Month: November 2009

Post-op Appointment and Pedunculated Fibroid

Posted on by mrs.stork

uterus2

I had my post op appointment yesterday. I got to see the senior RE yesterday. He is also super nice and although he gave me some great information about my surgery.

He said that because of its size and its type that he didn’t see any problems with me getting right back into treatment. Based on what he said I had a Pedunculated Fibroid.

Pretty much what that means is that the fibroid was attached by a stalk.

“Pedunculated uterine fibroids occur when a fibroid tumor grows on a stalk, resulting in pedunculated submucosal fibroids or pedunculated subserosal fibroids. These fibroids can grow into the uterus and also tend to grow on the outside of the uterine wall. Symptoms associated with pedunculated fibroid tumors include pain and pressure as the fibroids can sometimes twist on their stalk.”

That’s the info that I got online.

He explained that fibroid can cause silent tremors in the uterus and that can be detrimental to implantation and development of embryo.

He then showed me some pictures. It was very strange because I was expecting it to look scary or something. It looked bigger than I thought it would and not as ugly but scary looking.

He first showed me my left side, where I could see my uterine wall and the entrance to my left fallopian tube. He then showed me my right side and there it was. The darn fibroid was right in front of the entrance of my right tube.

I asked the obvious questions. “Is that blocking my tube then?” He said that it could be but that there was no way of knowing for sure. Well, I believe that it was. I always had follicles on my right side and never on my left. The one time that I did have follicles on my left was when I got pregnant. Coincidence? I think not!!!

He then proceeded to explain to me how it was a great idea to have this fibroid removed since there are studies that show that it can interfere with implantation and fertility as well as the development of the baby. He also said that there’s no proof but that it can increase/cause miscarriages.

Of course I asked if that’s what happened to me and he (of course) said that there was no definite way of knowing but that it could have.

That was some strange info for me. I have to say that this info made me feel better. I know that there’s no way to know for sure but it just makes me feel like it wasn’t my fault. Tom tells me that it wasn’t my fault and that I shouldn’t feel guilty but it’s hard not to.

Now I have this thing to blame on. I can say that now……..it just wasn’t my fault.

Anyway, the plan for now is to continue with my birth control pill all the way to the 27th and I’ll see them on the 30th. My doctor doesn’t want us to give up, he wants us to try again and I’m really ok with that.

For now, I’ll just take this next 2 and a half weeks off and try not to think too much about infertility treatments.

This might be my last post for a little over 2 weeks. I’m heading to LA tomorrow and I won’t be back until the 30th. I’ll update some more after my appointment.

Thank you all for the support. You guys rule!!

It was a Fibroid after all.

Posted on by mrs.stork

ufe_02

I was finally able to speak with my RE a couple of days ago. He is so funny. We’ve been playing phone tag for almost a week now and when we spoke he finally said “young lady I’m not used to being treated like this. You are one difficult lady to talk to”

I felt so bad. I know how busy he is and he’s called me so many times and could never reach me. We were playing cat and mouse for a while there.

Anyway. I had to ask him the many questions that I had.

I explained to him that Tom (my hubby) knows quite a bit about this whole IF business but he didn’t really know much about this surgery so he didn’t really understand what Dr.Synn said after my surgery was done.

Dr.S then said “well we removed a fibroid”.

My question was “what is the difference between a polyp and a fibroid?”

Dr.S’s answer :
“A polyp is a tumor of the lining of the uterus, wheres a fibroid is a tumor of the wall of the uterus”  he then said “a polyp is softer and a fibroid is harder, meatier”.

I couldn’t help but think “Did he just say TUMOR!!!!?” It was freaking me out but I didn’t want to interrupt him so I let him finish.

Before I could ask he says “Don’t you worry, I already got the pathology report and it was a benign tumor. Everything looks great.”

OMG!!! That was such wonderful news. I was so freaking happy to hear that. It’s amazing how in just a matter of seconds of hearing the word tumor my brain processed it and went to the worst possible scenerios.

I was then told that they have to great pictures of the surgery to show me. I couldn’t help and said “Oh my,  I hope you took pictures of my good side” we both laughed and he asked if I had any other questions.

Well, I said “since everything looks so great now, you’ll get me pregnant with twins next time, right?”
I could so tell that he didn’t know how to answer that. All he said was “we’ll see, we’ll see” then he gave me a chuckle.

I get it, he wouldn’t want to put my hopes up for saying yes and he didn’t want to crush them if he said not either. I got it doc.

