July 23, 2004
This time was only 4 months
The strangest thing happened. I happened to get a copy of my last right hip MRI. While reading the report I saw where the radiologist talked about the necrosis in the hip and also there was a 4cm pelvic mass. This MRI was taken back in June and not one person had talked to me about this mass. I called my Othro. and he said he didn't even look at the report just the films and he thought it was just bowel backup. I called my GYN who got me in to see him in 2 days.
My GYN ordered an ultrasound and this thing had really grown in all that time. He set up the surgery date for the following week. He talked to my husband and I about all the things this mass could be. He said if it was cancer then all this wasted time could mean a big difference. I cried and cried, not again and why me. I am tired of getting cut on and now something that had nothing to do with AVN/ON. He told us the incisions would be small and I could go home the same day. Well you all know me by now, nothing is easy. This mass was so big and hard they had to cut in 2 places and through the muscles. It would not break up and they had to end up taking both ovaries and my tubes. When I awoke in the recovery room they had a morphine pact in my back. I knew this was not a good sign.
I was admitted to the hospital since the operation was more detailed than expected. I had a very bad night. Along around midnight I called the nurse. I told her I felt like I was slipping away, everything sounded like it was under water and I could feel my heart beating through my ears. She called in a doctor right away, my blood pressure had gone way too low. They started pumping me full of IV'S and taking my blood pressure every 10 minutes. This went on all night. They thought I was having a reaction to the pain medicine. Morning came and believe it or not they released me to go home.
I had been home for about 2 hours when I told my parents I just didn't feel right. I felt my heart in my head and ears. This was on a Thursday. I felt like I was getting weaker and weaker and I was scared to death. Finally at 5am on Friday my husband and I called the doctors emergency # and they called back a little before 8 am. They asked me to come into the office. By this time I could not walk I was so weak. My husband put me in my wheelchair and off to the doctor we went. Once back in the examing room, I let out a loud scream. When they went to remove my clothes I saw that my entire middle section and up both sides to my breast were a dark purple. The doctor told the nurse to do a finger stick. He called the hospital ER and said I was on my way. I was bleeding internally.
Talk about being scared to death. I thought I was going to die. My husband called my parents who arrived very quickly. They took me in for a CT scan that showed where I was bleeding from. They started pumping me full of IV'S again and waited for the doctor to get there. Once the doctor got there I was admitted again and needed a blood transfusion. I told them this is what was happening during the night and no one would listen to me. They just kept saying it was the pain medicine. Well after 3 pints of blood I started to feel like myself again, just terribly weak. I stayed another 2 days in the hospital then was released to go home.
The pain was off the charts from all the muscles that had to be cut to get this thing out. The brusing continued until there was not one place on the trunk of my body that was not purple or black. Later at my 4 week checkup, it was determined that the reason I had bled out, was I had no more blood clotting factors left in my body, since I had had so many surgeries in such a short time. I was advised not to have anymore operations for quite some time. This was going to be OK with me. It took some time to get over this one and about 6 weeks before all the bruising was gone. I will never forget when I went back to see my GYN, the one who did the operation. He hugged and kissed me and told me he was so glad I was still here. I told him I was too.
Posted by Karen on July 23, 2004 08:52 PM