Now the rambling Kayla version for those interested. This saga started in early June when I went to the ER and found out I had kidney stones and also some kind of pelvic mass. I saw a urologist who was eager to get to the bottom of my obvious MS bladder dysfunction before even dealing with kidney stones. He also urged me to see a gyno stat because the pelvic mass was compressing my ureter which was dilating the kidney and impacting the kidney stone situation. But it took a while to get into the one he recommended.
While waiting to get into the Gyno, I had a delightful test with the Uro called a Urodynamics Study that I still plan to write about on here someday. After that test, I was diagnosed as being officially bad at peeing. (Or detrusor sphincter dysynergia if you prefer the medical term.) We're going to revisit this soon and decide whether or not to try drugs or start self-cathing.
On Day 59 of Life With Kidney Stones, one of the three stones evacuated the premises. Two still remain. Next week will mark week 17. SEVENTEEN WEEKS of peeing into a strainer and having regular bouts of back pain.
Eventually, I got in to see the gyno and had a few special ultrasounds. He believed I had what are often called chocolate cysts, or endometriomas (from endometriosis, something I didn't know I had) and recommended surgery. He said they were around the size of grapefruits. (!) Surgery confirmed the endometriosis, so cool, I've got another thing.
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| Since I'm not sharing surgery pics, here is a picture my surgeon drew. "These ovaries are kind of big, but your ovaries are really big." |
The surgeon told my mom that it was quite a mess in there. (I have pictures from the surgery which are AWESOME and I'd love to share them with you but I know that two of my readers, in particular, don't want to see them, so just take my word for how cool these pictures are. I wish I had more, or better yet a video of the whole surgery!) I knew going in that there was a fair chance that he would have to remove at least some of my ovaries, though the hope was to not have to fully get rid of both to keep me out of menopause. In the end, 1.5 ovaries had to go, along with the cysts. I could still potentially enter menopause now or soon or at least enter it much earlier than I would have otherwise. And with some ovary remaining, there's a chance the cysts could return.
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| Pre-surgery |
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| Post-surgery |
Waking up from surgery was fine. Much smoother than the last time I came out of anesthesia. But my MS quickly decided it wasn't super pleased about the whole experience. Shortly after coming out of the recovery room, I had to pee. Like, I REALLY had to pee. But then, I could not pee. I kept trying and kept trying and finally got out a tiny trickle. I still REALLY had to pee so I kept trying and kept trying and finally got out another little trickle. At this point, I gave up but still really had to pee.
Then, shortly before they were going to unhook the IV and let me leave, the DREADED ITCH started. It was a solid 45 minutes of total agony.
I came home, was eventually able to pee a little bit more but basically, my bladder has remained in revolt ever since. I'm not emptying fully which means I pretty much have to pee continuously. Getting up to pee is the last thing I want to do, though, because moving hurts. I have three incisions, one of which still hurts A LOT when I move or bend in any way. Overall, the pain does seem to be getting a little better, though. I've stopped taking drugs, but they were definitely helpful for those first few days.
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| post-surgery pics of nephew and niece are way better than pain meds! |
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