Friday, April 22, 2016

I had surgery - ovarian cysts, pain medication, recovery


I had surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst on April 13, 2016.  The backstory:
In the late part of 2015 I was experiencing heavy menstrual cycles.  I went to a regular gynecologist in  January who scheduled me for an ultra sound because she thought I may have fibroids. The results of the ultra sound showed that I had two large cysts, one on each ovary.  The cysts seem to be 7.8 and 7.5 cm with the right being the bigger one.  They were sitting right over my ovaries.  I also did blood work that same day.  The following week I was informed that my blood showed elevated ca125 levels, which is the cancer antigen **I think I keep saying protein in the video** and was immediately referred to a gynecological oncologist, however I would need be able to go in until April.  April came around and at my appointment, the doctor said the cysts have to come out and scheduled me for surgery the following week (April 13).
Cut to surgery day - everything went well.  I was finished around 12 but was discharged around 4 pm.  Once home, I was sstill coming out of the anesthesia, so I went straight to bed.  Around 8, I finally woke up, but was experiencing substantial pain at this point.  For pain management I was prescribed Percocet, which was supposed to be taken every 4 hours as needed. When the pain set in, not only was my stomach in pain, but also my head and shoulders.  I could also barely eat at this point.  I got a few spoons of oatmeal and some crackers down, took a Percocet and went to sleep.  At about 4 am, I woke up with more pain, took another Percocet and went to sleep again.  When I finally woke up around 10 am, I had a few spoons of cereal but barely was able to eat due to a massive headache and shoulder pain.  So naturally, I took another Percocet.  Afternoon comes around and I’m nearing the 4 hour mark of when a next Percocet would be needed if there’s pain and this screaming headache comes back on.  It was only then, I realized I was having migraines when the Percocet was wearing off.  At that point, barely 24 hours after having the surgery, I decided I would rather have the pain and being uncomfortable from the surgery, than a migraine.  I had never had one before and I really hope to never have to experience that again.  So I had to let me body work out some of it and eventually took an Excedrin migraine for the headache.  After about an hour the headache finally passed and so did the shoulder pains.  I ended up taking Ibuprofen for pain after that, which worked a little but there was still a lot of discomfort.  I can honestly understand how people get addicted to pain medication now.  At the 3.5 hour of taking a Percocet, I almost NEEDED another one to stop the headache from coming on.
I had my follow up/ post op appointment On April 21 and the doctor informed me that pathology reports have come back benign and that my blood work does not show that elevated ca 125. The large cyst on the right side was removed and its turns out the one on the left was significantly small. I do not have any follow up with the oncologist, but its suggested I do regular blood work because of the random fluctuations of the ca 125.
So I went in for a fairly routine thing and ended up having to have surgery.  I had no pain or anything else that would have indicated there was an issue. 

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