Update- I cancelled surgery for tomorrow

For once, I am counting down the minutes until Monday arrives.  This weekend has been simply awful and emotionally draining.

I was scheduled for surgery this Monday, tomorrow, first thing in the morning to remove a mass on my ovary.  I had a second opinion scheduled at a near-ish nationally renowned teaching hospital (NNRTH) this Friday, the business day prior to surgery.  I almost cancelled it, but friends objected vociferously, and two friends drove me down.  I am so glad...  This became a total mindf*ck.  Saw the doctor at NNRTH.  She recommended cancelling at the substandard local hospital (SLH) for a number of reasons. 

First of all, the Emergency Care Unit lab report differs from what the ultrasound tech and the ECU doctor told me that night in the ECU. 

The second is the fatigue and the GI symptoms are most likely NOT related to the whatever it is on the ovary.  She has scheduled me for a GI consult.  My friend who is a doctor suspects Crohn's or IBS.  Yay?

Third, she was a bit surprised that there is a rush to surgery without having a Gyn/oncologist consult and on call to be present at the Operating Suite, and the ability to take lymph nodes and further margins that the SLH surgeon and the SLH gyn doc are not trained to do. 

Fourth- she says even the most minor of surgeries will be a long, hard recovery (because of my previous surgeries, the mesh, the adhesions, the endometriosis, etc., and she would not leave the ovary if she operates.  I am too close to 51 (the average age of menopause) and the risk is too high, potentially. 

The SLH doctor in an email communication where I emailed to communicate my understanding that he would take the ovary and he said he changed his mind and would not unless he just had to.  Wait... WHAT?  He also stated that despite my history in 2007, 2013 and 2014 of my bladder not functioning until 12 hours after the pain pump is discontinued, the foley will be pulled prior to the discontinuation of the pain pump, sorry I will have to be repeatedly straight catheterized...

The doctor at the NNRTH is requesting all records from my 2007 hysterectomy, the 2013 surgeries, and from this incident.  SLH was not interested in previous surgeries at a decent local hospital I can no longer use due to insurance.  

I called and cancelled my surgery with the doctor on Monday as I was leaving the NNRTH.  Very scary since I had to fight tooth and nail to get it scheduled in the first place.

Yeesh, what a mess.

I had a CA 125 and other blood and urine samples pulled at NNRTH before leaving town, and I have ultrasounds on the 22nd, and she is double booking to see me on the 22nd.  She has already circled in the Gyn/Oncologist on this process.  

I will keep my PCP local, use the SLH ECU if I have no other choice, but I think the bulk of my care will happen at NNRTH.  I am so done with SLH.

Then... Saturday my youngest kitty (12 years old) had the most horrible and violent grand mal seizure.  I thought she would die in my arms.  I was sobbing and felt so helpless.  She was choking, drooling, flying around, falling, peeing, slamming headfirst repeatedly into walls and furniture and screaming.  I thought I felt my heart break,  No exaggeration.  It felt like it was ripping out.  I came very close to having a breakdown.  I called my vet, no answer- they are closed.  Called another by mistake, and the connected me to the emergency vet.  Called a friend who came over and helped me get her in the carrier and drove us to the emergency vet.  They kept her 12 hours, and she did have a seizure, but they do not know why.  I came home for a while, and spent an hour napping, and an additional hour or two sobbing in bed, holding my other cat.  I was supposed to go to a party with friends, but I just could not.  I picked my sweet girl up at midnight.  She has a consult in the same adjoining state as the NNRTH this week I hope.  She is home, and doing well.  We need to get to the bottom of this.

I have not called my hoarding mother.  I just cannot.  I cannot recall feeling like this before, not even when I was divorcing in 2008 and my whole life blew apart.  

I will be fine.  Honestly, I have no choice.  Failure, or softening in any way, is not an option.  Full speed ahead.

Thank you for all your kind words and support.  It means more than I can express.  I also have the honor of having such kind people in my life.  I am simply not worthy, but I am so grateful.  The guy I am seeing has been travelling a great deal, but he has been so supportive and empathetic.  I hardly know how to react to him...

Okay.  To bed.  Tomorrow, I return to work.  I feel awful, one day I gained 8 pounds in one day, lost 9 the next.  The bloating, the GI stuff and the fatigue, and the pain from this ovary thing is not helping me stay centered, and I am not sleeping.  I have not ever really felt fragile, but I feel like I am made of cracked glass that is only holding together from pressure.  I must suck this up and get over it, now.  

Thank you for reading.  Next time will be a better one.  It has to be.  And the kicker?  I know the abusive, narcissistic, hoarding quagmire I was raised in is contributing to the struggle I have to know what I need, to ask for it, to accept it, and to treat myself gently.  And I resent it.  I resent it mightily.  And I need to get over that too. Now.  NOW.

Goodnight.