Surgery

I mentioned I was having health problems a few posts ago.  I am usually a pillar of health, seriously.  I've taken maybe one sick day in the past four years.  I've only been to the hospital twice in my life.  The first being the day I was born and the second a short visit to the ER to get a tetanus shot after a car accident. 

So my health, yeah...

Back in April, I visited my gynecologist for an "Infertility Appointment."  After hearing my history, my doctor felt pretty confident that she could help me get pregnant.  She decided to put me on a low dose of Clomid, which is a pretty well-known fertility drug, to give my ovaries a little boost.  She also ordered blood work to check my different hormone levels.  My levels came back and they were all normal.  We were very optimistic.  She told me that the next time she saw me that I should have a big smile on my face and a growing belly.

I was hoping to get pregnant on my first Clomid cycle, but it didn't happen.  Instead, my period brought on massive cramping and severe nausea.  I still went to work, but I had to teach either sitting down or if I was standing I was usually grasping my sides.  It was pretty terrible.  My doctor was obviously concerned and scheduled me for an ultrasound in the local office the next day.  They saw what looked like a cyst on one of my ovaries, so they sent me to radiology in the city to get better pictures.  I had to drink like a billion gallons of water and they did two different ultrasounds, one internal and the other external.

I had a phone appointment with my doctor a couple days later to discuss the findings and she told me that they found multiple cysts on both of my ovaries.  She was going to continue to monitor me to see if I had something called PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome).  My blood test results had been normal and did not support PCOS, but she said that not every person is the same with PCOS.  She said that she wanted to see a picture of my ovaries NOT on Clomid, so she took me off of it, and wanted me to get another ultrasound in July to see how everything looked.  She warned me that she may need to put me on birth control for a while to shrink the cysts if I still had them in July.

No baby in there, only a big ugly tumor.

So, it seemed like forever, but I finally had my ultrasounds on Tuesday last week.  I had been having some pain in my right back side, so I was pretty sure that I still had some cysts in there and was mentally preparing myself to go on birth control.

My phone conference with my doctor on Monday was definitely NOT what I was expecting.  It turns out that the little cysts were basically gone, but what we thought was a cyst is really a rapidly growing tumor on my right ovary.  My doctor tried to ease me into it, but warned me that there was a small possibility that it could be cancerous.  She thinks that it is probably a dermoid cyst, but they can't tell from the ultrasound pictures.  She also told me, no running, bouncing, jumping, etc.  That my poor little ovary is dangling there with twice as much weight on it and she doesn't want to have to do emergency surgery with a big ugly scar if it becomes twisted.  I've been in a lot of pain the last few days and was taking the max dose of Tylenol without any improvement, so my doctor prescribed me some codeine to help.

I went in on Tuesday to pick up my prescription and get more blood work done.  I've been getting a lot of blood work done lately so that was pretty routine for me.  The only thing that wasn't routine was the fact that they took SIX vials of blood from me instead of the regular 1-2 vials.  When I went to pick up the prescription, they warned me about driving while on my medicine, so I'm basically stuck at home.

At first, my doctor didn't have any openings in her schedule until mid-September.  That was going to be awful because I would be starting school and Doug is going to be out of town for six weeks starting the end of August.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, I guess) my case was marked as urgent, so someone got bumped and I got their surgery slot.  I have laparoscopic surgery scheduled for this coming Monday, July 25th.  I'm really nervous.   I keep on imagining myself in a hospital gown laying unconscious on a surgical table and it kind of freaks me out.  I'm mostly nervous because of the mention of the C word, but also because the doctor warned me that I might lose my right ovary with the surgery.  So much is really unknown at this point.

I've been watching all kinds of laparoscopic surgeries on the ovaries online.  They'll be making tiny incisions on my abdomen at my belly button for a little camera and in other places for their tiny tools.  I'm kind of confused as to whether it is inpatient or outpatient surgery.  The nurse on the phone told me that it may be possible for me to leave the same day, but my doctor will probably have me stay overnight for observation.  I have two different pre-op appointments this Friday, so I should be more informed by then.  My mother-in-law, who is a surgical tech, has participated in tons of these surgeries and was able to calm some of my fears by telling me exactly what to expect.

So, it's almost 4am and I've been up for three and a half hours.  The dreams I have while medicated are not pleasant.  I'm sick to my stomach from the pain pills and I stepped in cat puke as I left my bedroom to blog. I hate the brain fuzziness I feel from the pills, but the pain in my abdomen is pretty intolerable without them.  I hate even more that I'm stuck at home all day lacking the brain function to even read a simple children's chapter book.

My teacher friend, Caitlin is planning on picking me up tomorrow/today so my drugged self can tag along with her throughout the day instead of sitting around at home watching YouTube movies of laparoscopic surgeries.  Now that's a good friend!  I don't know what she has planned for her day tomorrow, but I'm actually looking forward to whatever it is.

If you could maybe say a tiny little prayer for me that would be really great.  I'm really feeling like crap.