Dealing
With Setbacks
As you all might
have noticed, I haven’t posted in over a week. I was working on two
different posts, but as can always happen, along came a setback. And
it was kind of a big one. So I thought I’d use this blog post to
share what happened and update you all on my health.
About a year ago I
was in the hospital for dehydration, and as part of the tests they
were running they did an abdominal cat scan to check for any
problems. They didn’t find anything big, but they did see something
that looked like a little mass near my right ovary. They said it
wasn’t anything to worry about, so I didn’t worry about it. About
three months later I had a kidney stone and ended up in the ER. They
did a cat scan and an ultra sound, and they again saw the same mass
about the same size and they told me again it was nothing to worry
about. About four time since then, I’ve had sudden and severe right
lower abdominal pain, and I took a pain pill and waited it out, and
within an hour or so, the pain went away. I assumed it had something
to do with the mass, but because it never lasted, I never worried too
much about it.
Last Thursday around
6:30 am, I woke up with similar lower right abdominal pain. So, I did
what I always do. I took a pain pill and laid in bed waiting it out.
But the pain didn’t subside. About 9:30 I couldn’t take the pain
anymore, and I knew enough to listen to my body that something was
wrong. So I asked my mom to take me to the ER. (Now, I HATE going to
the ER, so for me to ask someone to take me is a huge deal.) They got
an IV going and gave me some serious pain medicine which helped a
little but still didn’t take the pain away. I knew something was
wrong. They did a cat scan, and it looked like the mass near my ovary
had grown, so they did an ultrasound and that’s when things went
south. The doctor came back and said they could no longer see my
ovary because the mass had overtaken it. They immediately called in
the on-call OBGYN who looked at my scans and said I needed surgery.
That night. He also said that because of my MS the surgery wouldn’t
be same-day. He wanted to keep me at least 12 hours. So they loaded
me up with pain medication again and had my mom take me to a
different hospital. (The hospital I was at doesn’t have inpatients,
so I had to be taken to another hospital where they could admit me as
a patient.)
They got me ready
for surgery and then I waited. They gave me some more medicine (I’m
telling you it was so difficult to keep my pain level under control)
and then the doctor came in to talk to me. He said he looked at my
scans again and it looked like the mass had overtaken my ovary. He
looked from several different views and they couldn’t see any part
of my ovary, so he said I would most likely lose the ovary in
surgery. He said it was probably the only way. I was a little upset
about this (I’m still in my 30’s and single and would like to
possibly have kids in the future, and losing an ovary was a scary
thought). They gave me the “happy juice” (the pre-surgery calm
down medicine) and wheeled me into surgery. Next thing I remember was
waking up violently ill. I come out of anesthesia so sick. I had told
the doctor and anesthesiologist that, and so as a precaution they
gave me the full dose of phenergran, zofran, another nausea medicine
and put an anti-nausea patch behind my ear. When I woke up so sick
the recovery nurse couldn’t believe it. She kept saying “If
you’re this sick with all those medications, I can’t imagine you
waking up after surgery with nothing”, which was of little help.
Lol
I finally was able
to wake up enough to not be sick and they took me upstairs. As soon
as I was lucid enough, I had one question. Did I still have my ovary?
The doctor was still there and that’s when he explained what
happened. I still had my ovary. It turns out that the mass wasn’t
on my ovary at all. Apparently the mass was on the back side of my
uterus. It was slightly bigger than my uterus, so the part they were
seeing near my ovary was the overhanging part. The reason the pain
was so bad was because sometime the night before it twisted and was
cutting off the blood supply to it and it was dying. And the reason
they thought it was on my ovary was because when it twisted, it kind
of “flopped” over in front of my ovary so it appeared it was on
my ovary when in reality it was just sitting in front of my ovary.
That’s why I was lucky enough to keep my ovary. He said the uterus
didn’t lose any blood flow, so I was able to keep that too. They
did the surgery laparoscopic, but they had to make the incision on my
belly button about an inch larger than normal to be able to remove
it. Also, he said it didn’t look cancerous so he felt confident in
cutting it up into smaller pieces to be able to remove it. (Had it
looked cancerous he would have made the incision even larger and
taken it out in one piece.) He said they are still going to biopsy it
to make sure it’s benign, but he felt pretty confident in that.
So after 18 hours in
the hospital post-op, I was able to go home. It was so nice to be
able to be in my own bed and with my family. I really do have an
amazing support system. I had wonderful members from my church stop
by to check on me and bring meals in for the family. My internet best
friend was amazing and sent inspiring and encouraging quotes to my
phone several times a day to help boost my spirits and help me to
feel better. I have felt so loved. I have also been in a lot of pain.
I had post-op bleeding for several days, which is normal but painful.
I’ve had pain inside that has started to get better each day (after
about the third day) and pretty serious incision burning and pain.
I’ve also been exhausted. For the first three days after surgery,
the only physical thing I did besides getting up to go to the
restroom or to bed, was to go outside and walk to the end of my block
and back three times a day on my doctors orders. Monday I went to a
different doctors appointment, then stopped for lunch with my sister,
then ran with her to get some blood work and then stopped at the
store for a moment, and by time I got home I was in so much pain and
so physically and mentally exhausted. That was a rough day. So I
rested a few more days and didn’t do much. One day I helped make
dinner, and one day I organized my room and went through my winter
clothes. After both of those days I was tired, but not as exhausted
as before. Yesterday I got out of the house and treated myself to a
manicure, and today I went to my sisters house and we did a few
little crafts and then played wii. Just anything to get out of the
house and feel human again.
All of this was so
unexpected, but it taught me something so important, which is to
listen to your body. I had had this pain before, but I knew it was
different when it wouldn’t go away. I have had severe pain before,
but the fact that the pain medicine in the hospital wasn’t helping
was a sign to me that something serious was wrong. And, while I hate
going to the ER, I knew I needed to because my body told me. I think
it’s so important that we listen to our bodies. We know what’s
normal for us. Pain for me is normal, but this kind of pain and
lasting for so long isn’t. It’s important that we advocate for
ourselves.
Anyways, that’s
why I haven’t posted for awhile. But I’m working on a couple of
great blogs, and I’ll try to post twice this next week, so keep an
eye out over here for some exciting things. And thank you all so much
for you love, support, encouragement, thoughts, prayers and kind
words. I really do appreciate all of you and the love you send to me.
I hate being sick, but I’m grateful to be a part of this amazing
spoonie family!
Kayla
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