The scariest week of my life...

well, maybe less than a week. Remember in the last post I mentioned that I had been to the ER and then rudely refused to tell you why? I will now make up for that meanness. Let's see to set the scene...about a month ago, I began having severe pain in my lower abdomen. And, typically for me, I attempted to ignore it for as long as I could. After about 4 days I broke down and went in to see a doc at student health services. (several funny side stories there, but you will have to ask to hear those.) Long story short, the doc ordered an ultrasound which confirmed a couple of cysts on one of my ovaries. Actually, they told me there was one cyst... and referred me to a gynecologist. (yippee skippee) They gave me the results on the friday of the show, but it was too late to try to start scheduling any appointments that day. So, the health services doc informed me if the pain got worse to go to the ER. Which is why I ended up in the hospital twice the weekend of the show.



The second ER visit they did another ultrasound which they told me showed that the cyst had ruptured and I should be starting to feel better. Did I mention the intense amounts of pain that was occurring in my body? I managed to get an appointment with a wonderful Dr. a couple of days later. I met with her, and we discussed the joys of ovarian cysts. We also did a routine pap smear. (Ladies, you know how fun those are.) She informed me that there were indeed at least 2 cysts present, and neither one had ruptured. We discussed the options, and decided to try the conservative route to begin with. This meant hormones (which don't agree with me) for a few months in the hopes that my body would fix it all on his own.

A few days later, the pain had amplified to the point where I was struggling to handle the pain, even with medication help. (Keep in mind, I had been on painkillers since the first visit to the ER.) I called the Dr, and asked what other options we had. We set up a time for a laparoscopic cystectomy (removal of the cysts surgically.) I had my pre op appt where I learned the astronomical price of this surgery, and since I don't have the best insurance, I had to decide if I wanted to go ahead with the surgery. (I did)

The next day, (Thursday) as I got out of class, I had a message to call the dr office. I returned the call, and was informed that the pap smear results had come back, showing an abnormal result which had elevated levels of precancerous indicators. (Yes, the thoughts and feelings that just ran through your mind ran through mine as well.) The lab had already ordered additional testing, which is standard operating procedure for abnormal result. (I should probably inject here that I had an abnormal pap smear a few years ago, but lost my insurance shortly after, therefore I never went back in to recheck.) All of this was cause for concern. As a result, the dr decided to postpone the surgery until we sorted out all that was going on. In the scope of things concerning, cysts are fairly low on the totem pole compared to what we were testing for.

The following day (friday) I got the results from one test...the HPV test. Negative! whew! Until I learned that there have been false negatives before. And knowing that they were still running additional tests. This began one of the most emotional and hardest weekends of my life to date. I called my parents and those I consider my family. I freaked out, I cried, I threw up (nothing new, that has been happening since the cysts started bothering me.) I continued to go to class, take midterms, write papers, go to work and try to keep myself otherwise occupied.

(Another side note I got an A- on the midterm I took on Friday...yay!) I made it to church for sacrament meeting, where I tried to look better than I actually felt. Apparently it worked, and didn't hurt that I am currently fitting into clothes that I haven't been able to wear for 2 years. yay for looking amazing but feeling like crap!

And the weekend continued on those lines until today (well, yesterday...Tuesday) when I finally got the rest of the tests results. ALL NEGATIVE. I felt like a huge weight had been lifted from my mind. I am still experiencing pain, but given the alternative, I can handle this. Kind of ironic, as today was the day I was initially scheduled for surgery.

So here is the plan from here on out. I will be on hormones for the next couple of months to prevent ovulation which in turn should prevent more cysts from forming. As for the ones that are already there, we will be waiting a month, and continuing to pray that my body will reabsorb the cysts on its own. If the pain has not abated during this coming month, then surgery is back on the agenda. And we will do a repeat pap smear with all additional tests again in 6 months.

I want to briefly take a moment and thank all of you for your many wonderful, kind thoughts and words to me in the past month. I greatly appreciate all of the prayers that I know went out on my behalf. I know The Lord has a plan for me, even though I do not know what that plan is. Here's to hoping the pain will subside and I can return to being my usual crazy self!