Laparoscopy

I had the laparoscopy on Tuesday. It was OK. I am sore and still slightly swollen but it is getting better. The worst part was the sore throat from where they had a tube down my throat and the pain in my shoulder from the gas.

The outcome.

I didn't have a blocked tube. It looks like I had a spasm when they did the HSG. Dye went through both of my tubes during the laparoscopy (saw the pictures to prove it!). They did remove some endometriosis and a small cyst from my right ovary.

What next?

We have six months of trying to conceive naturally and if we haven't succeeded by then it will be assisted conception.

How do I feel about that?

I was initially pissed off that we are going to have to wait six months before being referred for assisted conception. If IVF is the only route for us then we won't be placed on the NHS waiting list until June however, I am now thinking that having a break isn't a bad thing. It will do us good to not have to think about it for a while. I don't feel in a hurry at the moment but I'm sure that will change in a couple of months. I'm not really convinced that what they did during the laparoscopy will help us conceive naturally but it won't stop me hoping.

Another hurdle crossed. The next hurdle is easy, six months of lots of sex and hopefully a natural pregnancy, if not it is back to the consultant for the serious stuff.

One cylinder

It looks like I am only firing with one cylinder. The HSG results showed that no dye passed through my left tube. I am booked in for a laparoscopy in January.

Our chances of conceiving naturally are slowly diminishing, what with poor morphology and the possibility of only one tube working, things are going from bad to worse.

Hospital appointment #2

Tomorrow we are back at the IF clinic. I'm really not looking forward to it. D asked me last night what to expect. I'm not sure what to expect. I know that we will get the results of the HSG, that we will be told whether I need a laparoscopy.

I am expecting to be told that the NHS does not fund assisted conception and so, as a precaution, I have printed off information that states that they do. It's a case of, if we go in expecting the worst....

I'll be glad when tomorrow is out the way as we should hopefully have an idea of where we are heading.

Low pain threshold?

Before I attempt to recall the HSG appointment I would like to thank WFI and Ms H for the good luck comments attached to my last post.

As it happens I needed all the luck I could get.

I'm not really a hospital person. I have managed to get to 33 without having to go into hospital for anything other than to visit people. So, yesterday was definitely an experience for me. I sat in the waiting room for just over half an hour before I was called into a changing area. I was told to strip from the waist down, put one gown on with the tie ups at the back and then one with the tie ups at the front.

At this point I was beyond nervous.

When I entered the room I was greeted by a female doctor and two nurses. They were all very nice and tried to put me at ease. I was asked some questions and then had to sign a piece of paper to say that I wasn't pregnant. Finally I was instructed to lay on my back with my knees open.

So far so good.

I can do that.

I can lay on my back and open my legs.

I'm even OK with the cleaning of the cha cha both inside and out.

The bit that I am not OK with is when the doctor inserts the catheter.

OMG!

The pain was so intense. It was just so uncomfortable and painful.

I'm laying there, in pain, pain that I have never experienced before in my life and I am feeling like a complete idiot. I'm laying there thinking that I obviously have a low pain threshold. This isn't meant to hurt like this. The doctor even says that she is surprised that it is hurting me so much, that it doesn't usually hurt until the dye is inserted.

I ask her when she is going to insert the dye and she tells me that they are waiting for the doctor to come in to take the xrays.

She tries to readjust the position of the catheter, they place the xray machine over my stomach and I am told to squeeze the nurses hand. All the time I am struggling with the pain, which is constant, and the thought that I am a complete wimp. I'm also thinking that this is going to take a good 20 minutes and how am I going to cope with this pain for 20 minutes.

A male doctor comes in, says something to me which I can't for the life of me recall. I hear the female doctor say something about how she now understands why I am in so much pain, that she had trouble seeing when she inserted the cathetar and, as a result, had inserted it too far.

Within two minutes the male doctor was gone and the female doctor removed everything and stuck a pad between my legs saying that I would definitely get some bleeding. I hopped off the bed with my knees together (trying to hold the pad in place), picked up my bag of belongings and hobbled out to a room to get dressed.

So, all in all, not very pleasant. But at least it is over with now. I didn't get the results, I have to wait to get an appointment through. I was also disappointed that I didn't get to see the screen with my bits on display and the dye working its way through my tubes, that was the only bit that I was looking forward to.

HSG Appointment

So it seems that arranging a HSG is slightly more difficult than first anticipated. The Dr we saw at our first consultation (now going to be known as Dr Clueless for obvious reasons) informed me that I needed to phone the hospital to arrange an appointment for a HSG when my next period arrived.

However, a week later I received an appointment date for my HSG. I phoned the hospital to try and find out why I received an appointment when I had been instructed to phone. I was told that they no longer use the system that Dr Clueless informed us of, instead they allocate appointments for when a particular doctor is in.

Although the appointment I was sent through would have been OK cycle wise, it wasn't work wise so I informed the receptionist that I needed to change it. The next appointment she could give me was 23 October which, when I worked it out, would be slap bang in the middle of my period. When I told her she said that she didn't know when the doctor would be in after this date so the best thing would be to take this appointment and if, on the week of the appointment, it looks like I am going to have my period then I should phone her.

So, at the moment I have a HSG booked for 23 October but I 'm not feeling very confident that I will be attending it. My only concern is that we are booked in at the infertility clinic on 11 November to discuss the results of the HSG and where to go from there and if I have to rearrange the HSG again it is looking unlikely that we will be able to attend this appointment. The infertility clinic only meets once a month so that would mean that our next appointment would have to be in December.

I know it is only another month to wait but I was really hoping to attend the appointment in November. Fingers crossed that my period comes early this month and next and then I can attend both appointments. Is it likely my body will do what I want it to? Not really but I suppose I can hope.