Maria's surgery

On Monday November 26th I went to the clinic at the Walgreens because I had weird bite on my right leg. They started me on antibiotics.

On Tuesday November 27th the day went as normal, I went to Zumba in the morning and then piano in the afternoon. I picked up Conner from school and came home. Everything was fine, we ate dinner and then at around 7:45 PM as I was walking in the kitchen I had the most horrible pain in my lower abdomen. I couldn't walk and stretch my legs and it was hard to breathe. I told Brent to take me to the hospital because it hurt so much it was like I was having contractions.

This picture was while I was in the emergency room and they were trying to figure out what was happening with me. They gave me strong pain medication which helped. I had a CT scan done, they injected me with iodine and after that I had an ultrasound of my uterus, cervix and ovaries. The ultrasound took a very long time. I noticed the technician was taking so many pictures. At this point I started to worry, the lady was so serious and when she was done I noticed her face had a worried look. I was told by the nurse in the ER that they had found something in my Fallopian tube and that I was being transferred by ambulance to the other hospital where my OBGYN worked. Brent went home to get me a bag with some things and then went home around 4 AM to get a couple hours of sleep. 

When I arrived at the other hospital by ambulance and it was about 5:00 AM on Wednesday, November 28th at this point I was starting to feel pain again. The needles in my arms hurt so much also, now I have phlebitis in my veins due to the needles in my arms.  I was not able to sleep at all that night. In the morning sometime the nurse came to tell me that the doctor had schedule my surgery at 1 PM. I had no idea what was going on. Alison came over that morning after taking Conner to school.  She called Brent to tell him I was going to have surgery and he hurried over. They took me to get prepared for surgery and we told them we had no idea what the surgery was for. They said the doctor would let me know when I saw her prior to the surgery. I was so scared but I was at peace the whole time. Once over in the area where they get you ready for surgery prior to entering the operating room, we saw my OBGYN, Dr. Oloufa. She explained that they found something, inflammation,  but she wasn't sure what it was and she thought it might be appendicitis because I was complaining about my right side. She told us she was doing a laparoscopy to figure out what was going on and then decide what to do next. She spoke of the possibility of a hysterectomy but really was leaning towards appendectomy. I was told I would have general anesthesia, that I would have a breathing tube down my throat and a catheter in my bladder. I was not happy about being intubated and having a catheter.   If it was an appendectomy she would call in another surgeon. She told Brent it would take an hour or so but my surgery took 6 hours!! When I woke up, I was in so much pain!! I can't describe how horrible I felt before and after my surgery!! Brent said that I was screaming loud when I got to my room, saying "I'm in pain", "It hurts", I only remember one time that I screamed but Brent said it was more than once. The first two days after the surgery were awful!! But then I started feeling better. 

These two pictures were after my surgery.

The day after my surgery I walked. I was in so much pain but it felt good to walk for 2 minutes, that is all I could do.

My doctor came to see me on Thursday. She said to me that she didn't know how I was walking and doing my normal things without noticing this cyst and feeling any pain. She asked me if I had had any symptoms but I really wasn't thinking at this point because I was in pain. (Later when I started feeling better I thought back and wrote down the things I had experienced that may have been symptoms and I shared those with her at my one week post op appointment) Dr. Oloufa told me that I was "one tough cookie" and that she didn't know what would have happened to me in 24 hours had I not gone to the hospital. She said that the cyst was full of fluid and infected and it had started to leak into my gut. They had me on strong antibiotics to stop any more infections. She said that the cyst was the size of a bar of soap, that it had destroyed my left ovary, left Fallopian tube that my uterus was like the consistency of the inside of a watermelon, very mushy and falling apart. They left my right ovary because it was healthy.

You can see in the bottom right picture the infected cyst and it was leaking and infecting its surroundings.

I feel so blessed that I had that pain that made me go to the hospital. It was awful but ultimately it was the reason they found the cyst, otherwise it would have ruptured during the night or the next day and I would have either died or been fighting for my life because of sepsis/septicemia which occurs when: chemicals released in the bloodstream to fight an infection trigger inflammation throughout the body. This can cause a cascade of changes that damage multiple organ systems, leading them to fail, sometimes even resulting in death. I am so blessed that I didn't have to go through that!!! Heavenly Father was watching over me. I am still in shock over this. I am someone who takes good care of myself, I exercise, I eat very healthy and I am always going to my yearly appointments with my doctors. But this was something that could not be prevented. It was according to my doctor, endometria or part of the membrane that lines the uterus that had come loose and went up my Fallopian tube and lodge there and became an infected cyst.

I had my doctor's appointment a week after the surgery. I had written out some of what I thought had been symptoms but that I would never have guessed it was because of a cyst like that. The symptoms were, pain in my ovaries that I thought was normal because we all get them but these were more often than they should have and I thought it was because of menopause. I had shooting pain down my thighs at night when I was in bed, these were weird. I had cramping on my big toe of my left foot every night and it would happen a lot during the night. I had migraines. At times I had abdominal pain and diarrhea at night while going to sleep (this was apparently due to the fact that the cyst, the infection was leaking into my gut). I had noticed for a while that I had gained weight around my abdomen and I felt swollen and bloated.  I was also needing to pee a lot. I was feeling constantly exhausted to the point that I had to lay down and couldn't move. I thought I was just going through menopause and these were normal.  When I told my doctor these symptoms she agreed that they were due to the cyst. I don't have any of those symptoms anymore, obviously, the weirdest symptom of all was the toe cramping like a Charlie horse every night, I am so glad that is gone! 

I remember that when I was in the ER on Tuesday night I was scared, when they were taking me by ambulance I felt so alone, I thought of my Savior and that He knew how I was feeling and that gave me peace!