Saturday, March 21, 2015

Two Weeks

(For those of you looking for my FNSI post: I'm so sorry, I signed up to do it, but didn't get to it this month.)

For those of you who follow my blog, you may have noticed that I went quite for about a week and a half. No Turtle Trot post, no Yota post. That's because I ended up in the hospital two weeks ago today.

I woke up feeling pretty good, but after about a half hour I started getting pains in my lower left abdomen. I have had this happen before and I was pretty upset as it can get to really hurting. Last summer it lasted nearly two weeks and kept me from helping out with our 4-H county fair. I went to the Dr. then (after hurting for nearly a week), I was given pain meds and was told I would need a CT scan to confirm it, but the Dr. was very sure it was a kidney stone. We waited for the insurance to approve the CT scan and by the time they did, the pain was going away. Since the Dr. was sure it was a kidney stone, and it was getting better, we didn't go through with the CT scan. We would have had to pay for part of it, and it seemed silly to do at that point. The Dr. did give me a few things to avoid to help not have another one, but said it was very possible I would.

Well, the very first part of January of this year I woke hurting again. We had just changed our insurance and I was really hoping, since I still had most of the pain meds from before, to avoid a Dr. appointment if at all possible. This time the pain was a little lower and much worse. But the pain meds helped and the pain only lasted the one day. I was starting to think that it wasn't kidney stones, but again, the pain was now gone so I left it alone.

Two weeks ago, when it started up I was SOOO hoping that the pain would just last the day, but this time it was so bad that I was crying (and maybe yelling a little:), and throwing up. After about 5 hours of this, and the pain meds not helping at all (and being convinced that this was not kidney stones, but perhaps something wrong with my left ovary instead), I told my husband that I had to go to the ER.

I got there and all I could say was that I was in pain, where the pain was and that I was in pain!! The receptionist had my hubby give the rest of the details;) They set me all up and after crying and throwing up some more they gave me morphine. It didn't help at all!! The whole reason I wanted to go to the ER is so they could make the pain go away!! Or make it bearable, and I really am a person who will suffer through a headache or cramps just so I don't have to take even Tylenol. I don't like to take meds if I can help it, but in this case I wanted anything they would give me. Later they gave me two different pain meds, one they said was 5x stronger than morphine, and it did make things much better, but it never took it all away.

The Dr. I saw in the ER was sure it was kidney stones, but we didn't wait on the CT scan this time and it turns out that it was a large cyst on my left ovary, not kidney stones!! Apparently it was twisting inside of me causing much pain and after a few more tests they decided to keep me overnight and do surgery the next morning. Thankfully this was a pretty simple, straight forward surgery, and I was able to go home the day of surgery. Of course, no surgery is pain free, but it has been nothing like the pain I went into the ER with. Now, nearly two weeks after, I am back up and doing all my normal activities. Not quite ready for the gym yet, but otherwise doing good. I'm so thankful that my hubby was able to take a couple days off work, followed by my mom taking a couple off and my dd being here the whole time to help out. By last weekend I was helping around the house, but only for 20 min here and there, so hubby and dd really did a lot of the cooking and housework for a while. -And as a side note, when hubby, my dd and my mom all join in to take care of me and the house, the house ends up much cleaner than normal. Of course this leads hubby to ask for the house to stay this clean. I have kept up with it this week, but we will see how long this lasts!!

So now I am without pain (unless I bend over, that is still just a bit sore), without a large cyst (and left ovary which couldn't be saved), and I gained giant medical bills!! All in a hard weekend's work!! If I knew we would spend so much I wish we could have taken a really nice vacation!! :)

I do want to know WHY, OH, WHY, do Drs think that the belly buttons is a good place to make an incision?!?!?!? I know some will say to minimize scaring. But I am about 90lbs over weight. The Dr SAW my belly and I am sure understands that I will not be showing it off in public any time soon (and if I did people would not be saying 'oh, look, she has a scar on her belly', they'd be saying, 'Please put a shirt on!!!'), besides, the Dr made two other 1 inch incisions on my stomach, so what's wrong with a 3rd? Really, even if it had to be bigger I think it would have been less painful!! The other two are healing up well, but the warm, dark abyss that is my belly button just seems like a nice place to get an infection. So far that hasn't happened, but that one is definitely healing a lot slower.

Anyway, now that I got my 'story' out of my system, I will go back to my normal crafty posts. One thing all this healing time has given me is some time to stitch and knit and crochet, so it's not all so bad!! :)

6 comments:

  1. I hate to hear you've had such a bad time of it with the belly button issue. Do stay on top of it though! I had a hysterectomy and they went thru the belly button and it got infected! Hound them doctors! I do hope you are doing better!
    Hugs,
    DaisyGirl

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds so painful! and us woman are used to pain ;) when it gets unbearable you just know some things very wrong! SO glad you're all sorted now and recuperating, enjoy some stitching time ;) wishing you well.

    ReplyDelete
  3. So sorry you had this issue but at least now it is resolved and you won't have to worry about it recurring! Hope things get back to normal quickly. Your crafts are calling!! Laura

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry to read you have been in hospital. Hope are better soon and can join us for the next FNSI.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I hope you heal well, quickly, and without infection!

    ReplyDelete