Betsy

For those of you who haven't heard... Betsy is the lovely cyst that decided to make a home for herself on my right ovary back in July. Here is the story. So on Saturday, July 12th, I had some pain in my lower right abdomen. Thinking that it was a kidney infection, we went to the Urgent Care, but my urine was clean. So the doctor said to come back on Monday when they could do a CT Scan to just make sure everything was ok. On Monday when we went back, the doctor said that she wanted to do an ultrasound instead, so she sent us to the hospital for that.

The guy doing my ultrasound said that there was a "mass" on my right ovary. So of course the first thing you think when you hear "mass" is, "Oh crap, I have cancer... I'm going to die." But after they had a radiologist look at it, they told me that it was a blood-filled cyst on my ovary which apparently is very common and very rarely is cancerous unless you are over 50. So they made me an appointment with an OBGYN for that Wednesday. Even though they said it was nothing to worry about, the wait to Wednesday afternoon was agonizing!

By Wednesday my pain had subsided a lot. We went to my appointment with Dr. Jacob and he said about the same thing... Don't worry, this is very common, blah, blah, blah... He informed me that it was about the size of a tennis ball which was why it caused me some pain. But he said that because the pain had mostly gone away, he was convinced it was getting smaller on its own and surgery would not be necessary. He scheduled another ultrasound for the coming Monday.

1 week from the day we found Betsy, we went for my 2nd ultrasound. This time it was maybe a centameter smaller... Dr. Jacob said that he really thought it was going to go away and that I shouldn't worry. I just didn't like the idea of it being there, so I definitely would have had him remove it right then, but he said he wouldn't let us go on our upcoming cruise if he took it out... So that convinced me to give it more time. He scheduled yet another ultrasound for 3 weeks from that day which would be 1 month from the unpleasant discovery.

When I went for that ultrasound, it had shrunk by about 3 more centameters to the size of a golf ball. It also had split into 3 small cysts which seemed to concern the lady doing the ultrasound and before Dr. Jacob looked at the pictures, he asked if I was ready for surgery. But then he looked at the pictures and compared the size to the size it was before and changed his mind. So right now we are waiting 6 weeks to do my 4th ultrasound. And we are just praying that it is gone or very significantly smaller!

The most annoying part of this whole ordeal was that Dr. Jacob told me I shouldn't run. I was training for the Top of Utah Marathon on September 20th, so I was greatly disappointed. But that's life, I guess! At my last appointment, he gave me the go ahead to run again, but by then it was too late for the marathon. Roger is still going to run the marathon because he had always wanted to do one on his own anyway. I will probably run the 5K that is the same day as the marathon... And at least I will be able to run in the Cougar Run in October. The Cougar Run was my first attempt at being a runner and this year will be my 5th year running it!

I always imagined my first ultrasound being when I am pregnant with our first child, but I guess these ultrasounds are just practice for the future. The last time we went for my ultrasound there were a few couples leaving with pictures of their little babies... I asked Roger why they don't give me pictures of my cyst. I told him we could put them on our fridge like all those couples were going to do. He didn't think I was very funny. Haha! My next appointment is on September 24th, so if you are interested, look for an update then. Oh and by the way... Sorry if this post was too much information for you. After all, I didn't force you to read it. :)