Cyst Update

When I finally talked to my doctor again she said she had talked to that specialist (specialist in what?) and she was back to wanting to do laproscopic surgery, but with the specialist present. And if she saw anything troubling she would do a larger incision.

At this point I had already made an appointment to get a second opinion and, of course, I started second guessing myself. She was backing off the more invasive surgery. She had probably overreacted about the blood-test results but this specialist had set her straight, etc. But since I had the appointment I decided to go and see what another doctor would say.

This appointment was yesterday. Frist of all, I had had to obtain my records in order to do this and the office failed to include the record of the second ultrasound of my ovary, so they continue to let me down.

But beyond that, I was just so much happier with this doctor. She said she never would have done the blood test because it is not a good indicator of anything unless you are already known to have cancer (exactly what I read online). She still recommended surgery (which I kind of expected at this point) but she said she can do anything she would need to do laproscopically. Since my other doctor was so quick to jump to the more invasive surgery before, I have concerns that she may be trigger happy. I don't want to put John in the position of having to give her permission to make a bigger slice while I am under anesthesia.

This doctor also ordered another ultrasound (since the most recent one wasn't in my records) and the ultrasound tech was great! She was cheerful and funny (asked me if I had named my cyst). And after the ultrasound the doctor came in and looked at the images. Imagine that. She actually wanted to see what the cyst looked like instead of just relying on a write-up.

Long story short, I am changing doctors. I have many complaints about the office I am leaving. But I think the most important thing here is that I can go into surgery without wondering how big of a scar I'll see when I wake up.

It is still a stressful thing to deal with but at least I don't have to feel as stressed about my doctor.

PS Thanks to my SIL for the referral. ;)

Why My Spring Break Sucks

Bear in mind that I'm only sharing about half of what has been happening this week.

Six weeks ago I went to a new Ob/Gyn with some concerns she tried to brush off as nothing. But thankfully she noticed that I had "fullness" on the right side of my abdomen and had an ultrasound done. I had a 7cm cyst on my right ovary.

No biggie. I had four small cysts on my right ovary early in my pregnancy with Virginia. They cleared up on their own. At the time of this appointment, my fertility had just returned so my body was probably a little haywire. She told me to come back in six weeks for a follow up. That appointment was Monday.

I saw the ultrasound tech first. She discovered that I still had a 7cm cyst that might actually be two cysts. Then I waited and waited and waited to see the doctor. After about an hour a nurse passing by observed that I had been waiting a long time. I agreed I had been waiting a long time. She said she would find out what was happening. She came back to tell me that my doctor wasn't even there! She was at a surgery. She looked at me like 'What do you want to do?'

Let me interject at this point that this practice has many doctors and one of them really should have been filling in if my doctor couldn't be there. I mean, why else do you choose a practice with multiple doctors? This is not to mention that someone should have told me earlier my doctor wasn't there.

I told her I was going to keep waiting. After seeing that cyst I wasn't about to leave and be at their mercy regarding when my next appointment could be. Thankfully, my doctor was just scrubbing out of surgery and I didn't have to wait much longer.

When I saw her the first thing she said was, "The cyst isn't different." Now I don't know if she looked at pictures of the ultrasound but it sure looked different to me. I told her, "There are two cysts now." She tried to say there always were two cysts, then left the room to look at something. When she returned she said something kind of like the cyst was the same but different. But when I told her I had had some pains one day in the week prior she said it might have been the smaller cyst forming. So, if that cyst is new, that says to me that things are different. Not the same. Trying to cover up a mistake makes me have less faith in you, Dr.

*sigh*

She went on to recommend surgery to remove the cyst and ordered blood work to rule out cancer.

The lab said they would have the results in three days. Even though cancer has seemed like a low likelihood, they tested me for it and I wanted the dang results when they said I would have them. Of course no one called me on Thursday.

So yesterday I called my doctor and left a message on her voice mail explaining that I didn't want to have to wait until Monday for results so someone needed to call me back that day. Then, of course, I promptly went out without my phone.

Meaning, that I came home to a voice mail saying that my "levels were elevated" and she wanted to talk to a specialist before proceeding but probably will want to do slightly more invasive surgery so she can get a better look at my ovary.