I asked him if it was ok for me to take the H1N1 vaccine and he said that he would love if I could and that he has no problem with it. So, I did get it. (a whole other story to write about this).T

This is it for now. I get to see him (or one of his nurses) on the 10th before my trip.

I hope that when we get back we can get back on the saddle and start trying again.

Below are some links if you’re interested on knowing more about Fibroids:

http://www.womenshealth.gov/faq/uterine-fibroids.cfm

http://www.medicinenet.com/uterine_fibroids/article.htm

 

 

Surgery update!

Posted on by mrs.stork

steven-hip-ward

I had surgery last Wednesday and everything went well. This time around was a little “easier” since I knew I wasn’t going in to remove my baby. I knew that it was a diagnostic procedure and I didn’t have that nagging feeling that I was losing something.

The people that took care of me in the hospital were wonderful. The nurses were very attentive and man did I make them work for their money.

Let me explain. My veins are not usually the easiest things to find and this time they were almost impossible to find. Not only had I had nothing to drink all day long I was also so freaking cold.

They had given me the typical hospital gown and socks to put on, and then they came in with this weird looking socks (yes another pair), that had holes on both sides. They are very long and they go from your toes up to your knee. They tell me that they’re supposed to help with circulation. Man those things were tight. Of course, given that I’m a juicy lady, they had to give me a size up……which let me tell you, were still pretty tight.

So, one nurse came and tried my left arm. Even though I told her that they usually get blood out of my right, she still wanted to try the left. For the first time in my life, they used lidocaine to numb the area. Don’t get me wrong, for the time that they took looking around for my vein I was glad that they used it.

She tried and tired and then she did what I was so scared of. She turned my hand over and looked there. I told her “please don’t do that to me”, she gave me that funny smile and said, “well, let me get another nurse in so she can try too”.

In came the other nurse, who was supposed to be more experienced. She moved on to my right arm. She completely ignored the usual area where they draw blood and went straight into my forearm. She numb the area again and in she went looking for that vein.  She looked for a while and nothing. This time it did hurt a bit, I think she went in a little further than the area that she numbed.

She then looks at me and tells me “well, we’re going to have to try the hand. I see something here”. Ahhhhh I could feel the pain already. She numbed my hand and in she went. It took her a little bit then she said “I think I got it”. What do you mean by that? “You think?” I had to ask “how do you know that you did?” she said “your hand is not swelling up, so we got it”. That did not sound reassuring to me at all.

The moment she finished taping me I felt this weird pain in my wrist. I thought it was all in my head so I didn’t say anything. It got strong there for a second then it stopped. I thought, great, the worst is over.

I’m not going to lie to you, I had at least 6 people come into my room to ask me if I knew what procedure I was having, what I had to drink/eat last and what time. I was getting a little tired of saying the same thing, over and over again.

Then, the anesthesiologist came in. He seemed like a VERY serious person. He was not about to laugh at anything. So different then my last one. He made sure to tell me that death was a possibility and then questions me about my eating/drinking again.

When it was time to go in, he came back into my room and injected something into the IV. I felt every inch of that medication run through my veins. I think that the vein that the nurse got ran on top of that funny bone that you have on your wrist and it hurt like a mofo.

I kissed my sweet husband good buy and I was wheeled out to my OR. This time I had to move myself to the bed. I got to see those huge lights above my head, it was so weird. The nurses were super nice there but I remember thinking “I don’t think she should be using jewelry inside an O.R.”

They put those heart monitors on me and then put the oxygen mask. I took a couple of breaths and I was out.

I woke up in the recovery area. Told the nurse that I was in pain, and she gave me some magic drugs. I felt so awkward that she came in and just lifted my covers to look in there, she then said “you have a pad and the pad has a spot on it”. She said that multiple times, not sure why. It was just awkward.

I was then moved to the second recovery area, where they were able to bring my husband in. I was still feeling pain and a lot of pressure. I pressed that button to call the nurse and from the speaker she asked me “may I help you?” I said, “yes, I need to use the restroom”.

The nurse area wasn’t far from where I was and we could hear them saying “patient on area #3 needs to go potty” , I couldn’t stop laughing. They said that multiple times until the nurse that was assigned to me came in with the wheelchair.  Needless to say after I went pee the pressure stopped and I could relax more.

Tom took me home and had made me some wonderful chicken soup. I had to take a couple of pain meds when I got home and after the chicken soup I felt much better. Ohh I had to keep using those long socks for at least 24 hours post surgery. They were so much fun.

I took 2 days off from work and everything was great. I still haven’t heard from the doctor to know any results but he tried to call me and left me a message, I should be talking to him tomorrow to know more about the surgery.