The follow up appointment...

was lovely to say the least. The nurse came in and took down some info and said to get undressed from the waist down. I was like, "Super - it's going to be inside and not on my tummy?" GROSS. So again with the "here's your uterus.... here's your left ovary - he's (why is it a HE?) pretty quiet with a couple of follicles. And here's your right ovary. Oh look there's a cyst on him." REALLY? We just say that outloud like I have supposedly heard that statement before? Followed by, "you've had those before right?" UH NO. "Ok, well it looks like a Hemorrhagic cyst so no big deal." Then he takes what is basically a screenprint of the thing and it's measurements. It's about 2.5cm x 2.5cm. Not very big, but also not very calming either.

Doc then says normal treatment is with birth control pills. It usually makes them go away on their own. So he hands me a pack, I do my blood work and then it's check out time. All that is going through my head is that my friend had a ovarian cyst once - actually more than once - and it turned into ovarian cancer (at 22 years of age no less) and now she only has 1/2 of one ovary remaining. Is this happening to me?

So I leave the office in a fluster and in the fluster, I come out of the parking garage and have no idea which way to go. It dumps me onto the street on the backside of the building (not where I went in) and I am lost. The doc is in the Med Center and somehow I end up passing IMAX, the museum, the zoo...UGH. The whole time my mind is racing. I finally follow some truck and end up on 288 and get back to work. From that parking garage I call my husband with the news. Of which he says, "maybe you just weren't meant to get pregant." This coming from someone who has 2 kids from a previous marriage. NICE.

Back to my Home Sweet Cubicle where I Google "Hemorrhagic cyst" and find this article on Wikipedia:

A third type of functional cyst, which is common, is a Hemorrhagic cyst, which is also called a blood cyst, hematocele, and hematocyst.[16] It occurs when a very small blood vessel in the wall of the cyst breaks, and the blood enters the cyst. Abdominal pain on one side of the body, often the right side, may be present. The bleeding may occur quickly, and rapidly stretch the covering of the ovary, causing pain. As the blood collects within the ovary, clots form which can be seen on a sonogram.[17] Occasionally hemorrhagic cysts can rupture, with blood entering the abdominal cavity. No blood is seen out of the vagina. If a cyst ruptures, it is usually very painful. Hemorrhagic cysts that rupture are less common. Most hemorrhagic cysts are self-limiting; some need surgical intervention. Even if a hemorrhagic cyst ruptures, in many cases it resolves without surgery. Patients who don't require surgery will experience pain for 4 - 10 days after, and may require several days rest. Studies have found that women on tetracycline antibiotics recover 25% earlier than the majority of patients, a surprising correlation found in 2004.

Thursday night I had severe abdominal pains which caused me to stay up most of the night, toss my dinner, and miss work on Friday. But I also have gall stones and my gall bladder flares up from time to time so this is what I chalked it up to. Not knowing that it could have been a possible cyst eruption... GEEZ.

So now I am taking birth control pills until I start again. Then it's back to the doc for another probe during AF.

I LOVE being a woman. Really.... I do.