A Snowman Starts with a Snowball

Our meeting with the new RE on the 20th was our first baby step towards the process of once again trying for a child. I like the doc already.
The facility is about an hour away (slightly closer than the former place) and luckily our 10:30 appointment was far enough removed from the rush hour traffic that the trip was fairly smooth. When we got there I paid our $25 co-pay, which was a weird feeling considering we've never had any sort of infertility coverage before. We got off light!
I then rushed to fill out the paperwork that I filled out about a year ago, but was obviously tossed away after we failed to make a new appointment with them last fall. Dr. H came out and welcomed us to his office, and once we sat down he started asking Mike questions while I finished filling out the forms. Since he had no medical records for me (again, probably discarded months ago) we had to do our best to explain our situation and give him as much information as possible. I gave him several photocopies of the few records I had (Mike's semen analysis from 2004 which showed zero sperm count) and a report of an internal exam I had from my previous IVF cycle.
He is a very nice man -- professional and knowledgeable. He made us feel comfortable and answered all of our questions. Using the limited information he had, he told us what he thought, and thankfully he didn't crush any of our hopes. When I asked him about my concerns about being 35, he didn't seem worried. He said between the ages of 35 and 37, the quality of fertility in a generally healthy woman isn't much different from that of a woman in her early 30s. That certainly eased my mind a bit. In fact, he said that if my exams show me to be healthy and problem-free, I'd just be like an older egg donor. That's a perspective I'd never heard before. Like our other clinic, they only transfer two embryos as most, and we talked a little about the one frozen embryo we have.
We talked a little bit about our insurance issue, and he said although he's not "an insurance guy" he brought up a few strategies we could explore. He wants me to call the office when I get my next period so they can schedule bloodwork, an ultrasound and an HSG. We found out those test results are good for one year, so we agreed that getting the testing done now will allow us to hit the ground running when we finally are ready to cycle again. Dr. H also gave me the name of a company called Counsyl, which does genetic testing. He said to contact them and get a test kit to test for a variety of genetic issues, including cystic fibrosis. (I actually already received and sent back the kit with my saliva sample.) That will just give us another set of things to "cross off the list" and I'm grateful for his thoroughness.
I really wish Dr. H had my medical records in front of him so we could have gotten a more customized analysis, but I'm still glad we went. I'm actually looking forward to next month's testing, just so I feel like I'm back in the game.
Now for the audience participation segment: Can anyone share experiences about the HSG? I've read various things about it, from being a mildly uncomfortable experience to being torture. Feedback?