Like many of you, my biggest concern was EPU. My clinic routinely uses GA during EPU, and I've always been nervous of GA's (irrational fear of never waking up...). I asked about having EPU without a GA, but was told that they do all their EPU with it, so I went along with it. This cycle (I'm on day 4) I'm going to ask again if there is any chance at all of not having a GA for EPU. I wasn't happy with the outcome last time. It was a bit of an unusual situation though. I was in quite a bit of pain a couple of days after the procedure (more than I thought I should be) so called my nurse who assured me that it was normal, so I just dealt with the pain for the next week or so until it went away. Two and a half weeks after the procedure I discovered that I had stitches inside my vagina that I had not been made aware of. I freaked out! It was after hours on a friday night and I couldn't contact anyone until the next day. Even when I finally spoke to a nurse the next day, she had no idea why I might have stitches and had to ask a more senior nurse. It turns out that occasionally if there is some excess bleeding they will put in a stitch. They were disgusted that I was not told after the EPU, and even more amazed that I wasn't even given any after-care instructions. Turns out it was just a really bad situation that almost never happens. BUT, it makes me even more scared about going under a GA this time around. I'm also still skeptical about what happened because there was not just one, but three stitches! It's now been about 6-7 weeks and there is still one that hasn't dislodged and come out...

Hmm, gosh, I'm really not making you feel better about things am I? In regards to the pain of the EPU, I think I had a bit extra from the stitches, but even with all that considered, it wasn't excruciating pain. I'm not able to take pain killers and I was still able to move around ok, and even carry my baby who was 9-10 months old at the time. Just take it easy for a couple of days afterwards and you'll be fine The needles aren't exactly fun, but it's the mental part of things that's the worst. The actual needle really doesn't hurt (a mosquito bite ) but it's the mental aspect that makes it hard to stick that silly little needle into your own skin. When I did my first needle I sat there going "ok, one... two... three..." and then not moving the needle any closer to my skin, LOL! Took me about 5 countdowns to finally do it. I've heard some people say it's easier to push it in really fast, but I still do it moderately slowly because it seems less 'stabby', hehe.

Good luck with everything! I hope you can tell us some wonderful news soon!