I was, understandably, distressed since I didn't know what these "levels" were. As far as I knew they had tested me for CANCER.

Of course, I went to the internet. If this website can be trusted I probably shouldn't panic.

There are apparently numerous things that can cause raised "levels" including perfectly normal cysts.

The path that led me to choose home birth causes me to have healthy skepticism toward the medical profession. Also, I had a horrendous experience at that appointment on Monday and I feel like this doctor is skimpy on details. She wants to cut me open. But, the possibility of cancer really scares me, so I'll probably let her do it.

Of course, the work week is over now so I'll have to wait until next week for her call. I wonder how much time I should give her before I call over there again.

Afraid of the Food

Last night I was making dinner. The wok was hot, the oil was jumping, my chicken was burning. I held the end of the wooden spoon in one hand and backed as far from the pan as I could while stirring the chicken.

Then I stepped outside of myself for a moment and I heard Miz Dot saying, "Baby, you act like you afraid of the food!"

During most of my Sophomore year at UGA I worked in one of the dining halls. The staff in the dining halls consists of a few full time workers in key positions and lots of student workers who have shifts of several hours at a time.

Oglethorpe Dining Commons (or O-house) always had new workers spend a few days in the dish room. This is where the dirty dishes come around on a conveyor belt and you have to rinse them off in a trough of running water and then put them onto racks in the giant dishwasher.

I believe that the managers always put new people in the dish room for two reasons:

1. To let you know that no one is too good to do the dirtiest job in the dining hall.
2. Miz Johnny.

Miz Johnny was the full time staffer who ran the dish room and she was just full of love for whatever clueless college kids got sent her way. When you held a bowl wrong in the sprayer and got nasty food water on everyone in the room, other people were giving you sideways glances, but Miz Johnny just said, "That's alright, baby." She always made sure you got all your breaks and she never lost her patience.

After those first couple of days, though, you might be in a different place every day. Some days I worked on the main line, changing out the trays of food. Some days I worked in the chicken frying station (which wasn't my favorite because deep-fry baskets are heavy and that oil is HOT). Some days I was stir frying or just prepping food in the kitchen or rolling burritos for hungry classmates.

But most of the time I was in the bake shop. This is where all the pastries and rolls were prepared and baked. The bake shop was run by Miz Dot. All things considered, she was pretty patient with me, too. But she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Have you ever tried to mix a giant mixing bowl of cake batter? It's hard. I was poking at it tentatively when she said to me, "Baby, you act like you afraid of the food!"

The most memorable moment I had working in O-house involved both Miz Johnny and Miz Dot.

All my shifts were in the morning and afternoon so I never helped close down the dining hall. This was just how my schedule happened to work out. But one day, before a school holiday, the dining hall was closing early. So I helped Miz Dot clean up all the counters in the bake shop. We cleaned the floor, made sure all the leftover food went in the freezer, things like that. We finished before most of the other areas so we stood there making small talk.

Then Miz Johnny came over. She was done cleaning up the dish room and wanted to chat with Miz Dot.

Now, I'm not sure how the conversation came around to this. I have since been told that before my time there had been an infamous O-house employee who liked to flash her nipple rings at her coworkers, so perhaps that it what Miz Dot was thinking of when she asked me, quite sincerely, "What do you think of girls get they titties and they navel pierced?"

I had no idea how to respond to this. I muttered something like, "Uhhh. It's okay?"

But things went from bad to worse, because Miz Dot pressed on with, "What about a tongue piercing? What's the significance of the tongue piercing?"

She seemed to really want to know. And who am I to stand between any fellow human being and knowledge? So I told her. But in the most euphemistic way possible. "I think it is for use in bed."

At this point Miz Johnny began to take genuine interest in the conversation. "What'd she say?"

Miz Dot answered, "She say, 'For use in bed.'"

Miz Johnny clapped her hands together and exclaimed, "Oh yeah, I bet it feel good up on that thing!"

But Miz Dot didn't have quite the same thought. She said, "Why I wanna do that to a man? I don't know where he's goin' after that."

No, I'll never forget my time at O-house