My Infertility Journey: Doctors, Take Note! (Part 25)

Obie Editorial Team

I had mild cramping and spotting on and off for about a week after my procedure, but didn't need to take anything more than Tylenol for it. I even started my period a few days after the polyp removal, right on schedule. However, since a lot of the lining of my uterus had been scraped during the procedure, I only really bled (as opposed to spotting) for one day. While recovering, I had time to ponder my experience with my doctor during the polyp removal, and I was not pleased. In fact, I felt violated.

I always make sure that anesthesia alternatives will be available to me before I go through any surgical procedure. My phobia of general anesthesia is pretty strong, so I never agree to anything without knowing whether some other kind of anesthesia is available and getting the okay to use it. I got this okay from my doctor the day the polyp was discovered, and, just to make sure, got additional reassurances from two of his staff members, the coordinator at the day surgery center, and the anesthesiologist himself before I was satisfied that all would be okay and I could do the surgery with a nerve block.

When my doctor showed up at my bed in pre-op and flat-out refused to do the surgery without general anesthesia (mostly for his own convenience, as he said a nerve block would take too long), I was upset, since he'd said I could use a different kind of anesthesia if the anesthesiologist agreed to it. He was definitely not the kind, friendly doctor I had seen twice in the office. He was a jerk.

The only reason I agreed to do the surgery with general anesthesia was because my desire to be a mother was the only thing in the world that was strong enough to overcome my fear of the anesthesia. If it had been for anything else, I wouldn't have done it. I would have left. Afterward, I was so angry that the doctor put me in a position with which I was so uncomfortable for his own convenience and that he used my desire for children to get his way. That is not a good bedside manner and definitely not the way to treat someone who is paying you a lot of money to get her pregnant.

 

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