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.