The Big HSG Day!

Today was full of pictures.  About a year and a half ago I found out that my left vocal cord is paralyzed.  I had an unexplained hoarse for about 6 weeks when I saw my fabulous ENT for the first time.  He scoped me (camera up the nose and partially down the throat) to visualize by vocal cords and what he found surprised us both.  My left vocal cord was not moving.  Every other month I went back to my ENT and he would re scope me to see if function had returned but it never did so we moved onto a surgery to place an implant in my neck that would move my vocal cord over to the center, in essence strengthening my voice which at that point had been hoarse for 9 months.  Surgery was a success and I had a "new normal" voice. 

Well about 3 weeks ago my voice started to become hoarse again.  So I went back to the ENT today.  The took 3 x-rays of my sinuses.  My x-ray showed that my sinuses were cloudy so they are now treating me for a sinus infection.  The nurse practitioner told me that since I only have one functioning vocal cord that my thresh hold for hoarseness is just going to be much less than any one who has 2 normal cords.  So this is what we try for now.  Thankfully I did not have to have a scope because I already new what types of "tubes" my afternoon would bring.

In between my appointments I had just enough time to grab some lunch, get gas in my car and pick up my prescriptions for my sinuses.  I felt good about the day, fairly calm considering I was going for my HSG in a bit.

I went to the hospital, registered and sat in the waiting room for a short period of time while still remaining calm, however I was starting to get just a little bit anxious!  I was fortunate enough to have a great X-Ray tech who explained the procedure and reassured me that it shouldn't be to bad.  Once I went and changed into my hospital gown and sat on the table my anxiety hit the ceiling.  Now I have been told by the families that I take care of at work that I always remain so calm during "code blue" situations, even though I feel like a basket case inside.  So my guess is that the Radiology Tech and Radiologist had no idea just how nervous I was!!

All that anxiety and the test really was not that bad.  Really it just felt weird to feel somebody cleaning my cervix and inserting the catheter.  When they inserted the dye I only felt pressure, a pressure that I really can not explain and a crazy urge to pee!!  My radiologist told me everything he was doing prior to doing it and after the procedure was over took the time to show me my slides and give me some info.  He told me that from what he could tell on quick glance was that my HSG was normal.  Tubes are patent, uterus is shaped like normal and the dye spilled out the end by the ovaries just as it should. 

Here is my uterus (they gave me a CD to take to my doc!)

 

 

My husband who is also a radiology tech of course wanted to see my slides and his only concern with the pictures is that my uterus is not in the center, its off to the side (the darkest black blob), so this is something that I will ask my doc about when I go back in a couple of weeks.  The thin lines that are on both left and right side are my fallopian tubes.  The line in the center is the catheter going into my uterus and at the end of my fallopian tubes where the color becomes darker again is where the dye is fawning out around my ovaries.

 

I asked the lady that was in with me today when my official report would be ready and she told me that it should be in a couple of days.  I could either pick it up or just see it when I go back to the RE.  Well I am a little impatient so I am sure that I will pick it up from the hospital as soon as I can!!

 

I also received a phone call from my RE today telling me that all of my labs are normal.  Being me I need more info than that so I asked him to mail me a copy so I can physically see the numbers!!

 

Can you sense my impatience?