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Thursday, August 20, 2009

Needs

Today is so not a good day. In fact, it seems like the past few weeks have just sucked. First the friend drama, then the abdominal pain, the migraines.. I just need a break.

The problem with having sever migraines, intractable I think is that they call them, is that EVERYTHING makes them worse. I could hurt my toe and it would somehow find a way to give me a mega migraine. So when my ovary grew a cyst, again, it makes my migraines a million times worse. And they just don't go away. I wish that when my step dad told me a kid that I couldn't feel more than one pain at a time, he was right. So I am trying to wait a month or so and have another ultrasound to see if the cyst goes away on its own, or if my doctor will have to go in and remove it. Right now its a little more than twice the size of my ovary, I don't know how big they have to get before it causes damage, so we are watching it very carefully.

I just need a break. I just need things to go smoothly for a little while. I just need help.

2 comments:

  1. So sorry things are so painful. Praying things improve. Hang in there!

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  2. It's so true and you are so right. Having chronic daily migraines leaves us vulnerable. Every medical problem that comes along the way triggers a migraine or makes it ten times worse. Even something as innocuous as a cold can knock me out of commission for 2 weeks of migraine.

    Anything that affects our hormones (e.g., moontime cycle, perimenopause, ovarian cysts) triggers the very worst migraines -- the kind that land us at the ER at 3:00 am.

    My GP, FNP, and OB/GYN all took a "wait and see" approach to treating my ovarian cyst. They said it's "normal", commonly occur in women, and disappear on their own. How wrong they were. My ovarian cyst just kept getting more painful, triggering migraines that lasted 3 weeks. Eventually, the cyst became filled with blood (thus, it was now an endometrial ovarian cyst). I suffered through the "watching it carefully" phase for 8 years with the pain increasing. The size of the cyst remained the same. Finally, the combination of my symptoms led my GP and OB/GYN to diagnose ovarian cancer and refer me to the same gynecological oncologist. I didn't panic but I did withdraw from all my classes that semester.

    My new doctor conducted his own ultrasound, right in the examination room, and read the results himself. Talented man. He's also an author and teaches at the University of Vermont. He diagnosed me correctly with an endometrial ovarian cyst that day. He suggested surgery and I said I wanted to think about the options he'd laid out. After another week of pain and severe migraine, I called his office and scheduled laproscopic surgery. It turned out to be a great choice. He removed the cyst, left the ovary, and sent me home that same day. I recovered fully (up working the next day). I had 3 one-inch scars that aren't even visible. The cysts have not returned in the last 3 years since the surgery.

    While I'm not suggesting that you need surgery, it was the best option for me (especially in light of the doctors' misdiagnosis). And, honestly, I also just needed a break from the pain cycle triggering migraines.

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