HSG Test Day

Today was the day. HSG Test Day.

For the past couple of days I've been reading blogs from other women who have had fertility struggles. I wanted to know what I should expect, and not just from what the doctors or nurses had to say. One woman I randomly came across had made videos of her journey. One video was titled, "What I wish I'd known before my HSG test."  Obviously that's the one I jumped right to. She explained her procedure and talked about the things she hoped would help ease the minds of anyone else watching her videos.

It seems so overwhelming when you have to have a prescription to take the night before the procedure, and you're told to take 600mg of Ibuprofen an hour before your appointment. I wasn't really worried about the actual procedure, but I was stressing out over the pain factor. One blogger said her doctor prescribed her a Valium. What?! How much is this going to hurt?!

We headed over to the Surgery Center, checked in, and chatted while we waited to be called back. A nurse brought me back alone first so I could give a urine sample and change into a lovely gown. She took some vital stats and had me sit in a wheelchair, brought me a warm blanket, socks, and made me put on a hair net. It seemed really silly and overkill, especially since this wasn't really surgery of any kind. But the warm blanket felt nice. She went to get my husband from the waiting room and told us the doctor would be with us in a few minutes. My husband kept staring at me and he said, "I'm not going to lie, this is so weird. Why are you in a wheelchair? With the blanket and hair net... you look like a Cancer patient." I laughed and told him I felt like it was a little extreme too. The doctor came in and went over the process of the procedure - which I already knew from all the reading I did online - and it was actually really comforting.. there weren't any surprises I wasn't ready for.

Next, they told my husband to hang out in the waiting room, and they wheeled me back to the x-ray room. I laid down on the table, was covered in more warm blankets. The doctor walked through each step as he was doing them, telling me when I might experience any discomfort or pain. The nurse stood next to me, asking if I was doing okay or needed anything. She even offered to hold my hand if I felt like I needed comforting. I was able to look over at the monitors and watch as the dye was inserted into my fallopian tubes. At first, I was a little worried because I didn't see the dye moving on the left side like it was on the right, but then when the doctor pushed more dye through, you could see it spreading out like it should.
The whole procedure lasted about ten minutes. It was definitely uncomfortable, even though they numbed the area before inserting the dye. But the worst part was definitely having the dye pushed through my tubes. It was worse than any menstrual cramping I'd ever had - which says a lot because I've had some terrible cramps in my time.

Afterward, we met with the doctor again so he could show us the x-rays of the results. He said that sometimes couples are able to conceive just from having the HSG test done, because it sort of acts like a flushing of your system. Maybe there wasn't a real blockage, but pushing the dye through could clean things out enough to make a difference when trying. He said our next step will be to have an official consult with him at his office to discuss what he thinks our next steps are, which options we have.

All of my reproductive parts seem to be healthy and working just like they should be. I know I should be happy about this, but at the same time, I'm extremely frustrated that I don't have a distinctive answer as to what's been going on to keep us from having a baby by now.