"A hysteroscopy at St Mary's Hospital"

I was quite stunned to read  another patient's description of her hysteroscopy because it was so different to my experience in the same hospital under the same consultant. I have been meaning to write about what happened to me ever since I went through the procedure at the end of March but haven't been able to bring myself to do this; mainly because it means having to face and relive the experience which I had tried to consign to some corner of my mind, Reading about someone else undergoing a hysteroscopy at St Mary's sent a shiver down my spine and brought it all back. What I experienced was unbelievably painful and I can feel panic just making myself think about it. I don't think that anyone should have been expected to experience the amount of pain that I went through on that day. I had problems sleeping afterwards because I kept waking up in the night and I guess that it is still affecting me to some extent. I have been keeping this largely hidden in my head and that really hasn't been doing me any good at all. I think the whole thing was barbaric and traumatic and I am reliving flashbacks of it whenever I think about it; I can't understand how something so horrific can be allowed to happen in 2017.

I was sent for the hysteroscopy because the FP doctor ( that I saw at the medical centre) that removed my last coil was concerned that it wasn't complete; I had no symptoms. The FP doctor told me that they would ask for pain relief in the form of gas and air to be provided because I had experienced severe pain when the coil was removed; I don't know if they did ask because none was offered. I think that the FP doctor had some idea of what I was going to go through because they seemed to be reluctant to tell me about it.

On the day I followed the leaflet instructions and took over the counter pain relief but I was kept waiting at the hospital so that I was about an hour late going in and I was very anxious. I explained to the consultant that I was terrified of what pain that I might face and explained that I had a history of pain from gynaecological procedures such as coil insertion and removal and smear tests. No pain relief was offered. I was told that the consultant would just use the camera to reduce pain but it was agonising. I stopped the procedure twice due to the pain but was told that the camera was nearly through my cervix and it would only be a very short time before it was through; I was showed that on the screen. By that I got the impression that the pain would be over once the camera was through and agreed to go on. That wasn't what happened; I felt the camera push through my cervix and there was a bit of blood showing on the screen but then the pain just became everything that there was in my world; it was the most painful experience of my life; worse than childbirth. 

There did seem to be some communication issues involved because when I got to the hospital they didn't know that I was on medication which they should have and also the consultant thought that an arm had broken off the removed coil and could be embedded, but that wasn't what happened; it was just that the copper coating wasn't all there. In the end it seems that it must have just dissolved. They just seemed to be looking for excuses as to why it hurt me so much; I felt that I was being blamed for that because I got asked had I eaten anything and had I taken the advised painkillers?

The doctor and nurse were both talking to me about different things through the whole thing trying to distract me which I think is a barbaric way of trying to deal with pain like that in the 21st century. I was being told to keep my bottom pressed down on the chair thing that I was in but I was in so much pain; all I wanted was for it to stop. Even after the camera was removed I was still in a lot of pain. I was asked how much and said 8/10 when it had dropped a lot; I just wouldn't have been able to answer that before. I just wanted to get out of that room so I tried to stand up as soon as I felt able to but I nearly passed out and had to sit down again; there was plastic sheeting and water/blood and it was horrible. I had expected pain but nothing like that. Why are colonoscopies done with sedation or gas and air as standard (I had one of those last year) when nothing is offered for a hysteroscopy even when it was asked for? The only conclusion that I came to was because men have colonoscopies... I feel shaky now reliving that day but maybe I can actually put it behind me now. I hope so.