The surgery took a little longer than expected, given the amount of time it took to drain and remove the cyst. The cyst was so big, one of the nurses at the doctor's office said I needed to give it a name, and the only name Mom and I could come up with was Maude.
It was as big as I had previously mentioned, 13.2 cm X 10 cm X 8 cm. It weighed a total of a little over two pounds, including the fluid inside. As for the fluid, they drained it and found there was 1 liter of fluid in the cyst. Basically, it was the size and weight of a premature newborn infant. Most thankfully, though, it was all benign.
I awoke in the recovery room and found myself hyperventilating and needed the techniques I learned from years of managing asthma to get my breathing under control.
I was brought into a nice room on the 3rd floor, room 3420, which was settled in a corner of the "Gynecological" Wing of the hospital. By Gynecological, it means it was in the Maternity Ward, but as the OB/GYN doctors work almost exclusively in that area, I was also put into that area. It was a very nice room, although, I was out of it on Morphine and Percocet through most of my stay there.
As with what I had heard about all hospital stays, the medication is administered 24 hours per day, so I was awoken at 2 hour intervals. I had to sit up and stand up for the first time at 4 am. That was EXTREMELY painful; I was almost in tears, crying out for relief from God. After that, I didn't have that much pain in sitting up and standing up. In fact, I had a nice stroll with Aga, one of the nurses attending to the rooms in my area, around the hallways of the wing before I was discharged.
I left on Friday evening and came home to find I was having more nausea. I was taking the generic of Percocet and drinking SmartWater, which is a product that has electrolytes added to the water. Like Gatorade but better for you. My temperature began to rise and I began to have rashes and hives that startled me. I have never had Percocet before, so I honestly had no idea I might be allergic to it. I switched to some Hydrocodone, which I had been given as the generic for Vicodin. The hives were less of a problem, however I still had them.
Saturday was no better, and I was getting worried, as I was now losing ground on being able to eat solid foods and was back on soup. My home teacher called me Saturday evening, and I had earlier thought about calling him to get a Priesthood Blessing, but I hadn't done it. I was thankful he called. He and the Bishop came over, with cans of chicken noodle soup in hand, and gave me a wonderful blessing that put me at ease.
After the blessing, I received a prompting telling me to stop drinking the SmartWater. I had also stocked up on the regular bottled water, so I switched, and found that the rash decreased and itching stopped completely.
Today was a busy day, Mom came over and we did some spot cleaning in the livingroom, before I took a shower. My good friend, Pat, who is the RN at the school I work at, came over (she took me home from the hospital on Friday) and removed the bandaids from the suture areas to clean them and expose them to oxygen for faster healing. After Pat left, my visiting teachers came over and we talked for a little while. Shortly after they left, my friend Kate, who took me to the hospital on Thursday, came over with a wonderful dinner. I had already been able to eat some solids starting with breakfast, and I was able to enjoy a veggie lassagna, salad, garlic bread, broccoli and pie. Yum.
While Pat was here, I had her take a picture of my "battle wounds", including the crater that is in the area where the ovary and cyst used to be.
Tomorrow should prove interesting, I'll need to call the doctor about the drug interraction and a few other concerns. We'll see how things go from there.
Wham
Update
Update #2
It's A...
Update #3
Surgery
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