In March of 2011, I was sent home from my mission for surgery on a 9 cm cyst on my right ovary. It was painful, it was traumatic, and it was something I never wanted to repeat again.
So I was less than thrilled when they discovered another 9 cm cyst on my right ovary during the gender check ultrasound for Dash. Since I was pregnant, they didn't want to operate if it wasn't necessary, so we waited it out. The hope was that the cyst would pop on its own or that they could drain it with a needle later on so I wouldn't have to have surgery again. Thankfully, I didn't have any pain or problems with the cyst during the pregnancy. We planned on revisiting the matter with my doctor at my 6 week postpartum checkup.
Unfortunately, on the night of February 4, our plans changed as we packed our hospital bags and rushed to the emergency room. Dash was excited to come along and see the birth of his cyst-er, with whom he had shared the womb for nine months. It was even more special for him because it was his one month birthday!
Tender mercies that night:
- The OB who delivered Dash was on-call at the hospital that night, and I was able to contact him for advice before we left.
- I recognized the pain symptoms from my prior experience, so we didn't have to waste the doctor's time trying to figure out what the problem was.
- Although all the booths in the emergency room were filled, the receptionist took pity on a frazzled father, moaning mother, and bawling baby and arranged for us to be in a little-used room in the corner of the hospital, instead of having us wait in the lobby.
- I had been pumping milk for the past month, so we had a good storage supply for Dash during my stay at the hospital.
- My parents live close enough that they were able to meet us at the hospital shortly after we arrived to take care of Dash.
Drawbacks that night:
- The pain. My pain quickly escalated from a 4 (Tolerable) to an 8 (Very Intense) within an hour. When we checked in initially at the ER, I refused pain meds because I was worried about how it would affect my ability to breastfeed. However, within another hour it got up to a 10 (Unimaginable), and I decided I didn't care about the consequences of pain meds. Unfortunately, even after 3 shots of morphine, I was still in incredible pain. (As an aside, if I were to choose between the pain of contractions prior to delivery and the pain I had that night, I would pick delivery. At least you get a break from the pain in-between contractions.)
- The surgery. As much as I didn't want to have surgery, it had to happen. This time, not only did they remove the cyst, but they had to take my right ovary as well.
- The recovery. I felt like I had just recovered from giving birth, only to be back at square one. Walking, sitting, and going to the bathroom were all a challenge again. I was back on pain meds and had the added restriction of not lifting anything heavier than 10 lbs for two weeks. And I still had to take care of a newborn. To quote Jim Gaffigan: "You want to know what it's like? Imagine you're drowning, and someone hands you a baby."
My parents, Matt, and the baby stayed the night at the hospital as I went in for emergency surgery at 4am. Matt dozed on a bench while my dad slept in a sitting position, holding the baby. My mom was wide awake, which is how we have pictures to document this. It was a rough night for all of us.
For the medically inclined:
- What happened that night was ovarian torsion, which is when a cyst becomes so large that it causes the ovary to move out of its usual position in the pelvis, causing painful twisting and cutting off blood supply. My ovary had been able to maintain its position during the pregnancy, as the baby kept the cyst from moving around. Even postpartum, my uterus was still swollen enough to keep the cyst in check. But once my uterus shrunk down, the cyst had free range of my abdomen.
- In order to remove the cyst, the doctor performed laparoscopic surgery, which is a minimally invasive surgery that uses several small incisions rather than one large one to enter the abdomen. This means the recovery time is 2 weeks instead of 6, and I was able to leave the hospital the same day the surgery was performed.
- Because the blood supply had been cut off to my ovary for several hours, the ovary had died. Therefore, along with the ovarian cystectomy, the doctor performed a unilateral oophorectomy (try pronouncing that one). According to my doctor, fertility is decreased by only 5% when one ovary is removed and menopause will occur around the same time as it would if I had two ovaries.
- As it turns out, the cyst was a mucinous cystadenoma, which is a benign cystic tumor. However, the doctor told us that this type of cyst did have the potential to be malignant later on.
The good news is, I'll never have to have surgery on my right ovary again.
Rhetorically,
Rebekah
