Ovaries, Do We Really Need Them?

I think I would be in less pain if we didn't. A couple of weeks ago I had this stomach pain, that was the Friday night before Wicked. I didn't feel bad on Saturday and forgot about it until Sunday night. No sleep until 4am! It was driving me crazy. Monday I went to work and Julia yelled at me (as well as you can in an email) and told me to get my butt to a doctor. Which I did. The doctor believed it was a cyst and that I should have an ultrasound. He didn't sound too worried, said they were pretty common (which I have found out, they are). He prescribed me some pain killers. Wed I headed to the ultrasound, they told me I would probably hear back in 3-5 business days. I thought, okay, no big deal, the pain isn't too bad and I went back to work.

About an hour later the doctor's office called and told me to come in right away. Hello, panic! The radiologist thought it might be something called Ovarian Torsion. Not so common and pretty serious. I read later on the internet that the ovary is saved in less than 10% of cases. This was at a walk-in clinic and they told me to go see my family doctor and if the pain gets worse before then to go immediately to the ER. I was pretty upset.

I headed to my doctor on the Thursday (almost a week after the initial pain). She went over the results and tried to get me in to see an OB-GYN. No such luck so she sent me to the ER at Women's College Hospital, because if it was torsion I did need surgery right away. Needless to say I was upset and in tears.

Things were quick at the hospital when I first got there. I saw a doctor and he sent me for another ultrasound to find out if it was torsion and if the ovary was already dead. It took a while to get the ultrasound (and it was not fun). Evil nazi radiologist who wanted to see if she could make me cry from the pain (she succeeded). But, it turns out, it wasn't torsion (it took another hour to find that out). It is a cyst, though. It's bigger than my right ovary (which means my left ovary is growing to accomodate). It's bleeding in on itself which is what makes it grow. But, no surgery is necessary (at least not yet). I go back for another ultrasound (oh joy) in a couple of weeks.

In the meantime the pain is still there. I'm happy that it doesn't appear serious and that I shouldn't lose my ovary. I've never had surgery so I'm not looking forward to that (if it happens). Of course, so many thoughts going through my head: should I harvest my eggs, will I be able to have kids, etc.