Doing better...
We've all settled into the Hamagawa pretty well. Except for a game of Chinese Fire drill involving bedrooms last night we haven't had any problems. Even though this place is a pit its roomier than the Westpac and we are more relaxed over here.
I'm still healing - slowly but surely from my surgery on Wednesday. I wasn't gonna say what happened because it is kinda personal but it's all part of this moving experience so here it goes. For the past 7 weeks my doctors and I thought I was having a miscarriage. I got pregnant with a Mirena IUD in place. Hello! The odds of getting pregnant with an IUD in are 3 in 1000! I've had it in for three years. So my luck. My husband looks at me funny and I get pregnant. It was a shocker because I SO didn't want any more children. So anyway, a week and a half ago I went to see my doc because I had been bleeding every day for the past 6 weeks and I assumed my IUD had gone bad earlier than it should have. A blood test later revealed that I was pregnant but my hormone counts were only 130. Crazy low. I had it checked 2 days later and it was the same. She thought I had been pregnant since mid-February. I had no idea because I never had a period on this IUD.
Monday morning I was cramping real bad but because we only had one car at the time (the other was on the "lemon lot" on base for sale) I couldn't go to the hospital. I was bleeding heavily from 10:00am until noon until it pretty much stopped. My husband didn't get home until about 4:30 pm. By 5:30pm I was at the ER and had another ultrasound (my third in a week) done and a blood test. My counts had gone down to about 90 and they still couldn't see a baby in me but they found a 5cm cyst in my left ovary. The ER doc called in an OBGYN doc and she admitted me for surgery first thing the next day. The only catch is that I wouldn't be able to fly out on Friday to go back to the states. She said I technically could since it would be an outpatient procedure but I would still be in pain. So she wrote a note for my husband's command saying I needed to stay in Japan a week longer. This was done so we could get reimbursed for the extra hotel stay of over $700.
So the morning arrived. I was in pre-op talking to the anesthesiologist when I started noticing throbbing pain on my right but higher than where my uterus and ovary is. I thought I was going crazy. I almost didn't mention it to my doc when she walked in. I didn't want her to think I was being a hypochondriac due to nerves. She said, "OK I'll take a look around there," and left for the OR. I was getting laproscopic surgery on my left side for the cyst so I was a little worried about her actually getting to my right side.
So they took me to the OR and put me under with general anesthesia. When I woke up she said she got the cyst out and a "very large" ectopic pregnancy in my right fallopian tube! None of us had any idea as it didn't show up on the ultrasound and until that morning, I had no pain in that area. I'm not sure she would have looked over there if I hadn't mentioned the new pain in passing as we all thought I had miscarried. She tried to whip out pictures taken by the camera inside of me during the surgery but I was too nauseous to look at it. She said, "It's okay - it doesn't LOOK like a pregnancy," in other words, it was in the tube blown up now like a balloon - I caught that much before I turned away. I was too nauseous to look at it or the pic of the cyst. She wound up taking the entire right tube out since I didn't want any more children anyway.
So I went home at 7:30pm that same evening. Pain management in the hospital pretty much sucked the entire time and the nurses were trying to rush me out of the hospital, which pissed me off. They had originally wanted me out by 5:00pm but I was like no - I'll go when I'm good and ready. We all wound up compromising a little but I left the hospital with less-than-helpful drugs even though I told everyone it wasn't working. I'm sensitive to all narcotics - get very nauseous or can't breathe so I was prescribed ultram to take the place of the Demerol, which I was on up till then.
Today I finally gave in and called my doc to get a better prescription. She gave me percocet and zoforan for the nausea. They are working. Finally I'm in less pain and can move around more. But there you go. That's why we couldn't leave today like we had planned.
I'm fine with all that though because that baby was in my tube long enough for it to break open! I would have been in trouble if I hadn't gone to the doctor before leaving Japan. So now we actually get to rest before leaving. As far as the pregnancy I'm okay with it. I really didn't want any more children. At first my doc just said, "You're pregnant!" as if that was that and I had a healthy baby in there. I started crying not out of joy but out of complete despair. I thought for sure I wouldn't get pregnant with an IUD in. Every time a huge thing happens in our lives I get pregnant and right before PCSing and my husband going to Iraq I get pregnant again? WTF?? So no I didn't go through a mourning period. Just relief as bad as that sounds. Now that this is almost over my concern is how am I going to keep from getting pregnant again when all contraception has failed us short of getting all of my innards scooped out.
If my doc says the cyst and ectopic pregnancy weren't caused by the IUD I will probably get the same IUD in again. What are the odds of 3 in 1000 happening twice with only one fallopian tube left?
