I WILL be ok!

This is a statement of faith more than anything that I WILL be ok! Today I'm gonna share what is currently going on with my health (aside from the anxiety and depression). There aren't a whole lot of people that know what I've been dealing with and in all honesty my only real reason for sharing it here is just to ask for prayers....prayers for my nerves, prayers for my family's nerves and prayers for a successful surgery and recovery.

About two years ago I got a UTI, simple enough....except I thought it was kidney stones and was trying to ride out the pain til they passed. Finally my mom urged me to test for a UTI since it had been a couple weeks and the pain in my kidneys wasn't getting better....sure enough it was a BAD UTI turned kidney infection. I got on some antibiotics via a telehealth provider and started feeling better after several days, one day off the antibiotics and my symptoms returned. I decided to find a dr to go into this time. They put me on new antibiotics and cultured my urine, the culture showed an uncommon strain of e.coli but the dr said the meds I was on should do the trick....they did not. After about 4 rounds of antibiotics and the longest 2 months ever I was finally infection free. During this ordeal, however, my doctor sent me in for a CT scan of my abdomen to make sure nothing else was going on that could be causing the persistent UTI's. Well during that scan they found a 7 cm dermoid cyst on my right ovary a dermoid cyst (also known as a mature cystic teratoma) are almost always benign and they contain tissue such as hair, skin or teeth. Unlike a normal ovarian cyst these do not go away and they continue to grow. It's usually recommended that they be removed once they are bigger than 5 - 6 cm. I was referred to a gynecologist and after doing a transvaginal ultrasound it was recommended that I have it removed. We got surgery scheduled and then found out the surgery was gonna be about $15,000 (we did not have insurance at the time) and it all had to be paid up front, they did not do payments. So we had to make the decision to just put it off.

Fast forward a year and my doctor recommended I have another ultrasound done to check in on the cyst. It grew, it was now 8 cm in size. My doctor highly recommended getting it removed. I knew that wasn't happening because we still had no insurance and still didn't have $15,000! We were also planning a big move from Texas to Arkansas within the next several weeks so again we made the decision to put it off.

We got moved to Arkansas and I found a GREAT job and low and behold that job has incredible insurance! I knew I wanted to get fully established in my job before I went to see a gynecologist here. I finally felt it was time and made an appointment to see one. The first one I seen did another ultrasound and the cyst has now grown to 9 cm (about the size of a grapefruit). This doctor immediately suggested a hysterectomy (solely based on me having mentioned that my periods are painful and pretty heavy), she told me it was my decision though so I left there and started researching and decided that I did not want to go that route. I wanted to have the cyst removed and see if that helped my bad periods. I told the Dr. that and she tried to push me to have the hysterectomy anyways. I told her I would like to get a second opinion.

At this point I sought out my old gynecologist that delivered Eden. I'm not sure why I had not gone to him in the first place honestly. He told me it wasn't totally misplaced for her to have suggested a hysterectomy but he said there are other options for my periods and that if we do the cyst removal and my periods do not improve then we can discuss those options. I immediately felt at ease and knew I was in the right place.

He got my surgery on the schedule that day. So next week on September 18th I will go in for surgery. Because the cyst is so large they will also be removing my right ovary along with it. The surgery itself will be laparoscopic, but they will have to make a larger incision along my c-section scar in order to remove it all because of the size. If everything goes to plan then I should hopefully be home the same day and will only be out of work for a week.

I have had a lot of issues that could potentially have been caused by this cyst so my hope and prayer is that I will get a great deal of relief from this surgery.

So now that you have the full picture of what's happening and have probably more information than you wanted about me I would love if you would join me in praying intentionally and specifically for these things.

1. PEACE.....I have anxiety anyways even when things seem normal. When there is anything happening out of the norm it sends my anxiety through the roof. So prayers for peace in my heart would be so much appreciated.

2. NO COMPLICATIONS....Of course with any surgery there are potential complications. Prayers for a super smooth surgery with zero complications would be wonderful.

3. BEST CASE SCENARIO.....Because of the size of the cyst they have to make a larger incision along my c-section scar, he did say if there was a lot of scar tissue then they might have to open up the entire c-section scar for removal. This would me a longer recovery time, keeping me off work for about 2 weeks. This is not ideal as I only have one week of sick time remaining this year and that would put me out of work for a week with no pay. So prayers that there would be minimal scar tissue and that they would be able to make the smallest incision possible.

4. STEADY HANDS AND A CLEAR MIND.....Although I trust my gynecologist greatly, he is still a human and subject to human things. Prayers that his mind would be clear and free of any possible distractions and that his hands would be steady.

5. FAST RECOVERY.....We are looking at a week off work recovering but my doctor said best case scenario I could potentially go back to work the Monday after my surgery. Prayers that this would be the case!

6. MY FAMILY......whether they have voiced it or not I'm sure there are nerves and worries from my family. Peace in their hearts is another prayer I have.

7. PROVISION.....Although I do have insurance now, there will be my portion that I will have to pay. I have no clue how much that will be. Prayers that the amount will be minimal and that the finances will be there to pay whatever the cost may be.

8. OUTCOME....My ultimate prayer request is that the outcome of this surgery be one that gives me more relief than I even thought was possible and that it solves a lot of the issues I deal with on a regular basis!!!!

If you made it this far, THANK YOU. Thank you for caring about me enough to read through my personal/medical junk! You may know more about me than you previously did, maybe more than you wanted to know, but that's me, I'm an oversharer! I appreciate prayers more than you know and the more prayers I have the better! I may or may not share again before my surgery but I will for sure be sharing after my surgery! Until then!