so I'm still "feeling" for direction. I'm glad you find my random thoughts interesting.
Cheers!
Christine