I realize that I’ve been going in circle for an hour, hoping that I’ll bump into something that unlocks a solution to Anne’s suffering. Maybe there’s something in the refrigerator. Maybe there’s something on the patio. Maybe it’s between the cushions in the couch. Maybe if I walk into our bedroom and sit next to her on the bed. Maybe if I hold her hand. Maybe if I don’t hold her hand. Maybe…
I’m sorry to hear Anne had to suffer through this, that you had to experience it with her, that it took as long as it did for her to receive a proper diagnosis along with the care and treatment she needed in order to resolve her pain.
I’ve been in the same place as Anne before. I was just there, in fact. But if a friend hadn’t shared this post with me two days ago, I might not have been anyplace at all today.
I might not have gone to the ER in time. I might not have convinced myself that the pain in my lower left side was severe “enough”.
You see, I’m no stranger to the agony that a ruptured ovarian cyst can cause, and I’ve been on the proverbial merry-go-round at the ER numerous times in the past when I’d presented with the same symptoms.
What they’d tell me was the same each time. They’d run their battery of tests, and then invariably say there was nothing they could do. They’d tell me the cysts would go away on their own one way or another. They’d tell me to just wait it out. They’d tell me to go home and try to make myself as comfortable as possible, and to only come back if I started running a fever or if the searing pain failed to lessen within a few days.
What they neglected to tell me time after time was that sometimes ovarian cysts can actually be life-threatening.
Even without the fever.
Ovarian torsion? They’ve never mentioned this possible complication once. Maybe because they never wanted to scare me. Maybe because the complication itself is relatively rare. Only 6 out of 100,000 women will ever have one of their ovaries twist around until its literally strangled itself of all life and oxygen inside their body.
Whatever their reason was for not fully informing me, it made me adopt a really blasé attitude about my pain, to the point where I was prepared to tough it out on my own because I had been conditioned to believe that even if the pain became excruciating there was nothing the medical professionals would’ve done for me. Cysts come and cysts go is the message I had received countless times, and it’s what I firmly believed in all cases until I read this post.
Please, to all my fellow ovary-bearers, if you start experiencing blinding pain in the lower abdominal region on either the left or right side, always go the ER. Always.
Even if you routinely get ovarian cysts. Even if the doctors and nurses have previously given you the impression that it’s just ‘something that happens’ to some women sometimes. Get it checked out. Demand that they perform a pelvic ultrasound early on, especially if the pain coincides with your time of the month. I cannot tell you the number of times I have received unnecessary CT scans from male ER doctors who failed to consider that my pain was likely gynecological in nature, so please, please, please, do not let their relative unfamiliarity with the female reproductive cycle happen to you, too. Request an additional consult with an OB/GYN if they do not think to request one themselves, and always, always arrive at the ER as soon as you possibly can because you’ll likely have to wait awhile to a.) be seen and b.) get a proper diagnosis even if you do all of the above.
For me personally, it took six hours to get through the chaos of the ER two days ago. By the time they concluded I needed to be on the operating table, I had already internally hemorrhaged close to a full liter of blood.
So again, I beg you guys, if you start experiencing blinding pain in your ovary regions, always get to the ER right away. Don’t just assume it’s a bad cramp or a burst cyst that will recover on its own. If my friend hadn’t linked me to this post when she had, I know that’s what I would’ve done and I’d probably be dead right now because of it.
Always listen to your body, you guys, seek the help you need, and spread awareness when you can to possibly save a life. I’m down a lot of blood and part of my left ovary had to be removed, but I’m doing fine now. I’m so thankful I’m doing fine now. My ovary didn’t kill me and I couldn’t be happier to be alive.
eighteen hours
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