Laughing Gas

When I went to the gynecologist several months ago, she had highly recommended that I have an ultrasound because of my family’s history of uterine cancer and my personal issues with anemia both of which put me at risk of female cancer.  I agreed with her recommendation and scheduled the ultrasound for the first of October and wasn’t surprised when it came back irregular.  The gynecologist told me that the next step would be a biopsy and hysteroscopy which would involve the insertion of a camera into my uterus.  I felt comfortable with the recommendation and set an appointment to have it done today.

To prepare for the procedure I had a pre-op appointment several weeks ago to discuss the procedure.  I was surprised to hear that they recommended anesthesia for it.  I had had a biopsy before without even taking pain medication, so I wasn’t expecting this to be too much different.  Since I had had adverse reactions to anesthesia in the past, I asked if there was anything else that they could give me.  My choices were either Vicodin with Valium or Nitrous Oxide.  My stomach ulcer made me extremely weary of taking oral medication on an empty stomach, so I chose the latter.  I had had “laughing gas” once in college when I had dental work done on a broken tooth and remembered that it was pretty easy to use and helped with the discomfort.  Even though it was $200 more I knew that it was the correct choice.

I never seconded guessed my decision today as I was positive that it was the right choice for me, but I definitely thought about stopping the gas during the procedure.  It felt like I was purposely trying to make myself pass out.  It didn’t help that I had to have a nose clip on and breathe the nitrous oxide through a tube. The pain didn’t help either and I was never so glad to hear the doctor say that she was 95% done when I thought that the pain couldn’t get any worse.  I told Doug later that I knew that the pain was at its apex when I could no longer see anything but the bright lights on the ceiling.

Thankfully, the procedure did end and the good news was that the doctor didn’t see anything to make her believe that I had cancer.  She did take the biopsy to make sure, but I felt confident when I left that everything would come back normal.  As happy as I was to hear about the results, I was even more pleased when the doctor told me how impressed she was that I made it through the procedure.  She said that most women give up halfway through because of the pain.  That made me feel really good even though the procedure left me sore for the rest of the day.