hysterosalpingogram. try saying that 3x fast!

today i had my hsg. i won't leave you in suspense. it was normal.

my appointment was at 1:00pm. of course being a natural planner, i pre-printed my new patient registration sheet off their website and arrived with it filled out. my husband went with me to this appointment. at first i wasn't sure i wanted him there. i wasn't sure that he'd even be able to go back with me. but after doing some research (aka lurking on trouble trying to get pregnant on thebump.com), a lot of girls said that they thought it was nice/would be nice if you didn't go alone. my husband's job allows him a flexible schedule so i asked him to go.

we arrived 20 minutes early, starving from not having eaten lunch yet. i checked in at the counter and asked the lady how much my copay would be. (i called my insurance last week to see how much i'd be paying. i was told either a $35 copay for an office visit or 20/80 split for the procedure.) the lady at the desk tells me that she doesn't know how much my insurance would cover. she says the test costs $450 if you go through insurance, and i would be responsible for whatever they didn't pay. needless to say, i was on the phone with my insurance company in 5 minutes. apparently they don't cover an hsg unless you are checking to see if your tubal ligation is working or if you have a foreign object in you uterus (like an iud) that can't be found. i argued with the insurance guy for awhile but quickly saw that the conversation was going no where. long story short, we ended up pay $160 out-of-pocket for the hsg. we haven't met any of our deductible yet this year so either way, we were going to pay. whatev.

30 minutes later we were called back to another room where a very sweet tech asked if we had any questions and explained to me what they were going to do. then we waited for the exam room to be ready. 15 minutes passed and we go into the room. i change into a gown, bottoms off. the table looked like a ct scanner bed. there were no stirups. a few folded sheets were in place for me to prop by butt on.

i met the radiologist. he would be the first male to put a speculum in me. weird. i called ahead and knew that the radiologist would be doing the procedure, not a tech. i've always gone to female ob/gyn but looking on the website all of the radiologist were male so basically i was shit out of luck. he was more personable than most radiologist (no offense any radiologist out there). he left to wash up, meanwhile the sweet tech kept talking my ear off.

he gowned up and started the procedure. i informed him that my cervix was situated to the left so he wouldn't have a hard time finding it. the speculum was as uncomfortable as any speculum exam would be. he found my cervix and did 3 betadine swabs of it then he placed the catheter through it. it hurt. not just a little uncomfortable, but actual pain. on a scale of 1-10, i'd say it was around a 4/10. then he inflated the balloon. that was the part i think that hurt the most. i'd say around 5-6/10. (during this time, my poor husband is just sitting in the back of the room with a lead apron to protect his swimmers. i can't see him because he's directly behind me.) i turn my attention to the screen that is displaying my lady parts. it shows a catheter inside me.

he injects dye into my uterus. it feels like pressure, not really pain but i'm still in a pretty decent amount of pain from the catheter balloon. the radiologist and i are both watching the real time screen of the dye in my uterus. it was actually pretty interesting. here's the first picture we saw.

the catheter is in too deep on the right side. he deflates the balloon some and now the pain isn't really too bad, maybe a 2-3/10. most of the discomfort comes from the speculum. this is my next picture.

everything looks fine. normal shaped uterus. both tubes are patent. you can't see the bottom of my uterus because of the catheter balloon. then he had me uncomfortably try to lay on my right side, the my left side to take some pictures of the posterior of the uterus. i won't bore you with those pictures. everything looked normal. catheter and speculum are removed. i wash up and get dressed. i feel crampy pain but nothing too terrible. my husband and i wait in the waiting room to get a copy of my film. (yes, they still use actual film in this office. hello, it's 2011! go digital!! i had to use my scanner light box thing and take a picture with my camera to get these on my blog.) after our appointment my husband and i grabbed lunched and talked.

we were both relieved that it was normal. his first question was, "what now?" i told him i guess we wait for his semen analysis results (which we should get by next week the latest) and my progesterone level on april 1st. i think i forgot to mention that my CD3 blood work (FSH, estrogen, TSH, prolactin) were normal. they were. yay! so i guess now is just a waiting game.

during the ride home i was thinking...

how did we get to this point? why do we have to do tests and blood work while it seems like everyone else is just popping out babies left and right?

i hope everything else is normal too but what if its not? what would we do? how far are we willing to go to have a baby? would we just try a little longer? how aggressive do we want to be?

so many thoughts going through my mind. its like a whirlwind up there...