ER

Today was no fun. Around 3 o'clock this morning, I got a sharp pain in my side. I took some Tylenol and applied a hot pack, but nothing helped. The pain got worse very quickly and since it was on the same side as the cyst they found on my ovary, I knew not to wait around. I woke Dan up and we headed to the ER with Joey in tow.

The pain got worse and didn't stop. I told Dan and several people in the ER that I preferred labor contractions to this pain, that's how bad it was. Thankfully, Dan knew some of the nurses who were working and because of that (and because we had the baby and they wanted to hold him) we got through triage and back to a room faster. Unfortunately, arrived during change of shift for the doctors and had to wait a while before our doc came back. At first, they gave me medication they knew was safe for breastfeeding and it did nothing for the pain. I hurt so much that I said I didn't care if I had to give him formula for a few hours, just please make the pain stop. The second medication they gave me worked much better and once the pain was under control, they sent me over to ultrasound to see if the cyst had ruptured.

The girl from ultrasound who came and got me was very nice and friendly. We talked about Joey and babies in general, I was in a much better mood since the pain was being managed. After we were done with the ultrasound she brought me back down and we waited for the radiologist to read the results and send them to the doctor. In the mean time, I needed another dose of medication and Joey had finally woken up and was hungry. The whole time he had been sleeping (which was awesome) so we knew when he woke up he'd be starving. I pushed the call button and asked for some formula and a bottle which someone brought along a few minutes later. While I disliked that we weren't prepared enough to have had bottled breastmilk to give him (I hadn't started pumping because we didn't anticipate needing a stash this soon), I was happy that he not only drank the formula but later had no problems latching on when I could feed him again. I was also happy that Dan got a chance to feed him.

The doc came back with the news that not only had my cyst not ruptured (I do not want to feel a rupture if that pain was a non-rupture) but it was also considerably larger than when it had last been measured. When they found it, the cyst measured 10cm, now it was measuring 17cm! They wanted to talk to my OB and discuss what to do about it, with cysts that large the biggest risk is torsion--or having the cyst twist on the ovary and cut off blood supply. At this point, it was later in the morning (around 7:30 or so) and we called my mom to come sit with us and possibly take Joey home if it looked like we'd be staying much longer or if they were going to admit me. It was also nice having her come sit with us to give Dan's arms a rest, we don't have a bucket car seat for Joey, so Dan had been holding him the entire time.

Finally, after talking with the on-call OB from my practice, and consulting with the OB from their department, the doc came back with a plan. They would release me under the instructions to be seen as soon as possible in my OB's office on Monday. I had been given prescriptions for pain meds after Joey's delivery and they said that I should go ahead and fill those and take them every four hours to keep the pain at bay. I got a dose before I left the ER to get it in my system in the meantime and we headed home. The day time nurse that we had was awesome because she was more up on medications and breastfeeding than the previous nurse and even the doctor had been. She even called up to their OB department to confirm what she knew. Turns out not only the medication they had given me in the ER was safe to breastfeed on, but also the medications they were sending me home with were also safe (they also found out I have a UTI and sent me home with antibiotics)

The medication that they had given me, both for pain in the hospital and the meds from the prescription, made me incredibly sleepy--although I'm sure being awake since 3am also had something to do with it. We got home and I crawled into bed. My mom was awesome and went to pick up the prescriptions and Dan sat on the couch with Joey until he got hungry. The only times I was awake/out of bed was to use the bathroom, take my next dose, or feed Joey. Other than that, my entire Saturday was spent in bed asleep.

(Jump to Part IV of The Mega Cyst Saga)