Hopeful Again – The Mighty Hands of My OB/GYN Surgeon

It’s such a good feeling to get good news.

Finally, after all the previous saga with a failed attempt at our operative hysteroscopy at my own clinic, today was hysteroscopy take two with Dr. Gentle.  I guess because of our vacation, I hadn’t been thinking too much about it.  Plus, I somehow had more confidence about it this time because of Dr. Gentle.

One thing I notice is that UC.SF and Kai.ser handle things in very different ways.  In the pre-op instructions at UC.SF, I was told to 1) not to take any Excedr.in or other similar meds a week prior to the procedure, and 2) fast four hours before the procedure.  Kaiser instructed me to 1) insert two Misoprostol vaginally the night before the procedure to help soften and open up the cervix, 2) start taking antibiotics the night before the procedure and continue until I run out of it, 3) take Ibuprofen and Tylenol with codeine the morning of, and 4) take a Val.ium an hour prior to the procedure.  I was allowed to have a light meal before the procedure.

When we arrived, I was quickly checked in and called back.  Somehow I knew I was a little anxious, so my blood pressure would reflect it.  I told the nurse who was going to take my blood pressure.  She told me to sit for a few moments first. When she operated the machine, she told me to imagine a vacation spot and good times.  I closed my eyes and visualized Hawaii.  The machine beeped.  My reading was 120/90.  Although the systolic number was fine, the diastolic part was a bit high.  I sat for a bit before she redid it.  Phew so much better.  This time it was 126/86.  If it remained to be 90 or over, I’d have to go to internal medicine to be monitored or something like that.  I also hate being weighed right after my vacation.  *Sigh*.  It was inevitable.

A urine sample was required to confirm the lack of pregnancy, although that was kind of silly and unnecessary as I have been on birth control pills for two months now.  I was situated in a temporary exam room.  A nurse came in to give me two shots on my behind.  I was told to face the exam table, place my palms on it for support, and pull my pants down a little for the injections.  I think one was to relax my muscles and the other one was for pain relief.  One on the left and one on the right.  I almost burst out laughing because it was just a very vulnerable and compromising position for one to be in.  I have high pain tolerance so the shots only stung a little.  However, when the muscles absorbed the medication, it actually burned quite a lot.  The nurse praised me as a great patient and went her merry way.  I felt drugged up from head to toe and was feeling a little drunk without having any alcohol.  I waited for a few more moments and was taken to the “Minor Procedure Room”.

This is another difference from UC.SF.  At my previous hysteroscopy, I was put in a gown and was connected to an IV catheter.  This time, I was told that at the clinic procedure doesn’t require that.  Only in the hospital operation room you are allowed to have an IV.  So here at Kai.ser, I was told to remove my clothes from waist down and drape myself.  I didn’t even have to change into a gown.  Dr. Gentle came in and was as pleasant as ever.  She said, “Let’s hope we have better luck today than the last time.”  I had on my Wonder Woman socks, and the nurses and doctor were ooing and ahhing over them.  I had my legs up on the stirrups while Dr. Gentle did her thing.  She was explaining to me everything she was doing, which I appreciated.  The nurse gave me a heat pad for my stomach area.  Nothing really hurt throughout the whole process except for the injection she did for numbing the area.  Boy that totally burned for at least 15 to 20 seconds.  I went “ouch ouch” a couple of times.

After that killer injection, the rest of the procedure was pretty straight forward.  I felt tugging and pulling, then the doctor pumped saline solution into my uterus.  There was a beautiful sight of my uterus, unlike whatever I saw at my last hysteroscopy at UC.SF.  Dr. Gentle first checked the opening to the left tube.  She said it looked healthy and wide open.  Then she went onto the right side.  There was no scar tissue anywhere whatsoever, but there was something that looked initially like a polyp, then later on she said it looked like a fibroid.  It was this white substance that blocked the right tube.

She checked again.  There was no scar tissue.  So I guess whatever Dr. Director saw during the saline sonogram was that fibroid-like thing.  Here comes the very very cool part.  Dr. Gentle inserted the Myosure probe and my fibroid was removed right in front of my eyes.  The device sucked the tissue away.  Later on the tissue would be retrieved and sent for biopsy.   The nurse took quite a few photos of each part of the procedure.

