Thursday, October 25, 2007

fun with uterine dye

I just got home from my HSG appointment.
Oh what fun.
The tech was really nice but not the sharpest tool in the shed. When she was explaining the procedure, she kept calling the speculum a "spectrum" and told me the radiologist was going to clean off my uterus with Betadine . . . I'm pretty sure she meant my cervix. Then, she shows me the camera they use and then said "Don't worry, we clean it off after every use" (as an aside, did I really need to hear that? Eeeww.) and then proceeded to swing it around and it hit the xray table. Lovely.
Then the radiologist comes in, and has such a thick accent I can't really understand him at first. He didn't want any towels under my pelvis. This turned out to be a very bad idea.
So, he threads the catheter in, and attempts to blow up the balloon and inject the dye . . . no luck. He went through about three catheters and an untold amount of dye. He kept saying "It's getting stuck on something." (??) Basically, the dye was running right out and not lighting up my fallopian tubes.
All of the poking and prodding and jerking on my cervix was pure joy as he tried maneuvers that I think he was making up as he went along.
Finally, he decides maybe the towels under my pelvis was a good idea. He put the balloon waaaayyy up at the top of my uterus and like magic, the fourth try was the charm. The cramping was very uncomfortable, but not too bad. And the best part? Everything is normal. Yay for that.

10 comments:

niobe said...

Everything is normal

Well, except for the people who provide your healthcare who seem most abnormally incompetant.

megan said...

hear, hear, niobe!
glad to hear that everything ended up okay. . . sorry though that your practitioners had to make an already grim experience worse.

Geohde said...

You make HSG's sound like so much fun that maybe I should get me one of those....NOT.

Glad your (betadine free, I hope) insides were normal,

J

Lisa said...

God, that is not a fun procedure even when it goes smoothly and you have confidence in the people. Glad to hear it was normal.

The Oneliner (Christina) said...

good word. specturm!!! what morons. nothing like morons working on you with your legs in stirups with a balloon in their hands.

Dr. Grumbles said...

Further evidence that you don't need to bright or have tact to work in the fertility industry.

Hooray for being normal, though!

Carrie said...

My HSG wasn't much fun either but at least the staff could name the equipment!
Glad it is all normal, but really, don't they have trained people to do this?

Ms. Planner said...

Are you effing kidding me? That must have been so painful! Am glad to hear that everything is normal (except as Niobe pointed out, your healthcare providers).

Mama Bear said...

I'm so glad everything was okay...but good lord what a comedy of errors. Ugh!!

decemberbaby said...

I'm so glad that everything is clear and normal... but mostly, I'm glad the comedy of errors is over!

(are you sure the radiologist wasn't just Robin Williams studying for his next movie?)