I had my hysteroscopy this afternoon so I thought I would update this here blog about the experience.
My confirmation letter told me to be at the hospital at 12:30pm. I had been feeling nervous about it all week so my husband said he would go with me for moral support.
There was an initial flurry of activity after I signed in at reception. A porter came to collect me to take me to my room, swiftly followed by a nurse to go through some paperwork and do my blood pressure, temperature and oxygen levels check. I was given a fetching hospital gown and knickers to change into. I'm glad I took my dressing gown and slippers!
A little while later, my consultant came by. I had only spoken to her over the phone until this point and she came in with a friendly smile. We went through more paperwork and she explained the procedure again and that she would talk to me throughout so I knew what was going on.
Someone from catering also came by to take my sandwich order as I wouldn't be able to be discharged without having eaten something and passed urine.
There was then a bit of a wait to be called down for the procedure itself, which was probably the worst part of it really.
Eventually, a member of the theatre team came to collect me and walked me to theatre. I was fully aware of what the procedure itself would entail, but I wasn't prepared to walk into a proper operating theatre with a team of people in there, a trolley with substantial looking stirrups, and two huge sets of overhead operation theatre lights.
Everyone was really friendly and introduced themselves to me. Each person explained to me what they were doing and I felt about as dignified as it is possible to be with my feet in stirrips, the trolley angled down at the head and my muff and flaps exposed to the air for all to see.
The procedure involved the insertion of a speculum, much like a smear test. I then had a local anaesthetic applied to my cervix before the camera was inserted and a biopsy taken.
The consultant talked to me throughout and a nurse checked in on me frequently, for which I was grateful because with the way my head was angled, all I could see were the operating theatre lights.
I was grateful that the consultant was aware of the moments in the procedure that were likely to cause the most discomfort and would tell me to take deep breaths. Thankfully, those moments were over quite quickly.
All in all, the procedure was pretty quick. I was probably in there for about 20 minutes and half that time was getting myself installed in the stirrups and having things explained to me. There were moments where I felt a bit self-conscious, but they were always quick to cover me up when they could. Ultimately though, nothing is going to make you feel like you don't have your legs spreadeagle and your cunny being on first name terms with strangers.
The consultant was happy with how things looked in there. She took the biopsy and she cleared out some mucus deposits and that was that. I now need to wait a few weeks for her to get the results of the biopsy and then we'll have a telephone consultation to go through that and next steps.
A nurse very kindly and gently assisted me off the trolley and into a waiting wheelchair and she took me back to my room.
There was another flurry of activity as another nurse came back to do post procedure blood pressure, temperature and oxygen checks. She was very impressed that my blood pressure was pretty much the same as the reading before the procedure. I did feel quite pleased with how calm I'd managed to be throughout considering my legs had been jumping in the run up to it because I was feeling that jittery.
I was given a cup of tea and my sandwich and had a few minutes to rest on my hospital bed before getting changed. I'd gone to the loo so when the next nurse came round to do another round of checks I could report back that I'd eaten and passed urine so she could send the next nurse to do the discharge paperwork, and then I was able to go home.
I had made sure I was codeined up before I left for the hospital and I had some more when I got home. As I expected, I'm in more discomfort now than I was during the procedure itself, but it's nothing that I'm not already used to dealing with. I feel tender and a bit crampy, and felt a little bit sick and dizzy, but I'm resting up and I have the weekend to rest. I didn't sleep very well last night. I'd gone to bed early and got to sleep quite quickly, but then pinged awake at 2am with my brain chittering away and not letting me get to sleep for another hour and a half.
So that's been my latest adventures with my lady parts. They've been filmed and biopsied! Lights, camera...extraction!
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