Remember that “suspicious finding” on the CT report I mentioned that we were chasing a couple of weeks ago? The one we thought was resolved? Well…
As it turns out, that situation isn’t as resolved as one might hope. A couple of days ago, I had a blood pressure spike. This isn’t my first rodeo with that phenomenon, and given that I was having some left flank pain to go along with it, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together and get kidney stone. Now, I’m “lucky” if you will in that when I get kidney stones, they’re tiny, and they don’t cause me excruciating pain. But they do give my kidneys fits, which in turn gives my blood pressure fits, which then has to be dealt with until the storm has passed.
To that end, we visited my urologist this morning. I’d not seen him since the circus surrounding the “suspicious” ovary started, and in the course of his reading the x-ray they ran for the stone, I asked him whether or not the enlarged ovary—given that it’s sitting right next to the bladder and not over in its corner where it should be—could be contributing to the cause.
Let me say right now that if I could clone this man, I would. He’s slightly off-the-wall and is definitely an outside-the-box thinker. He’s very calm, very chatty, and he knows his stuff. So when he said yes, then asked if I had scans, I handed him the disc with my CT.
People, he’s the first doctor who has taken that disc and opened it. I’m sure of that. He’s not the first doctor who’s been given that disc. Maybe the rest of the “class” used it for a coaster. I don’t know. But they didn’t open it, else they’d have seen what he did. I’m trying to go with the “everything happens when it’s supposed to” mantra here. That’s not easy; someone else should have looked at this scan before now. Regardless, that’s neither here nor there.
What I do know is that he opened that scan, and he went through it with hubby and me. Started at the top, gets to the ovary, turns around with a puzzled look on his face, and asked “Who said this didn’t need to come out? That definitely needs to come out. Right there’s your problem.”
To be fair, it’s probably not something to worry about per se, but it is contributing—possibly to a large degree—to the problems I’ve been having. My urologist was very adamant about that. I have an appointment next week to meet with the surgeon.
T.L., you’re asking, why are you telling us all this?
Because it’s going to impact my writing schedule. I know that. I just don’t yet know how deeply or to what length. I’m not looking for sympathy, though positive thoughts would be appreciated. I just want to let you all know that there’s gonna be a little hitch in the giddy-up and why.
The surgery itself should be straightforward (please oh please), and I’ve had similar procedures before. They’re not easy necessarily, but I should do well enough with this one. I expect that for about a week, I’ll be pretty well out of it, even if I think I’m not. And that could go longer. Hopefully not, but it’s not out of the realm of possible.
This recovery might be a bit more complicated than the previous surgeries. At least, that’s what I’m thinking, because I’ll be in “instant-pause” menopause following the surgery. I don’t know what kinds of boulders or hurdles to expect from that. Hormone replacement isn’t an option, so I’ll be going the natural route. Hello, soy milk and valerian root! I’ll be off to consult Dr. Google after posting this so I can get a better idea of what to expect with regards to instant-pause.
Am I being disrespectful toward menopause by calling it that? Yeah… probably. But my sense of humor is twisted and warped. I can live with insulting menopause. After all, it’s probably going to insult me pretty thoroughly by the time we’re done.
As far as what it means for my writing, my short answer is “a delay.” Hopefully, it won’t be a lengthy delay. This problem has already played havoc with my work deadlines (two days pretty much lost this week alone), and I’m getting sick of that. So that’s a bit frustrating here, especially in the short term.
The potential good news is that this could really help eradicate a lot of the problems I’ve been having that are knocking me for a loop with regards to productivity and feeling healthy. So in the long run, this should pay off nicely. It’s just going to be a pain (literally) for the interim.
T.L.