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Tag: ovarian cyst

Unanswered Questions

Yesterday I had another fun day of sitting around waiting at my OB/GYN’s office.  I had a 10:30 appointment for a follow-up sono to check on my latest round of PCOS related ovarian cysts and then an appointment to see my doc.  Per usual, if I don’t schedule a 9:00 a.m. appointment, the doc got called out to the hospital for an emergency procedure and I ended up sitting around there for over three hours.  I know these things can’t be helped, but when you are sitting there waiting to find out if you have to have yet another surgery you tend to get a bit impatient.

When the doc finally got in there, she looked at my sono pics, pushed around on my tummy a bit, asked me some questions, and decided that the best course of action is surgery.  This time around, the surgery is not to remove an excessively large cyst though, but to remove my right ovary.   Well, most likely removal of the ovary.  She basically said that she needs to get in there and look around to find the source of the pain, but that most likely the ovary will need to come out.  She suggested there might be some endometriosis or even scar tissue that is causing it, but she can’t be sure until she gets in there.  The good news is that I only have normal-sized cysts this time and she doesn’t think that is the cause of the pain.

She also gave me the option of Lupron injections, which would maybe help.  Even with that, there was still a high chance that surgery would be needed.  We both agreed that just going ahead with the surgery seemed like the best option.

When you talk about removing an ovary, the inevitable question comes up, “Do you plan to have any more kids?”  Granted, pregnancy can still happen with just one functioning ovary, but I’m sure what she was wanting to know is if it would be better to just take it all out.  The problem is, I’m not ready to answer that question yet.  I am beyond blessed with the two children I have.  At one time I didn’t think I would be able to have any, so to have two beautiful, healthy children without any pregnancy-related complications is a pretty amazing feat.  I have the perfect family – one boy, one girl – the way I always dreamed it would be.  Yet, there is a little part of me that just doesn’t feel quite finished.

When I weigh out the pros and cons, everything points to stopping at two.  Financially, we really don’t have room for another baby.  We need to buy a new car.  We would like to someday actually buy a house.  We have debt up to our eyeballs and are not making much progress on it right now.  Plus, thinking about swallowing another five years of day care/preschool costs makes me sick to my stomach.

Then, of course, there is the Hubby to consider.  He says he’s done.  He’s happy with our two and doesn’t want to rock the boat.  I get that.  Maybe it is wrong of me to even consider wanting another child when he feels that way.  Yet, I just can’t commit to saying I’m done.  I’m leaning that direction, but it seems so final.

Evie wants a little sister.  She brings it up frequently.  When she plays with her dolls she feeds them, burps them, changes their diapers, snuggles and sings to them, then tucks them into bed.  She is a natural care taker.  A real baby brother or sister would blow her mind.  I know that is not a reason to have another child, but how amazing would it be to give her another sibling to bond with?  And there is Zach too.  Even though he thinks his little sister is the coolest ever, he would really like to have a brother.

All these things swirl around in my head.  Even though I don’t have to make a decision now, making the ultimate decision that I am done would make things much easier on me in the future.  Taking both ovaries out would relieve a lot of stress, pain, and future surgeries.  It’s just the finality of it that I can’t handle.  What if I change my mind?

I could potentially just go for a full hysterectomy, which I have always planned on doing after I was done having kids, due to PCOS and my high risk of breast/ovarian cancer.  I’m a little scared of what that would do to my body hormonally, but it really would lessen a lot of health risks for me.  Being that it’s not medically necessary right now to go that extreme, would I regret it later?  I don’t know.

I have a lot of questions right now, and not a lot of answers (what else is new?).  It seems to make the most sense to just take out the one ovary now, and deal with the rest later which is pretty much what I have decided to do.  Things could be fine after that, or they may not.  While I do have cysts on the left side as well, they don’t seem to cause me pain.  That doesn’t mean that they won’t though.  And the not knowing, that is the problem.

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Coming Out of the Fog

So the surgery on Thursday went well. They had me good and doped up so that I didn’t really even feel much of anything until the next day. The cyst was removed with no surprises, exactly as we had hoped. I slept for most of the day, only getting up for a small dinner and to see the kids for a bit in the evening.

