That Cyster Girl

    I struggle with many things from bullying to hardships I dealt with when I was younger. No one told me that when I got older I would have to face something that would take every ounce of faith I have to endure this battle. When I was 13 I started my journey to puberty, at that time everything seemed so normal. When I turned 15, I started skipping my cycle for months at a time or I  would have two periods in one month. My cycles became painful and unbearable, I couldn’t keep track of when my cycles would start or end. I couldn’t live as a normal teenager, between gaining weight and losing or growing hair on my chin, the acne that scared my face. When I turned 19, I ended up finding the my love of my life, but around the same time I discovered there was a cyst on my right ovary. At the time of this discovery, I was also taking birth control to ” help regulate my cycle”. My doctor told me to come back in a year to check the progress of the cyst. But little did I know, this cyst was going to change my world. As the months past the pain became very intense and hindered me from working. I stop taking birth control, because I felt it was linked to some of my complications and at the time my husband and I were trying to conceive a child. For months, I failed to conceive and we figure it was because of the cyst that had enlarged and was throwing off my ovulation. Little did we know, our little one was growing inside. A month passed and I found out I was pregnant! We followed up with an OB doctor for a confirmation, and that’s when we were hit with the sad news. According to the OB doctors, it looked like I was miscarrying because they didn’t see the second gestational sac. It broke my heart to walk away knowing I have fail again. My doctor told me to come back next week for a follow up… even though I didn’t want to.. I agreed. So that  following week, it was there! The second sac! I was overly filled with joy to know that our little one was there.

  A month into my pregnancy, I woke with blood in my underwear and my husband and I raced to the ER. As I was going through exams and ultrasounds, the doctors concluded that the baby was fine. But the big concern was that my cyst was causing the bleeding and they were fearing that if it wasn’t removed in a timely matter I would lose my ovary. The OB doctors gave my husband and I two options. 1. remove the cyst now and the possibility of losing the baby or 2. wait until my second trimester where the baby had a higher chance of living to remove the cyst. After a long debate, my husband and I went with option 1. After my surgery we learned that our little one was doing great and that the surgery was successful. When I reached 19 weeks and 6 days, I started going through contractions and once again we went to the ER. The OB doctors did their exams and it turned out I had a shorting cervix.  Still to this day they can’t tell why or how this happened. This declared me as a high risk. From there everything was a emotional roller coaster. Endless doctor visits, endless exams and ultrasounds until I was 25 weeks and some change. Everything was going well, until the doctor was doing his routine exam and found that I had delicate to 1 cm. From there I went into labor and delivery where the progression of my dilation went from 1 to 4 cm just in the matter of minutes. I was prep and ready for delivery, I prayed and prayed that our little one would stay inside just a little longer. The OB doctors jumped into action to stop my labor and by the grace of God it stopped, that still didn’t mean I was out of the water just yet. I stayed on bed rest for about a week before they moved me to the postpartum  ward. I stayed there for 3 more weeks before I could go home.Finally after all  the mishaps, I finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl at 38weeks. despite all odds, our family was blessed.

After having our baby girl, my cycles went back to normal  for a few months. Then, I notice my cycle started acting up and I was gaining weight at an alarming rate. In the summer of 2016 I went to the ER for bleeding nonstop for over a month after the ER visit, I was prescribed birth control to stop it. That’s when I was diagnosed with PCOS by one of the OB doctors. As the months went on, I started skipping cycles. When I did have my cycles I would bleed for long periods of time. In  February 2017 my old primary care provider agreed with the OB that this indeed was PCOS. From there I was prescribed metformin ( diabetes insulin) for couple of weeks and then my cycle started and didn’t stop. I went to the ER in April and was sent home to follow up with my primary care provider. My primary care provider once again gave me birth control, which stopped my cycle for only a week and then it started again that following week. A few weeks later, I went to the ER, because I passing large blood clots and pain that was out of this world. Once again, I was sent home and here I am almost three weeks in on this cycle, with no game plan. I hope that, by seeing a new primary care provider this will be the start of better care and the development a plan to deal with this condition. At this point I am fearing for my life and my future if I don’t get the proper care… to be continued.