It was my second day back at work after the Thanksgiving long weekend. We had a good visit and a big turkey dinner with family at my sister's house in Shawnigan Lake and I was getting back into the work groove. Previous menstrual cycle Sep 23-29.
Starting just before noon on Oct 10th, I began to have uncomfortable squeezing twinges in my lower pelvis, and more to the left. I associated the location of the squeezing to where I thought my uterus would be, but as they became more obvious on the left, I thought maybe something was happening with an ovary or a ligament in that area.
Went to emerg, had a urine test, blood work, CT scan of my abdomen and an ultrasound of my left ovary (they couldn't locate the right on the ultrasound) and given morphine. My left ovary was found to be larger and denser than my right on the CT and the ultrasound showed that there was fluid around it. The blood flow was good but not great. No longer concerned that I might be having ovarian torsion, I was diagnosed as more likely having had a ruptured ovarian cyst and was discharged on the afternoon of the 11th.
From Oct 11th-13th I mostly rested, I still had some twinges but not as bad and overall I was sore and tired but thought it was manageable.
October 14th I tried to get back to regular activities in preparation for returning to work the next day. It went OK. Work on the 15th was tolerable, but I was still taking a fair bit of Tylenol. I made a follow-up appointment with my GP to talk about ovarian cysts and what to expect.
On Oct 16th it all became really overwhelming. The general abdominal pain, sometimes diaphragm pain, minor chest tightness, lower back pain, the fatigue. I didn't think my level of discomfort was normal so I went back to emerg. They did another urine and blood test and physically examined my abdomen, asked if I had visited any foreign countries, etc. but couldn't identify why I might be feeling this way. I was advised to follow up with my GP and try taking Advil in addition to the Tylenol as it is an anti-inflammatory.
Oct 17th I rested at home and went back to work the 18th & 19th. The 19th was a really good day; I thought maybe how I was feeling earlier in the week was just in my head or that I had worked myself up. I had my follow-up appointment with my GP that same day and he said cysts becoming a problem are unpredictable unless I start to have more regular issues with them, this could just have been a one-time thing, and it seemed I was on the mend.
That weekend I did a lot of driving errand with the kids and for groceries etc. Sitting in the car driving around for half the day did not feel good. My main complaint was the pain in my RUQ like my ribs were being pushed from inside me. Leaning the seat of the car back helped but didn't make it go away entirely. On the Sunday afternoon, I spoke on the phone with a family friend who is a urologist and he reviewed my CT scan from Oct 10th and assured me all looked good, I wasn't having gallbladder issues, the scan was very thorough and everything looked OK. He said try taking Zantac and think positive. Ate a turkey dinner at my mum's without issue. Had some spotting throughout the weekend.
Monday, Oct 22nd was a really good day, maybe the best yet. Again I thought maybe it was in my head because I had been reassured and now was feeling great. I took another Zantac and tried a magnesium supplement for muscle health and even went to the gym for a very low impact 20 mins. A stressful work issue arose Monday evening that I couldn't deal with until morning so I tried to put out of my mind. Started my menstrual cycle.
Tuesday morning (Oct 23rd) I awoke not feeling good, nauseous and sore. I worked through the morning on the aforementioned issue but by 11:30 I needed to leave, the nausea was overwhelming. I went home and rested and had intermittent but intense pains in my RUQ going all the way up to my shoulder and across to my center, although the nausea subsided. This intense nausea was a new symptom and combined with the pain I thought I should go back to the hospital. The doctor there gave me two T3s and requested an ultrasound of my gallbladder. If not my gallbladder, he said perhaps endometriosis but thought I would have had a long history of symptoms prior to Oct 10th.
Oct 24th I had the ultrasound and didn't eat anything for almost 24hrs (2:30p the 23rd to after the ultrasound at 10:30 on the 24th), I still felt nauseous but less so and thought it was because I hadn't eaten much.
