Pulling out of Testville...

Hell week is over. And thank goodness because I was just about to have a breakdown! The hysteroscopy went well yesterday, but the procedure itself was the most horrible thing I have ever been through. Because it is considered surgery (I guess because they take a sample of uterine tissue with them?), everything is more serious and takes longer. I literally spent 4 hours at the surgical center for a procedure that took all of 10 minutes and they were the most exhausting 4 hours of my life. The pain was similar and then different than the HSG and by different I mean eighty million times more terrible. However, I've only had light spotting since, no intense soreness like the HSG gave me. So basically pick your poison, god awful pain that is so bad you contemplate screaming the F word at the doctor but which goes away almost immediately or moderate pain that builds up and then lingers for 48 hours. I've had both, and they both suck, I would never prefer one over the other, and I never want to go back down this road again.

I don't want to scare anyone out there though, because everybody feels things differently and my doctor did say that part of the reason I was in so much pain was because of the way my uterus is tilted so most people would probably not have my experience. Although the girl who went before me did hyperventilate and almost passed out but maybe her uterus was tilted too? I just think the whole atmosphere of the surgical center makes it difficult to not freak out. You have to wear a gown, hair hat, and booties and they wheel chair you everywhere and the surgery room itself was this giant gaping sterile abyss with bright lights all shining down on the chair of death in the center. The chair was the worst part, it wasn't even really a chair just a table with two slots for your legs and once your legs are in there they strap them down so you can't move! And when your legs are strapped in and you couldn't get away if you wanted to, that is when it hits you that gee, this is not what you expected and is suddenly way more serious. But enough about the trauma of yesterday, it is all over with and I've passed everything with flying colors. We have pulled out of Testville, and are just about to pull into Ovulation Town.

We looked at my follicles via ultrasound this morning and I had some blood work done so now we just monitor me very closely to see when I ovulate. We have instructions to have (unprotected this time!) sex tomorrow and Sunday in case I ovulate on my own and then I go back in on Monday for another follicle check and maybe the HCG shot if I'm ready. I'm hoping that we have just been missing when I ovulate and we'll be able to get pregnant without the IUI because I just don't want any more catheters going through my cervix but IUI is much easier than IVF and I'll take what I can get. I just can't believe that our work for this month is almost over, and that having sex is going to be the easy part! By the end of next week I will have ovulated and we'll be done timing sex so I'll be running at least a week ahead of schedule. This month is flying by and I'm finally feeling productive.

And yes, these pictures are of my actual uterus. You can see in the first one my left and right fallopian tubes, the second and third are close ups of my left and right tubes respectively, and the fourth is another view of both tubes. The red blotches are just some blood and irritation and all in all the uterus passed inspection!