About Me

My photo
For five years I went through hell and back to become a Mummy! I had three miscarriages from natural pregnancies, five IUI attempts, five IVF attempts, and three operations to remove endometriosis, a polyp and a fibroid. I have been with my 'almost perfect' Husband since 2003. We married in 2009 on Valentine's Day and we are extremely happy together. I decided to start a blog because I needed to write down my thoughts and feelings to show myself and others how I was never going to give up until we got our forever baby.

Since having my baby, I'm inspired to create: Baby Blankets by Me & Mum

Friday 25 May 2012

Answers in Athens - Hysteroscopy

Hubby went and enjoyed the huge buffet breakfast and I collected a lunch box from the hotel reception for after my op. We jumped in a taxi and arrived nice and early at the hospital. Hubby took his book because he had to stay in the waiting area for the whole time.

I was taken to a private room and told to undress and given a gown. After about half an hour they took me down to the theatre in a wheelchair and I was put in a cubical opposite a women who was asleep recovering from her op! I had a drip put in my arm which hurt and then I waited for about half an hour. In that time I met the anesthetist and the surgeon and lots of nurses. I started getting really nervous - not only because I was about to have an op but because it was in a foreign country!
I was walked through to the operating table and my legs were strapped into stirrups and my arms strapped down out stretched. Then I saw the anesthetist go to inject something for the second time into my drip and I said am I going to sleep now and she said yes. As usual I kept my eyes open for as long as I could so I know I'm not pretending to be asleep. Just before I was out for the count I felt my breathing go funny and I think I made them all jump because I started coughing - I think I remember someone saying 'just relax'.

Next thing I know I'm in the cubicle where I was watching the other lady sleep and someone else is opposite watching me! I was shaking like a leaf and my tummy felt a bit crampy but I was fine. The surgeon came to see me and he said he removed a small fibroid and he scraped the lining of the womb. I expected him to say more but apparently that was it!

Eventually I was taken back upstairs to the private room where they left me for another half an hour and then they asked if I felt ready to get up. At last I could have something to eat and drink, and I was grateful to the hotel for some orange juice and a cookie that I managed to have before getting dressed. I had started to worry about Hubby because he must have been waiting for a while and when I saw him I asked him the time and it was after 3pm - I couldn't believe it as we had arrived at the hospital at 10.30am! He had finished his book and was bored but more importantly he was worried about me! We paid our hospital bill and we were given a DVD of the op to take back to the FS.

We got a taxi back to the clinic where the FS watched the DVD and discussed it with us:

The uterus is filled with water so that the surgeon can see everything. You will see bubbles and things floating around! My uterus is a very light pink which is nice and healthy and it doesn't look like there is any infection.

The first 20 seconds is the camera travelling through the cervix and into the uterus.
At 28 seconds you briefly see the camera focus on the right opening to a fallopian tube.
At 30 seconds the camera focuses on a white lump, this is the fibroid.
At 40 seconds the camera focuses on the left opening to a fallopian tube.
At 55 seconds the surgeon starts the cutting along the wall of the uterus making implantation cuts. These cuts are at the top of the uterus called the fundus and is the best place for embryos to implant.
At 2 minutes the surgeon focuses on the fibroid and starts cutting around it. The fibroid becomes more obvious. It is hard, round and white.
At 3:50 there is a small bleed.
At 4:15 the surgeon thinks he has cut around the fibroid enough and use a grabbing instrument to try and pull it out.
At 5:15 the cutting instrument goes back in.
At 7:17 there is a slight bleed.
At 7:37 the grabbing tool goes back in and keeps trying to pull the fibroid out.
At 8:10 there is a slight bleed.
At 8:30 the cutting tool starts again.
At 9:30 the grabbing tool goes back in and keeps trying to pull the fibroid out.
At 10:34 the surgeon decides to stop trying to pull it out and start the light scraping of the womb lining which will get rid of the fluffy, floaty stuff and scrape out the fibroid - although we don't see this as there is bleeding and so it can't be filmed.

The FS believes that it has been so difficult for us to get pregnant because of the position of the fibroid, and that it could possibly have been the cause of the first two miscarriages and if the last pregnancy had continued it could have caused another loss. She believes that now that it is gone and I have implantation cuts, and with Hubby's super sperm, we have a very good chance of getting pregnant naturally.
She suggested that I take femara which is like clomid but won't affect the womb lining as much as clomid can. The femara could help me grow an egg on both ovaries so that our chances are not reduced by my blocked left tube.

Hubby and I are very happy with all this. Although we are impatient to have a baby, we believe that getting pregnant naturally is what was meant for us and so we're going to give ourselves up to 6 months to try.

1 comment:

  1. I had no idea what you had been going through since your last post! I am so pleased that things are looking so positive, and that this treatment may really help to aid your chances of conceiving naturally. I will be keeping everything crossed that it happens for you very soon. I am, however, a little disappointed that you had to go abroad (and pay!) to find this out! Will be watching with interest over the coming months. Good luck! xxx

    ReplyDelete