Ding Dong The Cyst is Gone!

Hooray. Simple as that. G and I went to the RE yesterday morning and, tada, all clear. A month on birth control pills (gross) was enough to convince my guest to vacate the premises.

So last night I began the injections again - 100 iu of Follistem every night for 5 days and then back to the RE to be measured again.

So let's talk about the BC pills. ugh. Let me rethink that. UGH. I could not wait to get off of those pills. While I'm sure that others who take them for more than a month experience a "leveling of symptoms" of some sort, when you are on a short-term plan they are not anywhere near pleasant. I am sure that my nurse is now screening her phone calls thanks to my constant interference in her work day. They are creating a "frequently asked questions" solely from my overly-descriptive voice mails from the past month. This list, however, will only be given to those who share my neuroses. It's hard not to panic when things just aren't as they once were in the world down under. But alas, I'm off that pill. And now I'm back onto injections. Oh, the comfort of a teensy needle puncturing my gut on a nightly basis.

Pardon the Complaint

I will, one day, chalk this up to being something I have "experienced," but for the record, a cyst is NOT a comfortable thing. I am in pain, and my hands are shaking. I'm clammy and my legs feel wobbly.

Not cool, body, NOT cool.

Well, That Explains It

We last left off when G and I were waiting that dreaded 2 weeks to find out if round 2 worked or not. Well, sadly, it did not. I find that with each "try" it deepens the blow a bit, so this time around I definitely had a bit of a breakdown... a "well, this sucks" mini-bout of tears. If I didn't care about my downstairs neighbors, I might have just thrown myself on the floor and pounded my legs and fists on the ground. But, alas, acting like a 2 year old won't get us, or my ovaries, anywhere.

I did have a powerful new side effect though - cramping. Cramping so bad that it would wake me up at night. Tossing and turning and "accidentally" bumping into G. It's lonely being awake in the middle of the night - especially when you're contemplating whether or not your ovaries are exploding and at what point you should tell the man you're sleeping next to that he may or may not wake up to a puddle of goo where you once laid in bed.

The cramping sort of subsided, or was less frequent after a few days. I believed that once I started my new cycle that I would feel better and my body just needed to cleanse itself out. Ish. Today was Day 3 of a new cycle - so it was time for my baseline ultrasound and blood work. Turns out they weren't planning on taking blood - so I went skipping past the squeeze ball and butterfly needle - an right back to half strip and spread 'em. This is usually a very short visit, they make sure my lining doesn't have any polyps and that I'm getting rid of all that unnecessary lining crowding my uterus, and to check my ovaries. As it turns out, I the tech and doctor began measuring ovaries and such, and numbers/sizes were flying around the room. I heard the words "clear cyst" and "not concerned." But then I saw the doctor begin measuring something. Click. Click. Click. Click. She then turned the screen towards me to show me at 23mm (huge on that screen) cyst of my right ovary.

Dr. B said it was nothing too concerning, but in my eyes it was the explanation of all of that pain. That little (big) 23mm booger hanging out in my ovary was screwing up my ability to walk without a limp.

So, as it turns out, they took blood in order to measure if the cyst was excreting any estrogen. Indeed, my E level was elevated, which means that we take a month off. I will be taking birth control in order to level out a bit, and then we will start again in about a month with another new cycle.

The wait sucks, but my body is alerting us that we need it. So, another month to regroup and have some stress-free fun. :)