Update on Health

We had an eventful day today, and as my sister posted a bit of it on facebook, I’ve been getting voice mails and emails wishing me well, and wondering if everything is fine.

I did go to the emergency room this morning. I woke up around 5am with abdominal pain, and knowing about the cyst, I felt like I was walking on eggshells, so I thought we should play it safe and go to the emergency room. Fortunately, Sunday morning is a pretty dull time at the ER, so we were quickly helped.

They ran a ton of tests, including a CAT scan and an ultrasound, an obscene amount of blood work. After they ruled out appendicitis and kidney stones, they told me I had a cyst. (Insert eye roll.) It had not ruptured, and they redefined it for me as a “complex cyst” or a “tumor”. Complex meaning it has 2 parts, separated by a membrane. One part is normal with clear fluid, the other part is abnormal with possible calcification. It’s measuring at a whopping 8cm. Aren’t you glad you know that now?

Since I had already scheduled an appointment with a reputable doctor for Tuesday, they gave me all the copies of all the tests to take to him then, and sent me home with some pain killers. Since it’s more of a tumor than a cyst, they said that I should have no worries of it spontaneously rupturing at home. It just needs to be removed and analyzed.

We are hoping to get that done before the end of the year for insurance reasons, and because I have a huge network of help down here. (Including grandparents that are starved for grand kid attention!) I’m seeing the OBGYN early on Tuesday, and I’m crossing my fingers for a same day surgery. It’s not really emergency status, but still, that’s something I’m praying for. (Not the emergency, but the quick surgery) With all the testing done now, and in the doctor’s hand, I’ve been told it’s a reasonable possibility, as there will be nothing to do when I go in on Tuesday, except make some real decisions.

With the calcification going on, there is now no chance of this cyst going down on it’s own, and surgery will be required. Surprisingly, the word “tumor” doesn’t scare me, and I just want the surgery done, and done soon.

I did have my aunt who seems to be our family’s medical advisor, look over all my lab results this afternoon. I asked more scary questions, like should I worry about the possibility of cancer. She said they have detected no cancer in my blood, although there is a small chance that there is cancer contained in the tumor itself, which they won’t know until they analyze it after it’s removed. However, she said that would shock her because all of my lab numbers are excellent, and she would think there would be some other sign pointing to that. So far all the evidence points to a simple tumor that needs to be removed. So I’ve decided not to worry until someone tells me to. So far, the worse case scenario is the possibility of losing one of my ovaries…and I have another one of those 😉 The tumor is actually growing inside the ovary, not outside.

Part of me is very annoyed that my vacation will be spent recovering from surgery, and part of me is glad I get to do this down here with my mom here to baby me, and the timing couldn’t be better.

There are, however, way more cool things going on down here, some requiring pictures, and most certainly deserving their own happy post. Some major childhood milestone was met, we were blessed beyond any expectation, and we are most certainly enjoying our time. So it’s not all bad down here 🙂 I just wanted to do a quick post to calm all the fears and concerns that have gotten to me. I’m fine and home, and enjoying my family. On Tuesday, we’ll see what happens…and I hope it’s something!

I still appreciate all your prayers and would appreciate it if they continued. Really, I think that’s why I’ve been able to stay so calm so far.