09-11-09 HSG results, and a play-by-play of my procedure

The results were good. Both of my fallopian tubes were clear and my uterus looked ok. The experience was...interesting.

I'm not sure if every doctor does this, but my doctor had me go to an outpatient surgery center for the procedure. It was one of those regimented places, where they have the same instructions for everyone, regardless of what they're there for. They neglected to call me ahead of time to tell me to a) not wear jewelry and b) not wear contacts. My procedure was scheduled for mid-morning on Friday so I went to work first and had to return to work afterwards, and thus I showed up wearing both jewelry and contacts and didn't have a contacts case or my glasses with me. Luckily they allowed me to leave my contacts in since I wasn't being knocked out. (They also neglected to call to tell me when to show up. I got impatient around lunchtime on Thursday, so I called them to find out because I needed to tell my boss when I would in and out of the office on Friday.)

I signed in and a few minutes later they took me back to squeeze out a few drops of urine for a pregnancy test and get changed. They took my blood pressure, my pulse, and my temperature. Then they brought my husband back to keep me company until the doctor was ready for me. After about 10 minutes or so, a nurse came to get me for the procedure. She took me back to the room and it was scary. I've had tubes put in my ears twice, I had my wisdom teeth removed, and I've had surgery on my jaw, but I don't remember every being this scared of a room.

The nurse who took me back to the room introduced the other nurse and the radiographer. They helped me get up on the table and guided me into position. The doctor had me state my name and the reason that I was there. They put a blood pressure cuff on my arm and a heart rate monitor on my finger. The doctor talked me through everything at first. He pointed out the radiography machine and monitors where I could watch what he was doing. (BTW, it was really neat to see what he was doing. It made it a lot less scary). Then he got into position and got things started. He inserted a speculum. Then he used an iodine solution to clean the opening of my cervix. Next he put on a local anesthetic. So far it was about the same as a PAP smear, comfort-level-wise. Then he inserted the catheter, which was slightly uncomfortable but bearable, and removed the speculum. I got to watch as the dye started filling up my uterus...it was pretty instantaneous, and I thought it was pretty cool. So far so good. He asked the radiographer to take a picture. And then he started moving the catheter around, and that was not at all pleasant. I'd actually go so far as to say that it was painful. He asked the radiographer to take another picture. And then, the next thing I knew, there was a balloon showing up on the screen, and he was moving that around, too. That hurt like a b*tch. I couldn't keep from moving a little bit as he was wiggling it, despite my best effort to stay still. Eventually he seemed satisfied with everything so he asked the radiographer to take a third picture, and then he started draining the dye. I could feel it running down my butt...it was pretty gross. Then the nurses helped me take my legs out of the stirrups and put some mesh panties that had been fortified with a super-strength maxi pad on me and pulled them part of the way up. (I was supposed to pull them up the rest of the way when I stood up.) The doctor went over the pictures with me. The first one showed that my fallopian tubes were nice and clear...good results. He also pointed out a whitish blob in the middle of my uterus that had the dye surrounding it. That wasn't so good. He explained that it could have been some rogue uterine lining or scar tissue (from what I'm not sure, because I've never had surgery on my uterus or an abortion, and I've never (to my knowledge) had a miscarriage). He said that he'd first tried using the catheter to get it to move, and when that didn't work, he used the balloon. He said that since he was able to break the spot up using the balloon he wasn't concerned about what, exactly, it was...all he cared about was that it went away, and my uterus looked good otherwise. Then I was free to stand up and pull on my granny panties with the pad and be escorted back to the recovery area.

The nurse in the recovery area took my blood pressure again and my pulse again and gave me some apple juice and cookies. She also gave me some ibuprofen to help with the cramping, which was pretty rough. (To be fair, I had forgotten to take any before my procedure, which was strongly advised. But even if I had taken some before the procedure, I don't think that it would have prevented all of the pain.) Then she went and found my husband and brought him back to keep me company while I "recovered". She came back about 10 minutes later to take my temperature and give us a survey to fill out, instructions from my doctor's office, and my discharge paperwork. She told me that I was free to get dressed. I had remembered the advice to bring some sort of sanitary product with me, so I changed out of the surgery center-provided undies and into my own. I was surprised to see that I had bled quite a bit following the procedure. Then the nurse walked me outside, and I kissed my husband goodbye and went back to work. I didn't stay for very long...just long enough for a meeting and to get some paperwork done. I left a little after lunchtime and came home and slept. Although I wasn't sedated during the procedure, it still really wiped me out.

Here are my overall observations:
1. It was cool to be able to get results that day, in real time, and to see what was going on.
2. I should have taken ibuprofen ahead of time. As I said before, I don't think it would have prevented the pain completely, but I'm sure that it would have helped.
3. It would have been nice if the doctor had told me why he was wiggling the catheter and balloon around while he was doing it. Getting the explanation after the fact was ok, but I think I would have relaxed a bit more if he had told me why he was doing it as he was doing it.
4. The staff at the surgery center, overall, was really nice in person. Apparently they have some issues with calling people, though...they didn't call to give me instructions the day before the procedure, and they called today to find out how I was doing but, rather than calling me even though my husband told them that they could, they just talked to him. And, according to my husband, the lady who called today didn't seem too terribly concerned by the fact that I'm still bleeding (which I'll get to in a minute).
5. The paperwork I got from my doctor's office said that bleeding was to be expected, but no timeframe as to when that bleeding could be expected was given. As I mentioned before, I was surprised at how much I bled that morning but it seemed to taper off by around lunch time. I came home and slept all afternoon, and thus was up pretty late that night, but there wasn't much bleeding the rest of the night. Nor was there much bleeding on Saturday. But then I started bleeding pretty heavily again yesterday, which meant that either a) I was having some sort of side effect or b) my last "period" wasn't really a period, and I actually started my real period yesterday. So I called my doctor's office this morning. I told one of the nurses what was going on, and she agreed that I probably was starting my real period so we arranged for me to go in tomorrow morning for my Day 3 bloodwork and an ultrasound.
6. I think part of the vast amount of pain that I felt during the procedure was due to the fact that I was about to start my period but I didn't know it. If I ever have to do this again, I'll try to make sure that I schedule it after a good period, and not a "Is it? Or isn't it?" bleeding spell like I had a couple of weeks ago. I'll also be sure to take ibuprofen ahead of time.

So...those are the results. I've got to get up bright and early to get my blood taken and an ultrasound, so I should probably start heading toward bed. When I get the results of tomorrow's testing, I'll be sure to post.