For those of you who haven’t heard the whole tumor story here it is:
In high school I noticed that my stomach poked out. I was really self conscious about it, but didn’t give much thought as to why it was this way. Once I graduated, I headed up to Utah State. One night my friend and I went to the grocery store to pick things up. I’d been sick all day but wanted to get out of the house. She went to pick some things up while I stayed at the front. I remember feeling really lightheaded and leaning up against a refrigerator. The next thing I knew, I was laying on the floor and my head was KILLING me. I picked myself up off the floor and walked to the checkout where Megan was heading. I sat down and said, “I think I just passed out.” She looked at me like I was crazy and kept checking out. Once I got up to leave she saw a huge scratch on my face and asked me where my wallet was. I told her I couldn’t remember. We walked back to where I was before and found it under the candy rack. She finally started to believe that something had happened. She told me to sit on a bench while she brought the car around (she’s a great friend I know). She then took me to Insta Care. While we were there the doctor was feeling my stomach and asked me if I was sexually active (I’m pretty sure he thought I was pregnant). After telling him I wasn’t he asked me how long my stomach had poked out. I told him it had been like that as long as I could remember. He ended up calling my doctor at home wanting tests to be done, including an ultrasound. My doctor said all those tests were unnecessary, but that I should go see a hernia doctor.
I went to see the hernia doctor and she told me I had an umbilical hernia. I asked her if that was why my stomach poked out and she said it wasn’t. She told me I must have formed my stomach muscles the “wrong way” and that I just needed to suck in when I was working out and it would eventually go away.
Let’s just say I did exactly what she said and it only seemed to get worse. I’d have people at work ask me if I was pregnant. Most the time I would just play along and tell people I was because I was so humiliated. I remember specifically one lady asking me if I was pregnant and when I got the guts up to tell her no, she went on and on about how I just HAD to be pregnant and asked me oh, maybe five more times if I was positive I wasn’t pregnant. Let’s just say this made me even more self-conscious about my stomach.
One day after work I told my boyfriend (Jordan) how self-conscious I was about my stomach. He asked me if I had seen a doctor about it. I went on to explain why I have little to no faith in doctors. I didn’t want to go see another doctor just to have them tell me that’s just how I was made. He suggested that I have his dad (a doctor) take a look at it, but this all went in one ear and out the other.
I didn’t start freaking out until I started googling reasons why my stomach would be poking out. All the results that popped up were terrible things that made me a little nervous, and most of them affected fertility so I decided to talk to my mom about it. She said if I felt nervous about it then she’d schedule me an appointment to see a doctor. The problem was, they couldn’t see me for another few weeks. Jordan convinced me to just go in and see his dad and let him take a look at it.
After work, I went in to see his dad feeling stupid because I was convinced it was nothing. He said he couldn’t tell if anything was wrong, but suggested that I get an ultrasound just to make sure that was the case.
A few days later, my mom and I went out to the IHC to get it done. The nurse walking us back into the room asked why I was there. I laughed and told her it was because my stomach poked out. She said she would do the ultrasound and have it sent to my doctor and if she found anything serious she’d have us meet with the radiologist. She did the ultrasound, and we thought she was finished, but she came back into the room and said, “I just need to take a few more pictures”. Lovely. After she took a few more pictures she came back and said, “We’ll just have you guys wait in this room over here and I’ll have someone come talk to you.” If you know my mom at all…she can be a worry wart. Needless to say she started wigging out, “THIS IS THE BAD NEWS ROOM!!!” I just laughed and told her everything was fine. Finally the doctor came in and told us that I had a cyst on my ovary and it was backing up my kidneys and needed to be removed ASAP. I thought this was just all so funny, but my mom did not. She got ahold of her OB/GYN (the doctor I was supposed to see weeks later) and he said he had seen the ultrasound images and wanted to see me the next day, even though it was his day off. This made me just a little nervous.
We went in to talk to him and he explained that this cyst/tumor was about the size of a football. I told him this thing was like a child to me and that I would love it if I could see her (Tina) after they took her out. He looked at me like I was crazy but promised me he would take a picture since she had to be taken to pathology afterwards. He said to remove it he’d just cut me open the same place he would to do a c-section. He also mentioned if he had it his way, he’d cut me right down the middle, but since I was young he’d do me a favor. So sweet right? We scheduled a surgery date for the end of the month, but there was some blood work that needed to be done before then to make sure this thing wasn’t cancerous.
I think through all of this I was the only one who wasn’t freaking out. Everyone else was doing enough of that for me. We got the blood results back and they were higher than normal (not good) and this made everyone even more nervous. For some reason through this whole thing I was really calm and almost relieved that this was something that could be fixed.
Finally it was the day of surgery, and again, I wasn’t nervous at all. The drugs they gave me were unbelievable! I’d go back in a heartbeat just to get that anesthesia. I remember waking up and feeling my stomach and it was FINALLY flat! It was the best feeling in the world! My family and friends were all so supportive and sweet. After they took me to my hospital room they showed me the picture of Tina and the only words I said for maybe 10 minutes was “hells yeah”, although I don’t remember much of this.
Let me tell you, it was this experience that made me fall even more in love with Jordan. He was SO sweet! He slept over at the hospital on one of those uncomfortable chairs and held my hand the whole night. He came home from Provo every day to see me. He’d fix me food, pick me up anything I wanted, made sure I was doing all my “exercises”, and made me go on walks (probably my least favorite thing). He acted the way a husband does after you’ve trained him for a good 10 years-and he’s all mine! I am ONE LUCKY GIRL!
Everyone was so sweet during my recovery. I had so many people bring me over treats, presents, books, and movies. It really was like I had a child! I’m grateful I have such sweet friends and family and I feel so blessed that everything turned out perfectly (other than the loss of one fallopian tube, but who needs two anyway?)
So happy first birthday to my adorable baby Tina!!