Friday I felt great. I was surprised that I wasn’t hurting too much and decided that I felt good enough to go with Hubby to take Evie to her 18 month check-up at the doctor’s office. After that we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few things, picked Zach up from preschool, and decided to go ahead and eat dinner out. I was doing just fine until just about the end of dinner when Zach had to go to the restroom. As I waited for him I started getting a little dizzy feeling. Fortunately, Granny came in to check on us and I was able to go sit back down right away. I had definitely overdone it.

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were pretty much a fog. I slept off and on. I’d get up for a while, only to find I needed to go back to bed. Between feeling dizzy and having a queasy stomach, I really couldn’t sit up for very long at a time. By Monday evening I was feeling a bit better, but with a lingering headache (probably due from a combination of too much sleeping and forgetting to take my Zyrtec).

Today, I’m finally feeling a little better. I got up, showered, and even fixed my hair this morning. I was feeling pretty weak afterwards, but was glad that I made the effort to do my hair. I had some breakfast, hoping that it would give me a little energy back, then went to Wal-Mart with my in-laws to pick up some groceries and a few other things. Again, I was pretty worn out after Wal-Mart but I needed to go.

This afternoon I’ve been trying to do a few little things but resting in between. I managed to put away a basket of Zach’s clothes and now I’m resting again. Everything I do seems to take a whole lot of effort, but I am trying to take it slow.

My pain is pretty well controlled and only bothers me when I do a lot of walking around. I stopped taking the Percocet on Monday and have only taken Naproxen since then. My incisions are healing, though they are now starting to itch like crazy and I have some really pretty purple and yellow bruises. This is the first surgery I’ve ever had where they have used glue to close everything back up instead of stitches. That is a little weird, but at least I’ll have less scarring on the stomach that no one will likely ever see again.

The kids seem to be handling everything really well, though that is probably because they have the attention of Granny and Papa to distract them. Evie keeps wanting to come up in my lap and every time she does she has to look at my “owies”. She has also been searching for owies on everyone else’s stomachs as well and doesn’t understand why they don’t have any.

I am so thankful to have my in-laws here to help out. They have been taking care of everything including getting to kids to and from school and day care so that I can rest. I don’t know how I would have done it without them.

The fog is definitely lifting today and I’m so glad to feel a little more like myself. Hopefully in another day or two I’ll be able to go into work for a little bit. But do you want to know what I’m really looking forward to? Being able to put on a pair of jeans again!

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Say Good-Bye To My Little Friend

Thursday morning I’m going under the knife.  I mentioned a few posts ago that I had been talking to my doctor about some abdominal pain I was having.  Well, last Friday I finally got in to have an ultrasound done to see if they could find anything.  I got a lovely surprise right away when the technician told me that she needed to do a vaginal ultrasound.  Uh…I wasn’t exactly prepared for that.  I just thought she was going to rub some gel across my stomach and look around on top like all of the other ultrasounds I’ve ever had.

She had me go to the restroom and empty my bladder before hand.  Then I positioned myself on the table and she got started.  She took the first glance at the screen and asked me if I had emptied my bladder all the way.  Yes, I had.  She had a funny look on her face and said it looked very full, which had me a little worried.

Then all of a sudden she said, “Oh, that might be a cyst!”

And yes, it was most definitely an ovarian cyst.  According to the measurements on the ultrasound, it was about 9 centimeters.  Um, yeah, that might just explain the pains that I’ve been having.  9 cm is nothing compared to the cysts I had removed when I was 19, but my doctor and I both decided right away that the best course of action was to get that thing out of me as soon as possible.

It wasn’t exactly the news I was hoping to hear on a Friday afternoon, but I am glad that there was a definite answer as to what was causing the problem.

So, I’m scheduled for surgery at 8:30 Thursday morning to have my little friend removed.  (I’ve been trying to come up with a name for it, but so far I’m drawing a blank.)  The surgery will be outpatient as long as they don’t discover any other abnormal things hiding out in there and I’ll be back home with my family that night.

My in-laws were planning a trip up here anyway, so they came up a little bit earlier so they could be here to help out with the kids and things around the house while I’m not able to.  They’re just awesome like that.

The good news is I get an unexpected vacation from work and will hopefully be pain-free after a couple of weeks.  The bad news is I’ll be hopped up on pain pills and will probably sleep through most of that time off.  Wait…why is that bad?  I’m going to need some time to come up with an answer for that one.

Even though I expect this to be a very simple surgery with no complications (*fingers crossed*) I’d be very appreciative of any prayers, happy thoughts, or positive vibes sent my way Thursday morning.

So, anyone want to name my cyst???

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