The Morning After

Early yesterday morning about 1:30 I woke up to severe abdominal pains and started pacing the house.  For the last few days I had gotten these kind of pains, but with some Ibuprofen, they had always gone away within a few hours.  However, I could tell the intensity of these pains were here to stay.  About 2:00am I woke up Charles and told him we had to go to the ER.  I could barely walk and had tightening in my chest.  It was a scary thing, and I had a terrible feeling.  So, as usual, Gamee/Grampee saved the day and rushed over to the house to be with kids while Charles rushed me to the ER.  Upon arrival at 2:30am, the doc originally thought it was a kidney stone.  I remember thinking I would be so mad at myself if that is what it is and I wasted a $250 hospital copay.  To confirm his thoughts, they rushed me off to get a CT scan.  Right after the CT scan, I began throwing up.  When they wheeled me back to the room, I got Toradol and Finagrin for pain/nausea. That really only lowered my pain level from about a 10 to a 7.  I was still gripping the bed and it was not pretty.  The ER doc walked in about 10 minutes later with news that it was not what he was expecting at all.  I braced myself as I knew the level of pain meant it was gonna be something bad.  In that moment, crazy as it sounds, I remember thinking, please do not be life threatening as I have my babies at home.  Praise the Lord for what came next as it was not life threatening at all.  It turned out to be a 11cm Ovarian Torsion (about the size of a grapefruit).  Fancy term for a large ovarian cyst that had wrapped itself around the fallopian tube and ovary cutting off the blood supply.  This is where the extreme pain was coming from.  The ER doc quickly got me in for a sonogram and consulted the OB/GYN on call and decided it needed to be emergency surgery.  I couldn't have agreed more!  So, about 6am I was wheeled into surgery and had the cyst and right ovary/tube removed.  Surgery took about an hour and when I woke up, I felt like a new person.  God is so good and we were discharged at 9:15am.  I was happy I could go home and recover in my own bed and not have the excruciating pain.  Praise the Lord for everything in the last 36 hours!  Tomball Hospital staff was fantastic.  They attended to every need, had numerous staff members right there to help everyone being served, had no wait, was always professional, patient and moved quickly.  Who else can say that in under 7 hours you went to ER room, had numerous tests, underwent surgery and was discharged feeling much better?  Just amazing to me.

Today I woke up feeling good.  Pain is manageable with meds and I have even been able to shower, drink a cup of coffee, and eat a banana/yogurt.  Taking a shower can make you feel like a whole new person!  I will return to work on Tuesday, so will be resting up the rest of today and long weekend.  What a roller coaster it has been, but a blessing that it is over and that the cyst did not wrap around any other major organs being so large.  Thank you God!