HSG - (Hurts, Sucks, Gross?)

For those who are beginning the journey and have not had this test yet, it's really not as bad as my title makes it seem.  It does hurt a bit.  It sucks a lot.  And the aftermath was kind of gross for me.  Yes, this will be a TMI post.

So HSG - hysterosalpingogram - is where the doctor injects a dye into the uterus to see if it goes through the tubes and out the end.  It makes sure your tubes are patent, or open.

So I am brought into the operating room and get propped up.  Instruments, numbing stuff, etc.  I get to look at the screen as he does the test and I see my tubes appear (right before I'm hit with an incredibly bad cramp).  The dye causes cramping btw.  For me, bad cramping.  But I saw the dye go through both tubes and thought - GREAT - no blockage.  Except I'm not a doctor.  And the news Dr. B gave me afterward made me anything but happy.

As a side note, at this point the insurance from my job covered NOTHING for fertility.  We were paying out of pocket.  As the title of my blog indicates, I'm an attorney.  However, I was working in public service and making very little money.  And have lots of student loans.  So just paying for the HSG was a strain on our finances.  To make things even better (read sarcasm), the day before my HSG I found out I was passed up for a promotion everyone expected me to get.  A promotion that would have increased my pay by over 10%.

Dr. B came into the recovery room.  He told me I had a mixed review.  My right tube looked perfectly normal.  Dye went in.  Dye went out.  Dye spread out into my abdomen just like it should.  My left side was not so cooperative.  The pictures looked like the dye was pooling at the end of my tube.  Dr. B said it could mean there was scar tissue blocking the end of the tube or between the tube and ovary.  There was also a small polyp in my uterus, although he thought with its size and location that it wasn't the problem.

The only way to find out if my left tube was really blocked - surgery.  As in, $10,000 surgery out of pocket.  Shell shocked.  We really didn't know what to do.  At that point, to go forward, we would have to put the surgery on a credit card. But everything changed the next day.