What? What is that? Based on the MRI, the radiologist 'diagnosed' me with a hemorrhagic corpus luteum cyst. My explanation: right after I ovulated and got pregnant, the corpus luteum (in the ovary) continued to bleed rather than 'dissolve' on its own, creating a cyst-like sac filled with blood. This continued to grow to the size it was and bleed and clot intermittently in itself, rather than reabsorbing like it should have right away. Makes sense, as I had some pain very early on in the pregnancy that would occasionally come and go.
Finally, an answer that made sense. Also, a sense of frustration. Why didn't anyone figure this out or tell me what this was long ago? Why have I been in some serious pain for the last couple days and... nothing? Why me? (To answer the why me... the doctor said this is totally random and there were no predisposing factors that caused this to happen to me or made it more likely for this to happen to me, also no increased risk for this to happen in future pregnancies).
The pain was the ongoing and unsolved problem according to the doctor. They still had no explanation for the legit and extremely severe pain I was experiencing. More frustration. My OB doctor went on to say that my options were as follows:
1) Do nothing. Go home on some serious medication round the clock, likely needing to increase the dosage as time passes as my body would grow accustomed to the drugs. This presents some serious side effects to the baby, namely that the baby would be born with a drug dependency. Not cool. Along with this, they knew I likely would not be able to carry the baby to full term, so we were looking at a preterm delivery. Could I still deliver vaginally? Probably. Could I go back to work? No. Based on how I was feeling at the time, there was no possible way I could work, given that anytime I moved the pain got worse. Also given my job: I'm constantly up moving around, lifting and transferring patients, bending over, reaching up, participating in their exercise programs. So we were looking at long term disability and basically bed rest for months. Again, not cool and not really an option in my mind.
2) Surgery. Which involved a couple options. Ideally, they would go in laparascopically with a couple puncture wounds, skinny tools and a camera to see what was really going on and hopefully remove whatever was causing me trouble. There was some concern that, given how far along I was, they wouldn't be able to get to or see the areas of concern without opening me up all the way from belly button to basically all the way down, called a laparotomy. Some major concerns either way were that any movement to or disruption of the uterus could put me into labor which cannot be stopped and at this point would have resulted in a total loss of the pregnancy. After 24 weeks there is some chance to save the baby but I was only 19 weeks 3 days.
So, at this point it was Saturday afternoon/evening. I had been NPO for most of the day (no food or water) and was starving. I had basically had one meal in the last 48 hours as I vomited up anything I had eaten Thursday and was kept NPO for most of Friday as well during the procedures. I did get to have clear liquids Friday evening... so I got some chicken broth and jello. Whooopee! My doctor was basically presenting us these options and made it sound like I could make surgery a go that evening. We wanted the surgery. But I was starving and would likely have to wait several more hours or even until the next day to actually have the surgery. We decided to eat and put surgery off for the following day, also allowing us to chat with the gynecologic oncologist the following morning who would be assisting with the surgery to get more detail about the actual surgery.
So, I got to eat. I ate a lot and then regretted it after I got a too-much-food tummy ache. But it was delicious!
I think I'll always kind of fondly remember that night because it was just Adam and I. I love my husband, but after experiencing all of this I love him even more (if that's possible) for his constant support, his loving me so much and in general just his warm presence crammed next to me in my hospital bed. We went for some slow walks that evening around the unit, we resubscribed to Netflix and watched some episodes of Too Cute (super cute, highly recommend about kittens and puppies and just general cuteness), and we cried. We were scared, we were relieved, we were tired, we were confused, we were mad. I was worried about the baby, Adam was worried about me, so all around we were just a mess. I just can't thank him enough for being there. I think I told him "I'm sorry" about a thousand times through this ordeal. Sorry for what? I don't know. He chose to be with me and he was happy to be there.
Then, sleep. We were looking forward to surgery the following day.
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