MamaFae's Knit Whits

Surgery

So out of no where on Friday I started having pain in my abdomen. At first I thought it was just gas pain, then as it got worse and I started to feel nauseous, I thought it might have been food poisoning from the veggie cream cheese I had eaten. I had to take care of some cub scout stuff, so I gritted my teeth and headed up to the grange hall to meet Wael from the district office to turn in our pack's cookie dough order. While I was waiting for him the pain got worse, and I got sick. When he got there, he ran down a few things for me to try and what to do if they didn't work. Ended up following his advice about an hour after I got home and went to the ER. By the time I got to the ER at around 8pm I could barely stand up and the pain was so bad I could barely breathe.

One of the ER nurses found a gurney for me to lay down on until they could get me a room. She started an IV so that I could have pain meds ASAP. About 10 minutes later I was back in a room and getting Torval and Delaudin by IV. After 4 doses they finally got my pain under control. I swear I have never felt such intense pain ever before in my life. At that's said after having 2 drug free childbirths!

So now that I was finally comfortable, the investigation into what was causing me so much pain could begin. First, it was off for a CAT scan of my abdomen. The ER doc thought that it could be a kidney stone, so this was the best test to look at my kidneys. About a half an hour after I got back from the scan the ER doc came in and asked me who my Gyn was. Then left. I was left wondering why on earth she wanted to know that it of info. About 15 minutes later she comes back and tells me that from the CAT scan it looks like I have a torqued ovary. Which meant that my ovary was twisted. She then tells me that I need surgery to fix it. OK I'm a little freaked out now. Mind you I'm at the hospital by myself, no clue who could watch my kids so that Marc could be with me, and not all that fond of the idea of being rushed off to surgery without being able to see my family first. So I lay there a little scared, a little out of it from all the narcotics floating around in my bloodstream, and just a little pissed that I don't know what the hell is going on.

Finally after another 30 minutes or so Dr Thum from my Gyn's office comes in to see me. She says to me that the CAT scan isn't the best diagnostic tool to use when looking at the ovaries and that she really needs me to have an ultrasound to get a better idea of what is going on with mine. So the u/s tech comes and gets me, we have a nice chat during the whole procedure and she puts my mind at ease by telling me what she sees and that it doesn't look like it's an emergency. This is confirmed when Dr. Thum comes back to tell me that my ovary isn't twisted, but that I do have a fairly large cyst that seems to be "leaking" which can cause the intense pain I have been feeling. She isn't sure it needs to be operated on yet, but wants to admit me to the hospital for pain management while they come up with a plan.

So OK at this point I'm dazed and confused since I have no idea what awaits me. I'm glad that I'm going to be admitted so I can have a real bed and sleep. Since they aren't rushing me to surgery I also get to eat something. I finally get to my room, get some pudding, and another dose of pain meds and go to sleep.
The next morning Dr Thum comes in and says that managing my pain is the best she can do for me. She doesn't think I need surgery and isn't sure how long it will take for the cyst to go away or my pain with it. She wants to keep me in the hospital until I can get off the IV pain meds and be able to take meds orally and eat without being sick. So that was the plan.

Until I started thinking about trying to manage my life while on pain meds. Not being able to drive, in a foggy haze, trying to be a mom and a wife in that situation didn't seem like a good idea of me. The more I thought about it, the more I felt that the cyst and its host ovary needed to come out. I just had this "gut" feeling that surgery was the answer here. Well Dr Thum, and the other doc from my doc's practice didn't really agree with me. I talked with Dr. Morris (I think that was her name) on Sunday and finally got her to agree to let me stay one more night in the hospital so that I could actually see MY doctor and let him make the decision. So Monday morning comes and Dr. Klotz comes in and we chat about everything that is going on. He realizes that I have a valid point. I have had a hysterectomy, I am not having any more children, and I don't need 2 ovaries to keep my hormones going and keep me from going into menopause. I also don't need to be in pain or on pain meds for an indefinite period of time. So, he checks the OR schedule and gets me set for surgery Tuesday morning.

The surgery goes well, and when Dr Klotz comes to see me afterwards he says that my instincts were right. Turns out that the cyst was actually INSIDE my ovary, and it was leaking. It was bleeding INTO ITSELF. Which means that it was only going to get bigger as it bled into itself and filled up even more. And that meant that it wasn't going away anytime soon. So I feel validated. And very glad I stuck to my guns and insisted that they fix this instead of just sending me on my way with a Rx and a smile.

I'm home now. Trying to recuperate with 3 kids under foot and a husband who can't take any more time off work. But fortunately my kids are being great, and I don't really feel too bad. Tired, sore, but mending. My incisions hurt, and my insides are bruised but they will heal and I will be back running around like crazy in no time.