Laminaria Tent?!

Tuesday afternoon I went into the Calgary Regional Fertility Clinic to have a Laminaria Tent put into my uterus.

I am so grateful that I didn't look it up on the internet first. (There are some horror stories on there!)

I was told that it was a type of seaweed that they would be using to open my uterus before my surgery on Wednesday. Turns out I mustn't have been listening carefully enough... the Laminaria Tent isn't used to open a woman's uterus it is to open a woman's cervix.

Now that might not seem like a big difference, however, it was not at all what I was expecting.

Because I thought it was to help open my uterus I was picturing the laminaria tent to look something like an open tampon. Boy was I wrong, instead it looks like a stick. Online they say that they place the laminaria tent into your uterus- place- ha!

They STUCK it into my cervix!

When I cried out from pain I apologized to the doctor who responded with (not kidding): "Don't apologize I know I'm torturing you!` You know when a doctor says that you`re in trouble!

Thankfully it was over quickly.

When I got home I looked it up and read that some women only experience some mild cramping whereas other women talked about excruciating pain. One woman had experienced such awful pain that she had to hospitalized and put on morphine... thankfully I didn`t experience anything quite so dramatic! But lets just say I hope I don`t have to ever have another!

Here is some more information about laminaria tents that I found online:

Laminaria Tent - Laminaria tent is about 2 inches, rigid, fibre-like stick made out of the seaweed (Laminaria stenophylla). It is used for two and three day procedures when cervix needs to be dilated more. The seaweed property is that it absorbs the moisture when in contact with the secretions of the body, while softening and swelling to several times its diameter. The result is the gradual dilation of the cervix which in turn decreases the chance of cervical laceration and perforation. This is the safest and the least painful way of cervix dilatation as it takes usually 24 hours for it to fully expand. Women might get cramps within those 24 hours so adequate pain killers are prescribed to lessen the discomfort. - Women`s Care Clinic