Part 1: I'm sick and here's my story

It's been a hard two months. November and December this year have proven to be the most difficult months of my year, maybe even my life. For the first time in my life, I've been sick...really sick. Not like the flu or a cold, but a long-term problem. I have too many symptoms to list on here but I first started feeling symptoms around the beginning of November. Since then, I have had major fatigue (like can't move, let alone get out of bed, fatigue), sharp abdominal/pelvic pains, little to no appetite, headaches, weakness and light-headedness, and difficulty going to the bathroom (due to the abdominal pain). These are just a few of my major symptoms.

So, the first week this went on, I thought I was pregnant. I took two pregnancy tests and was convinced, even though they both said negative, that I really was pregnant.

The following week, I still thought something wasn't right and convinced myself that it must be my IUD. That week I went to my dr. and got an annual exam and removed my IUD. At that appointment, she said everything looked "normal" and said she thought the problem might be my bladder.

From that point, until I went to the ER (the first time), I thought I had a bladder infection. After I got the results back from my urine culture, indicating nothing was wrong with my bladder (and I definitely wasn't pregnant), I became really confused and frustrated. Meanwhile, my poor two-year-old was becoming used to "watching shows" and eating dinner on the couch.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, I had a couple really bad nights with a fever and extreme pain. I could feel something growing inside me, and if I'm honest, I couldn't help but think it was cancer. We went to the ER in Greensboro and frantically found a sweet college student from church to watch Sybil, bless her heart. We were at the ER for five or six hours and I was diagnosed with a hemmorhagic cyst on my right ovary. It was the size of a golf ball, filled with blood (hence, hemmorhagic) and leaking. I was told to "wait it out" because these things almost always resolve themselves, and get a follow-up ultrasound in 6-8 weeks.

I left feeling relieved it wasn't the "c" word. I was also thankful I knew what it was and that I could now take something for the pain.

I thought I was on the uphill swing.

And then, I got worse. I just kept getting more tired, more weak, more light-headed. I didn't want to eat. I didn't want coffee--my favorite beverage in the world. I couldn't cook for my family, clean my house, or barely get dressed and ready each day. I was growing so weary.

Less than a week ago, I started getting severe fevers and shaking at night (the teeth-chattering kind of shake). Of course, it happened on a weekend night so we were waiting for Monday to call my dr., because we sure as Starbucks weren't going to the ER again...or were we?

Monday morning I called my dr. and told her what was going on and got right in at 9am. I was there until 12:30 doing every test I've already done and of course just more waiting. The one thing I did learn at my dr.'s office was that my "cyst" was now an "ovarian mass". During the ultrasound, I listened to the dr.'s talk:
-"What is that?"
-"Where is the uterus? Can you even separate the uterus and the ovary and the mass?"
-"I don't know what I'm looking at here."

I'm sure you can imagine how clarifying that all was (not). So, I get out of the ultrasound room and wait another hour for someone to tell me that they think it is imperative for me to go to Chapel Hill and see a specialist...TODAY. Apparently, the main dr. said to my dr. while I was not in the room that if I was his daughter, he would want me to get this taken care of immediately and not wait one more second.

I left that place with my labs, and directions to enter the ER at Chapel Hill and ask for a specific dr. I was promised that I would not have to repeat any of the tests or labs I had just done over the past three hours.

I got in my car and broke down. In my heart, I said, "This sounds like an emergency. This is really serious. Maybe it is cancer." With tears streaming down my face, I got home and informed my husband of the "plan".

To be continued...