The Ornery Ovary (a new children's book title?? lol)

(What better way to spend my lunch break than updating my blog!  Actually I should have thought of this sooner...usually I spend my entire lunch break obsessing over my Amazon baby registry - it's becoming an addiction! lol, but a very fun addiction!)

Today is our 4th year wedding anniversary!  Yay!  We have a fun weekend planned so hopefully it all goes well - we do not have the world's best track record of anniversaries!  This past year has been very difficult, and also very blessed.  This pregnancy has been the best thing to happen to us in the last four years, so we have a lot to celebrate!


Okay here's an update on my ovaries...haha.  Two weeks ago I had yet another ovarian cyst rupture.  I have a history with this - my first one was at age 15, and then I didn't have any more problems until recently and over the past three years I've had probably six or so now, maybe more, I lost track.  Anyway, pregnancy-wise the good news is that this doesn't affect the baby at all (whew!!) and the bad news is that there's nothing I can take to help with the pain that's worth taking.  Normally I need a high dose of Percocet to even curb the pain, and nothing completely gets rid of the pain.  So a little Tylonel is a waste of time and in my mind, not worth the risk of taking pain meds if it's not going to help me and there's even a slight chance it could do anything to the baby (I know Tylonel is considered safe...but...I'm paranoid about meds these days).  The doctor said I could take Vicodin if I want because it's not as dangerous to the baby as Percocet.  Oh, not AS dangerous? ...yah, no thank you.  Pain vs risking baby's health... yah, easiest decision ever made.

So with the frequency that I've had these cysts rupture, I figured that this was the only time I'd have to deal with this during my pregnancy.  Well, yesterday I had increasing pain as Aaron and I drove to work (we carpool), but I didn't mention it to Aaron.  I got to work and ended up spending the morning on the bathroom floor, unable to even stand up from being in so much pain.  I tried to call Aaron but he has Google Voice and his cell phone is connected to his desk phone so no matter what number I call, they all ring.  So some woman was sitting at his desk phone that day because he works in another area now (Block 5 - where apparently all the cool kids are), and so she answered the phone instead.  If I used bad language then I would have the perfect word to describe this woman...but instead I'll just say that she was very...witchy.  Anyway, I told her I needed to get a hold of Aaron and she just said he wasn't at that desk and she didn't know how to transfer calls and hung up on me while I was in mid-sentence trying to tell her it was an emergency.  Then she wouldn't pick up my calls after that.  And Aaron doesn't keep his cell phone on him at work.  So I had no way of reaching him.  Good times.  

I called my doctor and she was really concerned, which of course made me more concerned.  She asked if I could come in immediately, and I didn't know what to say because Aaron had the car and I couldn't reach him.  Then guess who calls on the other line right then?  Yup, Mr. Robinson himself - thank goodness for texting!  I guess he got my text that I was trying to reach him (Google Voice pros and cons, never know what number I'm calling, but he gets my texts on his computer).  Anyway, so we rushed over the doctor's office.  I was feeling very apprehensive because I didn't want to leave work and make a big fuss if they were just going to tell me everything was fine.  But at the same time, I needed to know everything was fine, or if it wasn't.  So, away we went.  Aaron couldn't help but laugh at me because I couldn't even stand up so I was walking like a hunchback, which was embarrassing and ridiculous, but what can you do??  

Then I had what may have been the most amazing moment of my life so far.   We had an ultrasound done and our baby really looked like a baby!  Not just a blob like he/she did earlier on.  It was a real, tiny little baby in there.  The baby was kicking and moving and waving it's little arms...it was amazing.  I'll have more about that later.  When the doctor walked out of the room I just cried and cried - it was so amazing to see the baby and be reminded that what I'm going through is SO worth it.  

So the doctor thought I had appendicitis and ordered a couple of tests.  I thought that was overkill because I didn't have a fever so I didn't think I could have that.  But she was all worried and she's normally super chill, so I went along with it.  Anyway, the tests came back negative - shocker - so my appendix and bladder were normal, but my right ovary wasn't.  She said that on my ultrasound there were already two more cysts on my right ovary since last time and one of them was very large already.  So it looks like I've got a very ornery little ovary to deal with.

The end result of all of this is... my right ovary is going to give me issues likely for the rest of my pregnancy, at least.  For anyone who is not aware, this pregnancy was three years in the making and the fertility treatments we had to do have apparently really over-stimulated my ovaries and the pregnancy hormones in my body won't let them relax.  So I'm going to deal with "ovarian pain" and likely more ruptured cysts over the next 6+ months.  Fun... but at least we know what it is so we're not rushing to the doctor every time I double over in pain.  And this will be a great opportunity to build up my pain tolerance for labor.  Natural birth?  Maybe??  Anyway - there you go, more than you ever wanted to know about my ovaries ;)