A Slight Change of Plans

I have looked forward to this weekend for a long time! My family planned a fun week in Park City at the timeshare. This weekend was supposed to be the only time Christian would be able to come up with us and have fun. We have literally been counting down the days and planning every item we were going to take. I had a hard time sleeping on Friday night, knowing that we were only hours away from a badly needed relaxing weekend. At about 4:00 AM I woke up with an achy pain in my side. I instantly knew that this was a continuance of my excruciating pain I felt last Friday, when the Instacare diagnosed me with a Kidney Infection. It mysteriously went away later that night and I was anticipating the day that it would return. Well, here it was! I had done a little research since then and decided that the description of my pain was more fitting to a Kidney Stone since my OB/GYN was convinced that I did not have a Kidney Infection. I rolled around in unexplainable pain all morning and could not find a position that I was comfortable in. I thought about how big of a wimp I must be because my brother Kenny has been suffering with Kidney Stones on his mission and yet he continues his work. Finally, Christian convinced me to let him call my doctor and she told us to come in to see her at her McKay Dee office at 11:30. When we got there, the front desk informed me that she had an emergency surgery this morning and it would be an hour and a half wait. The thought of that nearly put me over the edge. I had no idea how to compose myself in public. I could hardly do it at home! All the cute pregnant ladies in the waiting room were doing the best they could not to stare at my pale, pathetic face and composure. I guess it was a little too hard considering I had a husband sitting next to me that probably had a similar expression on his face. He was a mess. After sitting for about 20 minutes, the lady at the front desk announced that the doctor was just called in to an emergency C-Section and everyone would have to reschedule. I instantly though they'd just send me over to the emergency room, but she pointed at me and said, "except you. You can come back right now." The nurse asked me how I would rate my pain between a 0 and a 10 and I answered, "probably an 8." She and Christian both looked at me and Christian said, "you do realize that a 10 means you're basically dying." I just looked at him and said, "yeah, I'm pretty sure it's an 8." I ran my idea across my doctor about it possibly being a kidney stone and she said that was what it sounds like to her. She decided to send me down to radiology to have them check my kidneys. She debated for a while about whether to have them also check out my ovaries while they were at it. When she'd mentioned that, I remembered the sharp pains I would feel when I would get cysts on my ovaries when I was taking Clomid while trying to get pregnant with Anders. I later told Christian that I could see a similarity in the two pains, but this one was many thousands of times worse! Our appointment with the radiologist was scheduled for 4:00 that afternoon. My parents were gracious enough to postpone their trip to Park City until we returned so they could watch Anders. I just kept telling myself, "I need to just figure out where these stones are and get some REALLY good pain killers and we can be on our way too." I was still convinced that we were going to Park City later that night. I was even willing to wait until Saturday morning if I had to. Christian and I watched nervously as the Radiology Tech scanned over the baby. We were so relieved to see that the baby was looking really good. The heart beat was great and at times, I was convinced that I could feel the baby move when she was pressing so hard on my stomach. She then moved over to my kidney that I claimed to be having problems with. Christian and I both watched very carefully for her to measure anything because we knew she wouldn't be able to tell us anything. She scanned all over and had me turn every which way I could so she could get a better look. When she was over my kidney, I said, "are you sure you're at my kidney? That's not even where it hurts!" She said yes, but left it at that. At about 6:30, she left the room, acting very suspicious and said, "I'm just going to go talk to the Radiologist really fast and then we'll call your doctor." Christian and I were thinking about all the things it could possible be and Christian was convinced it was something with my right ovary because she spent a lot of time looking at it. While we were waiting to hear anything, the Rad Tech kept up the suspicious behavior by repeatedly asking, "are you sure you doctor didn't give you any instructions of what to do after the ultrasound?" I just kept saying, "no, she just said she'd call me." At about 7, the Rad Tech let me know that the doctor was on the phone for me. Our conversation went as follows:
Doc: Melissa, I'm so glad we had you go in there!
Me: Yeah?
Doc: Yeah, I'm going to need to meet with you and your husband to discuss the details, but apparently the Radiologist can see an 11 centimeter mass on your right ovary. What this means is that we will have to do surgery. Unfortunately, the best times to do surgery when you're pregnant is during the 1st and 3rd trimesters. You are exactly 12 weeks, so we're going to have to go ahead and do this tonight.
Me: Oh...
Doc: Can you have one of the Techs show you the way to Same Day Surgery and I'll me you up there in 10 minutes and we can talk before we take you in?
Me: Yeah.
