Live your love, Love your life

Monday, December 15th, my husband and I left the house at 9.05am to Dr. Kavoussi office. I was nervous my hands cold sweated. We'd sat in the waiting room for about 20 minutes before the nurse called my name. We came into the same exam room and waited for the doctor to come in. Dr. Kavoussi came about 15 minutes later. He shook our hands and started explaining the CT scan result and CA-125 result. Everything looks OK. There is no sign of possible cancerous cell in my abdomen and lung cavities. My CA-125 is 31 which is under the permitted rate (35) which means no cancer mark found in my blood. From what I read online, CA-125 is not always acurate, unless done repeatedly. And I did. My CA-125 result 2 months ago turned out negative so did it now.
I gave you a brief of what stated in the result form:
LUNGS : The lung bases are clear
PERITONEAL CAVITY: No ascites
LIVER: Normal
SPLEEN: Normal
GALLBLADDER: Normal
GI TRACT: Normal. Appendix is not seen. No percecal inflammation is identified

RETROPERITONEUM: No adenopathy is seen
PANCREAS: Normal
ADRENAL GLANDS: Normal
KIDNEYS: Normal
AORTA/IVC: The aorta/IVC is normal in caliber

PELVIS
URINARY BLADDER: Compressed by the large cystic mass of the left ovary
UTERUS: Compressed and displaced to the left by the large cystic mass of the left ovary
OVARIES: There is a 12.5 x 12.7 x 11.4 cm predominately cystic mass of the left ovary that does not contain calcifications. The right ovary appears normal deep in the right pelvis
RECTUM AND SIGMOID: Normal
LYMPH NODES: Normal

IMPRESSION:
Enlarging left ovarian cystic mass most likely an ovarian cystadenoma or cystadenomacarcinoma. No evidendence of omental disease or lymphadenopathy present at this time.

Cystadenomas?? This is way far beyond what I expected. Doctor explain there are 2 type of cystadenomas: serous and mucinous. Serous means it filled with watery fluid and about 2-6 cm in size. Mucinous contains sticky, thick gelatinous material and can grow very large. There are rare cases where this tumor can grow up to 40 inches in diameter and weighs 100lbs!

Weird! So, the cyst is NOT in my right ovary, as 3 doctors thought before. Also, it is not endometroid nor dermoid as the previous diagnoses. This confirms the transvaginal USG result before where doctor found that my cyst consists of two components: solid and fluid. In my case, doctor said, it looks like this cyst grow from germ cell outside the ovary in my peritoneal cavity and as it grow large it intermingled (somehow maybe even connected) with my left ovary. When I asked him, how does this cyst appear, doctor said there are many ways (read my previous article http://arisan-loveandlife.blogspot.com/2008/12/my-strugle-with-cyst.html). In my case, he thinks, it is something that "suddenly" or "spontaneously" happen and there is no way to prevent it. Genetical factor may add odd to this. It reminds me of my best friend who suffers from "spontaneous pneumothorax". It is a condition where the lung(s) could suddenly collapse without any early symptom. Esther would probably says,"Welcome to the club, Maria!" he..he..
By the way, Ther, I'm really sorry that I made you so upset for not answering your question straight ahead. I'm sorry that I "play game" with your worryness. I hope I'm still your sister. But, hey, I made you read this blog and call me...he..he.. Thanks for your call and support. It really helps me go through all this.
Back to the clinic, doctor explained the possible scenario of the surgery. Oh, FYI, he's not gonna do the surgery but his father (Dr. Kavoussi Sr.) would since he's been performing this kind of surgery for long time. There is gonna be another doctor during the operation (an oncology specialist) who's gonna perform pathology right after the cyst is taken out.
First, doctor will make horizontal incission on my lower abdomen, just above the pubic line. And, consider the size of my cyst, doctor would probably make vertical incission also to get a better look into my abdomen cavity. I was stunned, the image of having my stomach cut open with the small horizontal incission already made me sick. Now, they are gonna make a criss-cross cut. Oh Lord! This is not fun at all! I grabbed Loel's hand and he rounded his arm around my shoulder.
Next, doctor will take the cyst out and works at his best to preserve my left ovary. But, if the ovary is too damaged, then doctor will have to take it out. "Your health is our priority here, Maria." Another scenario: "If they find out there are some cancerous cell in the cyst, we will check on the other usually gonna take organs or parts that might be affected. At the very worst scenario, we will go ahead with histerectomy." Wait a minute! That means they are gonna take all my female organ out of my body?? No way! I'm still young, and we haven't started our family, yet. Doctor calmed me down,"We're talking about any possible situation that might happen during the surgery. That is why we are here now, I provide you with all possible scenario, even the worst one, and I want to know what would you like us to do. Loel said,"We want to keep her fertility organs as far as we could. So, please do your best to preserve them."
At the end, we told doctor that we need to discuss about this and will let him know in a few days. We left his office and went back home.
I almost forgot that I had another appointment with my dentist. My dentist needed to extract my lower left wisdom tooth. So, it will be like a little surgery. The tooth was badly decayed, has a big cavity on the side and from x-ray dentist said there is no way to save it and I had to let it go. Oh well... So, I dropped Loel home, I told him I'd be fine and I can drive back home after the procedure.
At the clinic, my dentist gave me oral and injected sedation and the process began. It took him about an hour to extract that damn tooth. He had to cut the tooth into two pieces to ease the extraction. After cleaning the canal area, he made few stiches to close the incission. He then asked if I want to see what my tooth looked like. It was nasty!
Then nurse gave me pain killer medicine, some gauze to stop bleeding and a list of things NOT to do after the surgery. Some of them are: do not drinking from the straw, do not drink soda/any kind of carbonated beverage, and do not smoke because any of these would create a dry air socket that cause a blood clot that may be fatal. She told me to comeback in a week to take the sutures out and to check up the wound.
I tell you guys, today was not one of my best days in life. Hey, but I learn my lesson: take care of yourself, or you'll be sorry. Second lesson, do not play game with Esther or she's gonna find and get you...he..he..