My Ovarian Tumor (Warning-Graphic Pictures)

So back in December I applied for some life insurance. This required a physical, and when the results came back there was some weird readings from my liver. I more or less blew it off. Then in January the same company sent me a letter saying they were turning down my application for life insurance due to the readings from my liver.

I decide that since these companies do this stuff for a living then maybe I better go have it checked out. Well, so far nothing has turned up that is wrong with my liver. But in the process of checking it out the doctors found that I had an ovarian tumor the size of a tennis ball or larger. What happened was I had an ultrasound to look at my liver and they examined my whole stomach area and found this tumor. From there I had an MRI that confirmed it. The shit never hurt, however, until they started digging around on it.

When I had my ultrasound they called me back in the room about 3 times to take more pictures. Then they said I could go and I had gone down several floors and had paused to look at a water wall when the nurse came running up to me to drag me back for even more pictures. I get back on the table and the nurse says "This time we will be using this!" and holds up what looks like a skinny, 8 inch, condom-wrapped dildo. I think "Really? I didn't sign up for this!" but I go ahead and let her dig around my pelvic area like she's digging for potatoes. See the transvaginal transducer in this link:

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=pelvus

At this time I am told that I have a "swollen ovary" and they are sending me to get an MRI so they can see it better. Next thing I know the MRI office is calling me referring to a "tumor" and a "stomach mass" and I freak the hell out because last thing I heard was "swollen ovary". A swollen ovary sounds to me like a far cry from a "mass" and a "tumor" so I call my doctor and ask WTF is going on and she says "Damn it I told them not to call you and for them to let me inform you first because I didn't want you to freak out! But I wanted to get the appointment made as soon as possible so I made it with instructions that they not call you but let me do it!" At that time I was already scheduled to talk to her in person in a day or two but she ended up having to do it over the phone because they called me even though she told them not to. So thanks a lot for scaring the hell out of me, dumbasses!

Anywho I go to MRI and I also get a pelvic exam and they roll, and push, and mash around on the damn thing some more, and then they take me into a room that has a long table with a bunch of boxes of Kleenex on it. I'm thinking "Wow, this is getting kind of scary!" They inform me that I have an ovarian tumor, that it feels soft and not hard which is a good sign, and that from their experience it's probably a 10% chance it's cancerous. However that is still a chance and if it is I will have to have a full hysterectomy and chemo and radiation and stuff.  So they schedule me for surgery. By this time I now know I have the thing because it has been examined all to hell and now it hurts.

I had the surgery on Monday, February 25th and they took my right ovary and the tumor. I had laser surgery so I won't have huge scars. I thought I would have one scar but ended up with 4 cuts. One cut they took out the ovary and the tumor, one cut they looked at my left ovary to see if it was ok, and then two more cuts they dissected my lymph nodes to see if they were cancerous. The grossest thing is that they went through my belly button and it just gives me the heebie jeebies every time I think about it because I could never stand my belly button being touched at all. They still have to dissect the tumor to see if it is cancerous but so far nothing else was cancerous and the doctor says it looks very promising. And I have a follow up appointment in a couple of weeks also.

The first two days after surgery hurt like hell and I called to tell them my pain meds weren't working. They told me to double them for one day and they finally kicked in. I am still hurting and walking sort of hunched over but all in all I have to say that I expected having a tumor removed to hurt a lot worse. Not that it didn't hurt, mind you, but my foot operation hurt worse. My stomach is all black and blue and I have problems finding a comfortable position to sleep in most of the time, but I am just thankful that it isn't cancer. I still need to find out about my liver readings though. The doctor said it could be medication causing it to read weird, or it could be fat. Other than that it looked fine on ultrasound and stuff. And an interesting thing is that usually these tumors are found while rooting around looking at something else just like it happened with me and my liver.

Anywho, I asked the doctor to take pictures of my tumor and he complied. I figured hey, it's mine, and I wanted to see what it looked like. I am attaching a couple of pictures. I did put a warning that there would be graphic pictures but I put them at the end of this blog post so that they didn't slap you in the face first thing.

I feel lucky that I didn't have cancer, but you know there are a lot of really, really sick people we all know online right now who aren't as lucky. And if you could please keep them in your thoughts and prayers not only would I appreciate it but I am sure they would too. Things could be happening in your own body this very minute that you are not even aware of, and as they say "There but for the grace of God, go I."

As for me-right now I am just trying to heal up and get my mind wrapped around all that has happened. It has been very stressful to be quite honest. I still need some time to process all of this because it all happened so unexpectedly and fast.





PD