 

During the procedure, because of the position of my legs on the stirrups, the bottom half of my body started shaking slightly.  I kept on taking deep breaths to stop my legs from shaking.  It helped a little.  However, towards the end of the procedure, my whole bottom half was shaking like a leaf.  I really didn’t want to interfere with the procedure but I couldn’t keep myself still.  I knew that it wasn’t because of me being nervous, because I wasn’t.  It was the weirdest feeling.

Once the doctor was done and removed all probes, I asked if I could remove my legs from the stirrups.  Wow so much better when I could put my legs together.  No more shaking.  I sat up.  Dr. Gentle showed me two pictures.  Here they are:

On the top is the view of the fibroid on the left side of the image blocking the right tube.  The bottom picture shows the uterus free of any scar tissue, fibroid, or polyp.  The little reddish areas on the left and the right sides show the opening of my fallopian tubes.  The top whitish triangular-shaped thing was the Myosure device.  Dr. Gentle commented on how great my cavity looked and how great my lining looked.  She said that she was glad my UC.SF doctors thought that there was scar tissue.  If we didn’t remove the fibroid, any embryos implanted in that area would have been miscarried.  She said that there is no reason why I can’t get pregnant with such a nice looking uterus and lining.  Wow, isn’t that nice to hear?  A normal looking uterus that can get pregnant.  This is the best news I could get today.

I couldn’t help but compare my experience here vs. at UC.SF.  It was so stressful there at UC.SF because Dr. No Nonsense was frustrated and it was not successful.  Here, Dr. Gentle made everything looked easy and effortless.  I am sure it wasn’t, but she really did know her stuff.  I feel so fortunate that she was the one who removed the fibroid.

I went on to ask how I could show the results to my UC.SF RE.  Dr. Gentle is the nicest doctor ever.  She gave me those two pictures to show Dr. No Nonsense.  Then she told me to wait in the procedure room so she could quickly go and write the report.  When I got up from the table, blood was gushing out.  It took quite some time to clean myself up.  I was told that bleeding is normal.  I only waited for a few minutes before Dr. Gentle came in and handed me the report.  She said that I should wait a week before intercourse, but if I am going to ovulate soon, go ahead and do it.  Well, I have been on birth control pills, so there is no way I will be ovulating any time soon.  Dr. Gentle shook my hand, wished me luck with my upcoming cycle, and walked me out of the clinic.  The surgeon herself walked me out of the clinic.  What do you think about that?

We parked our car at my work, so we walked a few blocks back to get it.  I was walking so slowly.  With all the drugs in my system, I could just move at a very slow pace.  When I got home, I already got an email from Dr. Gentle.  This is what she wrote me:

“It was a pleasure seeing you again during your visit to ob/gyn clinic today. I’m glad you were able to visualize your procedure and that all went so smoothly. As a reminder, I do recommend that you take your pain medications around the clock today, then as needed tomorrow and afterwards. Today, I recommend you take one each of your Ibuprofen and your Tylenol with codeine tablets at 2 PM and again at 8 PM. If you have significant pain between these times, you may also take another of the Tylenol with codeine tablets. Make sure also that you complete your antibiotic course as prescribed. Please refer to your patient handout for expected post-procedure symptoms, and feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns.
Good luck with your upcoming transfer!”

I just love her.

I scanned the report and the photos of my uterus and emailed them to my nurse.  She responded saying that 1) I should continue with my birth control pills and 2) she will show Dr. NN my report and hopefully get clearance from him before we say Yes to a donor.

So this is it!  I am so grateful for good news.  It’s a fresh breath of air after having repeated bad news.  Most important of all, I am becoming hopeful again that this dream of having our own baby can really be accomplished now that my uterus seems to be good to go.  We just need to make some good embryos.  Praise the Lord that this procedure went so well.

Now we are all good to go with our next steps!!!  Wow!  This is such a great feeling!