Oct 25th I had off as vacation as we were supposed to go to Ucluelet for three nights. I was really nauseous and had a tight stomach in the morning, but by early afternoon we decided to try going anyways. The drive was manageable for the first half, but the second half took a lot of personal effort to get through. I was having a lot of pains, mostly in my RUQ and across to my sternum and down my flank. It was a very trying drive me, but we got to our destination at 8pm. I felt a lot better to get out of the car and straighten my body. I had a shower and took one T3 and went to bed. But by now I was becoming nauseous again. It seemed whichever way I positioned myself to sleep I was either nauseous or in pain. I got very little sleep and by 8:30am the next morning I was waking my husband up telling him we needed to leave. I was more nauseous than I'd been at any time prior, having to lay down on the cool concrete floor and taking some children's Gravol to try and help the spinning feeling. I did not vomit, however. We drove 2hrs to Nanaimo where my mother met us and drove us the rest of the way home. I called my GP to try and make an appointment to get in that day (Friday, Oct 26th). They didn't have anything that day but I made an appointment for Monday and the receptionist told me my gallbladder ultrasound had come back completely normal. I was sad and frustrated that nothing was being found on my tests while I felt awful, but I also began to feel better on the ride home. I ate a fast food burger and went home and rested. Menstrual cycle was coming to an end.
The next day Oct 27th was much the same, intensely nauseous almost all day with a lot of stomach pains primarily between my ribs far above my navel as well as along my right side. When this continued into Oct 28th and I felt like I was very weak and unable to eat or move far from besides from the couch to the bathroom (where I had by now begun to vomit), I decided to go back to the hospital for the 4th time. The triage nurse gave me Zofran which helped but when the nausea subsided the pains were more obvious. I also started having pelvic twinges on the right side. The emerg doctor basically said I was not urgent. I was hydrated, no fever, no extreme pain, no signs of appendicitis or gallbladder issues, and to follow up with my GP - maybe I should be tested for celiac; gave me a prescription for pantoprazole.
October 29th continued much the same, the afternoons were slightly better than the mornings but I was still very much unwell. My mum drove me to my GP appointment where I could barely keep my eyes open, I was immensely nauseous and shaking and having intermittent pains in my stomach. My GP said he was stumped and didn't want to refer me to the wrong specialist or request tests that wouldn' show anything, so he would refer me to the UMAC at RJH but advised I wouldn't get a call for about a week. My mum stayed overnight at our house this week so I wouldn't be alone while my husband worked his night shift.
Oct 30th & 31st were very similar. Very nauseous, dry heaving and vomiting bile, eating very little, trying to keep down fluids, trying to find positions that hurt less, had one episode of squeezing pain in my right flank. On the 31st I had an appointment with a Naturopath, who ordered an H Pylori breath test and a stool sample. I stayed in at home while the kids went trick or treating.
Nov 1st my nauseous was worse - perhaps because I got up early to drop off my stool sample and take my fasting breath test, whereas previously I had been mainly in bed until nearly noon. but again, by afternoon I was left feeling only soreness in my abdomen, most other symptoms subsided.
The same again on Nov 2nd, rough morning, but fairly manageable afternoon. Still not feeling anywhere close to normal, so I called my travel insurance to cancel a trip I had planned for Nov 9th.
November 3rd & 4th I slept until about 10am each day. I could tell when I got up earlier to use the bathroom that I felt nauseous and very tired or maybe even lightheaded, but I just went back to bed and seemed fine when I woke up again around 10am. The rest of the day (both days) I felt sore and had twinges of pain and I didn't leave the house or walk anywhere and was still not eating my normal foods but I felt significantly better than the week before. Online at MyEHealth I saw that both of my lab tests had come back negative.
Monday, November 5th feeling better still. Not feeling sick, only minimally sore. Got out of the house and went for a walk in the afternoon to the park for half an hour, that made me feel really sore in the abdomen and I had twinges of pain for the remainder of the evening. Sleeping was less comfortable than the night before. My mum didn't stay over so it was also the first night I had been solo with the kids since the 24th.
November 6th I felt less well than the 5th. Much more tired, slept off and on until 12:30. Went to school pick up for the first time in weeks, driving and walking all felt sort of painful at different times but it also felt good to get out of the house. Upon returning I needed to rest with a hot water bottle and felt better after about an hour.
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