Maude Has Left The Room

Well, it's more like Maude has left my body. Thankfully for good.

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

Surgery

The surgery went well, now for the recouperating.

Many, many thanks to all of the prayers and wishes, they were definitely answered. I have the best doctor!


Please pass word to my friends on alt.fan.

Wham!

No, not the group. :o) This is the sound made when you get a smackdown, and I got one today - of sorts.

This is going to get extremely personal, so gentlemen, if you don't want to read this, stop now.

It's a genetic trait in my family for the females to have really bad menstrual cycles. My mother had them until she had her first baby, my older sister (my brother was adopted). So, I haven't really thought it unusual when I would have terrific pain in my abdomen before, during and after my cycles.

This past Sunday, however, I got sick. Really sick. Not able to hold down food sick. I tried to stick it out on Monday at work, but to no avail. Thankfully, I was able to get in to see my primary care doctor, and he felt around my abdomen. It was tender, and he felt a lump he knew didn't belong where it was on my right side.

Blood work was done on Monday and I called and scheduled a CT scan for this morning. I'd never had one before and because I'm allergic to sea food, this was a bit challenging, because that also means I'm allergic to certain types of iodine. There is an iodine solution that gets injected into you via IV for the CT scan.

We were able to get that worked out and I went this morning for the scan. It was like something from outer space, but not as loud as an MRI. Those you have to use headphones for because of the rapping sound of the machine while it takes the pictures.

I went back home and called the doctor's office to let them know that I took the test this morning, and I was informed that the blood work showed an infection, which would account for the vomiting, diarreah and fever I've had since Sunday. I also informed them, as was requested by the lab technicians, that I should not be on my diabetes medication for the next few days as my liver needs a chance to heal from the injection I got today.

I got a call back from the doctor's office a few hours later, asking me to come in to see the doctor. My CT scans had come back and I knew if they were asking me to see the doctor that something must be up. I was right.

The doctor told me the lab reports came back with the news that I had a 13 cm cyst coming from my right ovary. That's right, 13 centimeters. It's roughly about the size of a grapefruit. I have no idea how long it's been there, as it was never discovered during my annual female checkups.

Both the cyst and the ovary are going to have to be removed and checked for cancer. They are also using the same batch of blood work from Monday to do a test called the CA 125 test, which checks for cancer cells in the bloodstream.

Yes, the "C" word was brought up. Back in 2003, I had surgery on my right breast to remove a lump that was questionable, and thankfully it was benign. I'm hoping I'll have the same blessings with this as well.

As far as my not having children are concerned, I knew, upon Decker's death, that children would not happen with me, at least not in this lifetime. When Decker died, so did my chances of having one or more children. But, the good news in this, with his resurrection will also be resurrected the opportunity to have children then. I have already cried these tears of disappointment, I don't need to shed them again. I know, beyond any doubt, if I can stay true to the Lord, His word will stay true with me.

Hopefully, though, this will straighten out the hormone issues that have plagued me since puberty, and I can get some feeling of balance in my life.