As I went to my yearly doctor's appointment the doctor noticed something wrong with my belly (After calling me mildly obese and that I needed to lose 10 pounds...thank you doctor for making me feel even fatter than I already do!).
My belly was rock hard and seemed like there was a baby growing in there, that was not the case, trust me. I went down for an ultrasound to see what was in my belly.
Two hours and many thoughts running through my head later...the results came back...I had a 30 cm in diameter mass on my left ovary.
My mind instantly thought the worse...cancer. How can I be 23 and have ovarian cancer??
I had many tests done (nothing came back that made them worry about cancer, thank goodness) and referred to an OBGYN surgeon. I was freaking out! How was I suppose to live with this thing inside of me and how was it going to get out of me??
Luckily, I found the best OBGYN in the Twin Cities. She was the best doctor for the job. She was nice, answered all my questions, and was going to do everything she could to save all my female organs so I could have kids one day, what 23 year old has to worry about having kids someday?? I wouldn't wish that worry on even my worse enemy.
After I met with this wonderful doctor, I had a CT Scan the next day. Anyone have a CT Scan?? That goo that they make you drink still haunts my taste buds and gag reflexes! YUCK! They were hoping that the CT Scan would tell them more than the ultrasound I had. My doctor wanted as much information as she could get before the surgery, oh yeah I have to have a major surgery to remove the mass.
Less than a week after meeting my fantastic doctor, I went in for surgery. My aunt flew in from North Carolina to be with my mom and I during this rough time. Thank goodness for her! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family!
I went in for surgery at 9 am. I was freaking out. All these thoughts running through my head, all the worse case scenario, of course.
They gave me some wonderful medication that made me feel like I was on clouds and I am not the one to be quiet, especially in scary situations, so I am talking to everyone in the operating room. The last thing I remember before I fell asleep was talking to the nurse about what she was going to name her child and then I was off dreaming. :)
I woke up from surgery, very sore, which is understandable seeing as I had a 10 inch incision from underneath my breast bone down past my waist line. Ouch. The mass that the pulled out of my was 15 inches and 7 pounds. Double ouch and nastiness.
Once I saw my fantastic doctor I asked her two questions, in this order:
1) Can I still have kids?
2) Was it cancer?
Luckily, I can still have kids and no it wasn't cancer, thank goodness, praise the Lord!
They not only removed my mass but also my ovary and fallopian tube. A really big bummer about the fallopian tube but I knew I was going to have my ovary removed.
The next couple of hours are kind of a blur, in and out of sleep. I finally felt good enough to start talking and I had a lot of text messages and e-mails to return! I also had to get my mind off the fact that I still couldn't eat! At this point I haven't eaten anything for 2 days! I'm hungary!
I am soo lucky to have such amazing family and friends because I just kept getting flowers and balloons from all my loved ones. All the nurses loved my room because it smelt so good and was so pretty.
I stayed in the hospital for 3 total days and nights.
I hate hospitals and all the germs that are in hospitals.
I went through 2 full bottles of hand sanitizers while I was in the hospital.
After I was released from the hospital, I instantly felt better. I was still sore but I felt like I could do much more while outside of the hospital and that made me feel better.
3 weeks after surgery I was back to my normal self. Some things still made me sore and I got tired faster than I normally would but feeling good and ready to hit the town again! The cherry on top for having this thing removed from me is that I lost 15 pounds! :-)
Now that we are 5 weeks since my surgery (Wow that went really fast) and I am getting ready to start working out again and getting this body back to its normal self, just with a really big scar on my belly.
After going through something this big I realized who were my friends and who was not. It is relly sad that it takes something like this to see who are your friends are but I am really glad that it happens cause I weeded out a lot of people from my life.