I hung up the phone, not sure who I should talk to first, the tech that obviously already knew what I had heard, or my ghostly husband. I didn't know how to tell Christian what I had just heard, and I especially didn't want to do it in front of an audience. I decided to just ask, "where's Same Day Surgery?" While we were walking, I explained all that she'd told me to Christian. He took it better that I'd planned, but I also forget how he tries to "be the strong one" in front of me. We got up to the surgical floor and called my parents. My doctor arrived in amazing time and we sat and talked about all the risks. She informed us that this will be a risk to the baby. Of course, she went over other risks, but that all seemed minor to me. I could lose my baby? What was happening to me? My poor Christian had the job of filling out all my paperwork while they poked an prodded at all my dehydrated veins. Within minutes, they were wheeling me down to room 12. I remember asking my doctor if they were going to have to remove my ovary and she wasn't sure. I just said, "great, that's all I need. Anything to make the process more difficult, lets do it!" The next thing I remember was waking up to a man screaming, "I'm supposed to be at the hospital!" It took me a second to realize that I was in the recovery room. I listened closely as the nurses by my bed were talking quietly, not knowing that I was awake. One said, "did you see the pictures? I've never seen anything like it! It was massive!" The other one said, "no, but I heard about it. I hope they bring the pictures back in." At that moment I blurted out, "is my ovary gone?" The nurse ran over to my bed and said, "yup, but it's a good thing. Wait until you see the pictures." I just waited as I came more and more out of the medication, but was entertained by the man struggling coming out of his. "I'm supposed to be at the hospital! Where did you take me? My pain is at a 10!" I guess some people come out of medication differently. I tend to be chatty...poor nurses. They wheeled me up to the Labor and Delivery floor and I saw Christian pacing right outside of my room. He just looked at me with an interesting expression. The nurse wheeled my bed into its spot and immediately, Christian asked her, "did you see the pictures yet?" She said, "no, do you have them?" He proudly showed her and said, "Melissa, you can't see them yet. You wont like it." Whatever! I demanded to look at them and did everything I could to refrain from laughing because it hurt so bad. I was in total amazement. They informed us that my removed ovary was 18 centimeters, which is about 5 1/2 inches long! It felt so validating when Christian said, "you know how I questioned you when you rated your pain an 8? I don't question you anymore." Our entire hospital stay was filled with many emotions. I was constantly anxious every time the held the Doppler up to my stomach, for the fear that I wouldn't hear the baby's heart beat that time. It was such a rush of relief every time we heard it. They kept very close watch on our little baby. I have an amazing husband. He never once complained about being by my side for three days straight. The nurses kept telling him he was doing their job and they had nothing to do. He was constantly refilling my ice and adjusting my pillows. He can't stand the thought of someone else doing things that he could be doing himself. He very proudly showed my pictures to each visitor and nurse we had in our room. He held me up very tightly during each of my very slow walks around the halls. I could not possibly show my appreciation to him enough. This weekend reminded me of how excited I should be and am to have such an amazing companion to be with me throughout eternity. It was kind of strange to feel like we were on the set of Grey's Anatomy. I could hear the nurses outside my door all night talking about the pictures in my chart and how "cool" it was. They'd come in and say things like, "are you the ovary girl?" I was overwhelmed with how many people came to see us and sent their support. We feel so spoiled and are now understanding the reasons behind us feeling so strongly like we need to move so close to family. We don't know what we would do if we didn't. We're so grateful to be in the ward that we are and to be so close in proximity to our families. I came home from the hospital last night and am doing well today. I'm able to walk around a bit. They tell me that it will take about 6 weeks to completely heal. Lets hope sooner, considering my incision is about 5 inches vertically down the center of my stomach. It frightened me to hear the doctor's concern about my growing belly and my incision. Yikes! The bottom line is that I'm doing fine and shuffling my way through each day. The most important thing is that the baby is doing great and we are over the scary hump now! What a miracle! Christian and I ended up having a memorable weekend together and were blessed with all the time we could possibly want to share alone! Wasn't quite what we had in mind.




Scroll at your own risk!

Weak stomachs should not go any further!




Here is the picture I promised. The only reason I decided to post this is because I really don't think you can get the FULL affect unless you see it for yourself. I have yet to show this picture to someone that wasn't shocked. This was my right ovary that should be very small. As you can see, it wasn't. I appoligize for the graphic nature in the background. Just focus on the large organ and compare it to the adult-sized hands holding it! Now do you see why I laughed when I saw the picture???