Ovarian Cyst Mark 2

by Suw on January 20, 2013

After my ovarian cystectomy last August, everything seemed to be going very well indeed. I healed quite quickly, stopped aching all the time, started sleeping properly again, and soon felt incredibly energised. It made me realise how much waking several times in the night was wearing me out.

I was supposed to get another ultrasound scan in October to see whether the cyst has truly gone, but due to an administrative error, that scan didn’t end up happening until last week. The bad news is that my cyst is back, and very nearly as big as it was last time. In just five months, it’s grown to 7cm across, which is a bit too rapid for my liking.

Now before I go further, this next bit may stray into ‘too much information’ for some of you, so if you’re squeamish, don’t read on.

My consultant told me that the first operation simply drained the cyst. The hope, obviously, was that that would be enough and that it wouldn’t recur. My assumption is that draining a cyst is easier than removing it, and so that’s the first thing they try.

The cyst itself appears to have been an endometrioid or endometrial cyst, also disturbingly called a ‘chocolate cyst’. What happens is that a little bit of the lining of the uterus comes away, travels to an ovary and starts to grow. Just like it would in the uterus, it bleeds, and the cyst grows.

So rather than being full of mucous, as some cysts are, mine was full of blood. And it will continue to grow unless it is removed.

Whilst my consultant generously gave me the option to wait and see what might happen, it was pretty clear that the next step is another operation, but this time, rather than just draining the cyst, they will attempt to peel the sac itself away from the ovary. That’s likely easier said than done, not least because the photo clearly showed how the ovary had stretched as the cyst grew inside it. Contrary to what I had imagined, the cyst wasn’t a sort of balloon on the outside of the ovary, but embedded in it, which will make it a bit tricky to remove.

The weird thing is that I didn’t feel any of the pain or discomfort that I had had for the first nine months of last year… at least, not until a couple of days after the ultrasound. I don’t know if it was because the process of doing the scan poked it about a bit, if it was psychosomatic, or if the inflection point is just co-incidental.

But what I can say is that I’m now at the same stage I was around April last year with regard to symptoms, and I know it’s going to be a while before the surgery’s arranged. So, fun time ahead. At least, though, I know what to expect.

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