My Mom

So after five years my Mom finally went in for her "Annual" exam about two months ago. Her family Dr. had told her once she hit menopause she didn't need those anymore, so she didn't go. But when I was home in September she thought her uterus was dropping, so she had an appointment to see my sister's OB/GYN (who did a good job treating her for issues before, during and after her pregnancy).

Well, the good news is that her uterus is just fine :) However, he felt a growth on one of her ovaries and she had a polyp on her cervix. He also forced her to get a bone density test and a mammogram. He didn't think the polyp was anything, but said the pap would tell us more. But she needed an ultrasound to check the ovary. That was Monday. She had the bone density test on Wednesday. She got a message at home on Friday afternoon from the Dr. himself telling her to call him. Of course by the time she got the message it was too late to call. So she and Dad had to sit and worry all weekend, figuring that the pap came back bad.

Her ultrasound and mammogram were on Monday, so after the tests they went to the Dr.'s office to find out what he wanted. He happened to be standing there and he took both Mom and Dad back to his office to chat. Turns out that the bone density results came back and Mom has pre-osteoporosis. So she has to take calcium and those Sally Field drugs and do stuff to slow the progress of it, so that hopefully she won't develop full-on osteoporosis, or if she does, she'll be so old that she's not walking around anyway :) So that is a little worrisome, but not awful. We were all impressed that he took the time to talk to both of them right away about it instead of just waiting until her follow up appointment the next week.

So at her follow-up appointment, her ultrasound results were back. The growth was not a cyst, it was a "worrisome mass". She had three options: do a CT scan to double check it and to make sure it wasn't near her lymph nodes, take a blood test for ovarian cancer that her insurance wouldn't cover, or wait and see if it would go away in 6 months. They decided to do the CT scan. She had the scan on the day I got home the last time I went. The next day we got a call from the Dr. office asking her to call them back to schedule an appointment. So of course we're thinking she has cancer, it's on her lymph nodes so she'll have to go to Iowa City to get cancer treatments, and doom and gloom and midnight without moon. That was Friday. She didn't get to go in until Tuesday. The results came back showing that it was a tumorous mass of about 2 cm, but it wasn't on her lymph nodes, so the Dr. here could take care of it. They scheduled surgery to remove it for this past Wednesday.

The plan was to go in and take a look at it. If it was obviously cancer, they'd do a complete hysterectomy and go from there. If it wasn't obviously cancer, they'd remove the growth and send it away for testing. If the tests came back positive for cancer they'd do another surgery and take it all out. If not, then she's good. So of course I came home to be here for the surgery, and Dad and Carol and I hung out in the Surgi-Center all morning. I saw them off on Wednesday morning at 6:30 AM and got ready and headed out there at 7:30. Carol met them at the hospital at 7 AM. By the time I got there they had talked to the anesthesiologist and the Dr. was talking to them. He was really nice and relaxed, he wasn't thinking the surgery was going to be a big deal. He put Mom at ease for sure.

She was in surgery for 20 minutes and was back in the little recovery room by 9:30 AM. She came out of the anesthetic really well, but she was pretty loopy and very thirsty. As soon as he was done, the Dr. came in and talked to the three of us and showed us pictures. The mass was a fibroid, with a little bit of cyst-like components to it. He's confident that it's not cancer. The pathology report will show it for sure, but he's not thinking it's anything. He did have to take the ovary with it, but since she's past menopause it won't affect her much, if at all.

So I've been on Mommy-duty since. She slept most of Wednesday, and the pain pills made her sick. Yesterday she had some bleeding and soreness, but she was all about doing everything herself. Until she started hurting a little more and she laid down. She discovered that regular Tylenol worked on the pain, so that was good. Today she felt a lot better, but she did too much and now doesn't feel very well. She really thinks she'll be back at work tomorrow, but I don't think that's such a good idea. I'm going to fight with her on it. I keep trying to tell her she had a body organ removed and she needs to take it easy. She keeps insisting it was nothing, there's only a little teeny incision. So we did some research this morning but the only thing we could find on ovary removal was that your ovaries are only the size of an almond. Which convinced her more that there wasn't much to the surgery and she's being a wimp. I can't stand it. Wish me luck :)