Warning: There will be pictures of guts- no blood, just guts. If you turn back now I will not be offended.
In July, Josh and I took a trip to the emergency room. I had been having some pretty annoying pains low in my abdomen and my monthly visit from mother nature was suspiciously late. Pregnancy test was negative but I wasn't convinced everything was ok and since my IUD creates a higher risk for ectopic pregnancy I decided it would be best to go see a Dr. They did another pregnancy test -negative again- and told me I was probably just crazy but to come back for an ultrasound anyway. The next day on the ultrasound they found a cyst on my right ovary. Yay for not being crazy! but yuck!
They said it was not big enough to worry about, only about the size of a racquet ball.
Which, ps, is about this big
(ok a little smaller but my picture grew and I am tired of fighting it. Ultimately it ended up this big though)
They told me it would probably go away all on its own or rupture.
Long story short, 7 months later, neither of those things happened. At my ultrasound in January they found that the cyst was still there and even a little bigger, but they didn't think it was actually on my ovary. I was referred to an ob/gyn who saw me for approximately 2 minutes before my surgery was scheduled.
One week later (one week ago) I found myself back with the same ob/gyn for another 2 minutes before they whisked me off to surgery.
What they found what a little surprising.
GUTS ALERT!
TWO separate cysts one on top of the other
For a point of reference (I know you wanted one really bad):
This white blob is my happy healthy left ovary!
These are my cysts!
The top white blob is actually my right ovary, sick and sad and growing a cyst inside.
The bottom blob is the yucky other cyst. The tubey looking thing between them is my fallopian tube.
Better picture of cyst 2 (because again, I knew you desperately needed to see it)
That blue circle picture at the top is about how big they BOTH were.
OK Enough guts
Remember when my Dr told me they weren't sure what the cyst was on, well apparently it was cyst 2 that they kept finding on the ultrasounds (they had no clue the one in my ovary was even there-little disconcerting-but more on that in a sec) It is NOT an ovarian cyst. It is a paratubual cyst. It was growing on my fallopian tube. The good news is that we decided to take it out before it had a chance to twist on itself. If it had, it could have damaged or even cut of the blood supply and killed my fallopian tube and even my ovary. So, dodged a bullet, just in case we ever decide to try and utilize those organs for their intended purpose.
The other good news about this yucky cyst is that it was probably formed from some extra cells that never turned into anything when I was growing into a human in utero-which means now that it is gone there is almost no likelihood of it returning. YAY!
The cyst that was actually in my ovary was a bit of a different story. It was still benign (hooray!) but they weren't able to remove it entirely. They drained it but couldn't remove the cyst tissue from inside my ovary without causing more damage than necessary. Also, because cysts form normally every month in your ovaries and this was just one that got carried away, they had no idea how long it was growing and, no way to know if another would grow in its place.
The only way to prevent/manage them is with hormones (birth control pills) and that just isn't an option for this girl.
If you want to know about me getting my life back after the birth control hormones check out my other blog here
So here we are, healing from surgery, glad to be rid of the two yucky impostors and hoping that they never decide to come back.
4 comments:
OMG, the white cyst kinda looked like my hard boiled egg that I was eating while reading this post. Ack!
LOL
I'm glad you're ok and hopefully (I'll keep you in my prayers) they will never return and you and Josh will someday be able to have babies!!
Love ya girl!!
xoxo
Auntie Rox
Yuck. I hope you recover soon!
Sheesh! Glad you're alright! Hope the surgery wasn't too killer for you, kick your feet up and relax for a good month;) You deserve it!
Thanks guys, I really am feeling physically a lot better as far as the surgery is concerned. As far as the cysts, we will see if taking them out makes my periods even close to normal again, they weren't causing much pain otherwise. I guess only time will tell.
Post a Comment