Filled and Spilled!

Everything went great with the HSG today. My fallopian tubes are both clear, and there's nothing funky going on, structurally, with them or my uterus.

Woo Hoo!!!

The procedure itself wasn't bad at all. It was pretty crampy when she was inserting the catheter through my cervix into my uterus, but that let up a bit once it was in there.

She warned me that the worst part would be when she actually squirted the dye, but I think I was too busy watching the monitor to even feel that.

That was very cool. As the dye went in, my uterus appeared, then both tubes, then you could see it spill out of them and make little swirlies.

The radiologist looked at it, and reported that I had, indeed "filled and spilled" and that both tubes are clear (although I was already pretty sure that's what I was seeing).

She said that it took a bit longer for the dye to travel through the left tube, so it might have been slightly blocked with some mucus, but it's clear now.

I was a bit crampy right after, but not too bad. More that "annoying" level of cramps, than actual pain.

Even at the worst, during the catheter insertion, it wasn't any more painful than what I was feeling for much longer last week, during my period.

Dr, B. (my ob/gyn) didn't have time to answer too many non-HSG-related questions, but I asked her if, assuming all is ok with the last few tests that we'll do on May 21 (most of which are formalities, for STDs and the such), whether we'll be good to go for a first attempt in June.

She said that "I'll want to look over your labs and make sure everything is ok there, but probably."

Woo Hoo again!!!

I told her that my FSH (follicle stimulating hormone) level was 4.5 (on day 2 of my cycle last week) and she said "that's perfect."

From my research, I'd already learned that you want that to be below 10 or 11, because a higher number would indicate that the ovaries were not responding appropriately.

So, to date, we've determined that all my other systems are go, my reproductive infrastructure is sound, and I seem to have plenty of eggs left.

In a couple of weeks, we'll make sure that I don't have any kind of cooties that are a problem (we've already ruled out some with blood tests) and then we're good to go.

I guess the big question that will remain to be seen is what kind of condition these 39-year-old eggs are in!