On the day of the surgery

The surgery was set for Tuesday 9/20/2010. I was suppose to fast all day on monday. Not just 24 hours before the surgery, but all day Monday as I was told. When the doctor's office found out I had eaten monday morning, they wanted me to get these laxatives and clean out my system. Let's just say for the rest of monday was not very pleasant for me and I needed to stay near a bathroom.

Tuesday we go to the hospital bright and early. Noel was gonna drop me off at the hospital and take Orion to his pre-school. I figure it would be nice for him to stay with Orion at the school and see what he does there so maybe he can just come back after school is finished and my surgery is done. But there were some pre-op issues that made me really nervous and I realized I need my husband next to me. So he left O in school and came back to me.

I got a bit panic when the nurse wanted me to sign this form to make sure what surgery I am here for. The forms said "removal of the cysts in the ovaries VS removal of the ovaries". Well, it used more medical terms but I can't recall right now. I freaked out because I did not remember agreeing to the specialist removing my ovaries. If I need to part with my ovaries, I need to have a lot of time to prepare that. I did not have that time.

Well, the nurse sense that I might change my mind and cancel the whole surgery so she went and called the doctor. I think the doctor asked me "what do you want me to do if your ovaries would not stop bleeding?" He later on made me understand that when you operate an organ, removal of the organ is on the clause (unless it's effects the survival of the person like the heart) so they don't need to have you bleed to death. With that understanding, I felt a little better but when signing the paper, still feel like I am signing to have my ovaries removed. All I can hope now is when I wake up, I still have them.

Most pre-ops were finished and they wheeled me in to the OR and I said goodbye to my husband. Everybody was ready at the operating room. A couple of familiar faces because they came to say hi to me at the pre-op place. They gave me oxygen and started IV on me and I was gone pretty soon.

.........

Waking up at the post-op was weird. Very groggy and someone was helping me with ice for my dry throat and answering my questions "how's the baby?" "Do I still have my ovaries?" When I was awake enough, they moved me from post-op to recovery room and Noel and O were on route to follow me. I was still really tired and wanted to rest so Noel took O home to nap. They were gonna try to visit me again tonight before the visitor's hour is over.

I was so looking forward to uninterrupted (by O) rest at the hospital. But I really just got segments of sleep because the nurse needed to check on things and give me medicines. I didn't care any more. I just want to rest and get better.

In the Beginnig

When I went for ultrasound at my 14th week of pregnancy to do some genetic testing, they found two pretty large cysts in my ovaries. The ultrasound technician asked me if I have been taking infertility hormones because that would be one case where he seems women's cysts being stimulated. They were large enough size for doctors to be alarm. The smaller one was 8x6x6cm and the larger one was 16x8x8cm. Normally they are consider large when it's bigger than 6-8cm.

They sent the ultrasound to my regular OB. He called me and told me that during my first child's c-section, the operating doctor had seen some smaller size cyst in the ovary but he was not concern because normally they go away after the pregnancy ends. I guess there was a previous history but I was just not informed.

My OB sent me to see a specialist and I went for another ultrasound. This time to take a look at the cysts better so they can assess whether to do a "draining" method or do laparoscopic surgery to remove the cysts. Draining is where they just stick a needle in to the cyst and drain the liquid out (the cysts are mostly filled with liquid) and they might take care of the cyst later at the c-section or such. But there were too many inner walls in the cyst that the technician is not sure he can do a good job of draining most of it to decrease the size enough to be a safe level.

Plus the specialist is a surgeon and he admit he's more comfortable if he can see what's going on (which is with small camera in to me). He believe the cyst is probably benign due to my age but what if it wasn't? Then the "bad stuff" could start to spread with the puncture hole in the ovary. All evidence point to surgery might be the best option. The surgery is best done during second trimester so the baby is stable enough and there are still enough room to operate.

So we got a date in my 19th week of pregnancy and we are all set to go...