August 1, 2008

Test #1

So yesterday was my first "real" visit to the fertility doctors and completed my first diagnostic test and hopefully one step closer to determining why my husband and I have not yet been successful in getting pregnant. I was scheduled for an HSG test (aka Hysterosalpingogram if that means anything to you...). Basically they shoot dye up into your lady parts while viewing it on an xray machine to see if there are any abnormalities and to make sure your fallopian tubes are open.
Going into this I was a little nervous. I have three friends who have gone through this test already and have given me a variety of feedback on what to expect. In the test instructions and what to expect it does say that mild discomfort and cramping is to be expected. Info from the friend arena varied from mild discomfort when the dye was going in but that was it all the way to imagine your worst cramps and multiply it by 10. Ok - so not quite sure what to expect. What nobody told me is that there was a possibilty that the set up they put you on actually will tilt so your pelvis is above your head... how's that for trying to maintain any kind of dignity?! Thinking back on it I just laugh because there's nothing else to do with it. Basically its done like a regular pevic exam, but then in order to get they dye to move up into the uterus and into the tubes they tilt you up. So now legs are spread to the world and its up in the air... oh joy... thankfully the doc that was supervising was very very nice and she chatted with me as if I wasn't in this ridiculous and rather embarrassing position with some person hanging out down there.
So back to this potential pain thing - again a little nervous because not sure what to expect... surprise surprise... no pain at all! Not even a little cramping. They kept asking me how I was doing and I wasn't feeling a thing. And I felt fine afterwards too! You have no idea how excited I was that I wasn't in any pain at all. It was my lucky day.
I must say it was very cool to see the dye go in (on the xray screen) and then watch it go into the tubes. Laidies - it does not look like it does in the biology books... the tubes are all twisty turny all over the place and everything looks so tiny! But I am happy to find out that upon initial review there were no tube blockages and everything looks normal. There's further analysis to be done, but it doesn't look like that's the issue.
I will mention that my husband had to drop the boys off for analysis and we are waiting to hear back on the results of that. I won't get into much detail for his sake, but let's just say that he's told me that producing the sample was not the easiest thing he's done lately since he could hear every person walk by the room he was in.
So we have our next followup visit in two weeks so we'll have to wait until then to find out results and get our next marching orders.

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