I'm still healing - slowly but surely from my surgery on Wednesday. I wasn't gonna say what happened because it is kinda personal but it's all part of this moving experience so here it goes. For the past 7 weeks my doctors and I thought I was having a miscarriage. I got pregnant with a Mirena IUD in place. Hello! The odds of getting pregnant with an IUD in are 3 in 1000! I've had it in for three years. So my luck. My husband looks at me funny and I get pregnant. It was a shocker because I SO didn't want any more children. So anyway, a week and a half ago I went to see my doc because I had been bleeding every day for the past 6 weeks and I assumed my IUD had gone bad earlier than it should have. A blood test later revealed that I was pregnant but my hormone counts were only 130. Crazy low. I had it checked 2 days later and it was the same. She thought I had been pregnant since mid-February. I had no idea because I never had a period on this IUD.
Monday morning I was cramping real bad but because we only had one car at the time (the other was on the "lemon lot" on base for sale) I couldn't go to the hospital. I was bleeding heavily from 10:00am until noon until it pretty much stopped. My husband didn't get home until about 4:30 pm. By 5:30pm I was at the ER and had another ultrasound (my third in a week) done and a blood test. My counts had gone down to about 90 and they still couldn't see a baby in me but they found a 5cm cyst in my left ovary. The ER doc called in an OBGYN doc and she admitted me for surgery first thing the next day. The only catch is that I wouldn't be able to fly out on Friday to go back to the states. She said I technically could since it would be an outpatient procedure but I would still be in pain. So she wrote a note for my husband's command saying I needed to stay in Japan a week longer. This was done so we could get reimbursed for the extra hotel stay of over $700.
So the morning arrived. I was in pre-op talking to the anesthesiologist when I started noticing throbbing pain on my right but higher than where my uterus and ovary is. I thought I was going crazy. I almost didn't mention it to my doc when she walked in. I didn't want her to think I was being a hypochondriac due to nerves. She said, "OK I'll take a look around there," and left for the OR. I was getting laproscopic surgery on my left side for the cyst so I was a little worried about her actually getting to my right side.
So they took me to the OR and put me under with general anesthesia. When I woke up she said she got the cyst out and a "very large" ectopic pregnancy in my right fallopian tube! None of us had any idea as it didn't show up on the ultrasound and until that morning, I had no pain in that area. I'm not sure she would have looked over there if I hadn't mentioned the new pain in passing as we all thought I had miscarried. She tried to whip out pictures taken by the camera inside of me during the surgery but I was too nauseous to look at it. She said, "It's okay - it doesn't LOOK like a pregnancy," in other words, it was in the tube blown up now like a balloon - I caught that much before I turned away. I was too nauseous to look at it or the pic of the cyst. She wound up taking the entire right tube out since I didn't want any more children anyway.
So I went home at 7:30pm that same evening. Pain management in the hospital pretty much sucked the entire time and the nurses were trying to rush me out of the hospital, which pissed me off. They had originally wanted me out by 5:00pm but I was like no - I'll go when I'm good and ready. We all wound up compromising a little but I left the hospital with less-than-helpful drugs even though I told everyone it wasn't working. I'm sensitive to all narcotics - get very nauseous or can't breathe so I was prescribed ultram to take the place of the Demerol, which I was on up till then.
Today I finally gave in and called my doc to get a better prescription. She gave me percocet and zoforan for the nausea. They are working. Finally I'm in less pain and can move around more. But there you go. That's why we couldn't leave today like we had planned.
I'm fine with all that though because that baby was in my tube long enough for it to break open! I would have been in trouble if I hadn't gone to the doctor before leaving Japan. So now we actually get to rest before leaving. As far as the pregnancy I'm okay with it. I really didn't want any more children. At first my doc just said, "You're pregnant!" as if that was that and I had a healthy baby in there. I started crying not out of joy but out of complete despair. I thought for sure I wouldn't get pregnant with an IUD in. Every time a huge thing happens in our lives I get pregnant and right before PCSing and my husband going to Iraq I get pregnant again? WTF?? So no I didn't go through a mourning period. Just relief as bad as that sounds. Now that this is almost over my concern is how am I going to keep from getting pregnant again when all contraception has failed us short of getting all of my innards scooped out.
If my doc says the cyst and ectopic pregnancy weren't caused by the IUD I will probably get the same IUD in again. What are the odds of 3 in 1000 happening twice with only one fallopian tube left?
Comments
I'm glad you are ok and recuperating. Good Luck in your future endeavors back in the USA..
I hope you are recovering well...
I have a follow-up appt with my doc Thursday but I don't see any reason why she would keep me here longer. I owe her a huge thanks for her thoroughness when I see her.