This past weekend kind of went by in a blur – of houseguests, baking, party preparations, and pain.

Yes, pain. Remember that annoying little ovarian cyst which was diagnosed back in July? The one which I’ve scheduled surgery to remove three times since then and had to cancel all three times due to school starting and then someone always being sick?

Yeah, that cyst. Which apparently decided that the weekend of Hannah’s birthday party would be the optimal time to remind me of its existence.  Sigh. Hannah’s birthday isn’t until next weekend (the 29th) but we moved the party up so it wouldn’t interfere with everyone’s Thanksgiving weekend plans.

This particular weekend got off to a great start – I spent all day Friday straightening up the house and babyproofing (Eric is 22 months old, and I’ve realized just how UN babyproofed we’ve become now that Becca’s almost 4 years old). Mary and her two younger kids got here around 6pm – Matthew stayed at home for his first shot at getting to watch himself while Dave was working. It’s not like a house full of girlish goings-on has a lot of appeal for an almost 13-year-old boy anyway. On previous visits he usually was getting bored and then antagonizing everyone else, so I think it was a good choice. Hopefully he did ok at home by himself.

The pain started on Saturday morning, but it wasn’t too bad, so I just took it easy. We had a quiet day with the kids all playing at home – and outside, since it was a gorgeous day out, in the 60’s and sunny. In late November.  Who would’ve thunk it? 

Mary and I got Hannah’s cake baked, along with a batch of cupcakes. After dinner the pain was worse, so I took a Vicodin, which had been prescribed for the pain in July when I ended up at Urgent Care. It did help, so I was able to get through a quick shopping trip for goodie bag stuff, and staying up way, way late with Mary to decorate the cake and cupcakes.

Mary pointed out on Saturday night that I had yet to take one single picture since they’d gotten here. Which certainly isn’t like me – at all. So I quickly rectified the situation…

Mary and I made the frosting for the cake – which involved a lot of powdered sugar. And just a little bit of a mess. 

Whoops – cover your eyes, there are naked cupcakes in the house!

Tools of the trade – including a High School Musical water bottle for inspiration (one guess as to the party’s theme, lol), and caffeine to keep me awake.

After Abby’s party last spring, we had the method down for how to cover and transport the cake, thanks to several wooden chopsticks that we cut in half, and a piece of cardboard from a USPS shipping box. After this, we covered everything with tin foil until the big reveal at the party on Sunday.

The kids were all asleep during the cake decorating (thank goodness). For this trip, I put Hannah on Abby’s bottom bunk, and Becca slept on Abby’s floor, so that Mary, Emma and Eric could sleep in Hannah and Becca’s room. Emma ended up falling asleep in the recliner, however:

I’ll post pictures of the party later – I don’t have as many as I normally would since by Sunday afternoon the pain had started to overtake just about everything else. I took a Vicodin in the morning to make it through church (the girls were all singing in the choirs that morning) and then took another before the party began. I don’t know if it was the medication or the pain, but I soon started to feel nauseous and the Vicodin wasn’t hardly even touching the pain – which was getting acute. Somehow (I’m not quite sure how) I made it through the party. I know that the kids all had a good time roller skating and the cake went over very well too. By the end of the party I was a mess though.

It was then that Kristi stepped in and insisted on taking me to Urgent Care – which was by this point rather necessary. We dropped her hubby and kids off and then headed over. Thankfully Mary stepped in and was able to help Ron clean up and get everything home from the party before she had to head out for home. I am blessed to have amazing friends.

By the time Kristi and I got to Urgent Care, the pain was the worst it’s ever been. I don’t even know how to describe it except to say that after giving birth three times, one of which was with no pain medication whatsoever, this was the most pain I’d ever had in my life. Period. It was a stabbing, sharp pain in my left side that never let up, unlike contractions where you at least get a break for a few minutes in between the pains. Ugh, I know my dignity was completely gone when I couldn’t find a single comfortable way to sit, lie down or stand as I was checked in and evaluated. Thankfully they got anti-nausea drugs and pain meds into an IV for me fairly quickly. Even then, it took several doses before I could relax.

After a repeat ultrasound to check on the cyst and then a CT scan as well, I was sent home with a couple of different pain meds (Darvoset this time instead of Vicodin, since I didn’t know if that’s what made me nauseous) and instructions to call the gynecological oncologist that I saw about the cyst before FIRST THING the next day. They told me that the radiologist determined that the cyst has grown 2 cm since the ultrasound that was done in July – which wasn’t exactly reassuring.

I have to say that it takes a good friend to give up her Sunday night to drive you to Urgent Care, change puke buckets while you’re there, sit with you for hours while they do tests and get drugs into you, then drive you to the 24-hour pharmacy (across town) to fill prescriptions before taking you home – stopping twice along the way so you can throw up at the side of the road. Nope, not my best moment, but I was so thankful (and still am) that Kristi was there so Ron could stay home with the girls. They were asleep when I got home, but I know that Hannah had a fun evening playing with her birthday presents instead of having to get dragged with me to Urgent Care – which makes me one happy mommy.

So far today the pain hasn’t returned, although I’m still feeling a bit woozy from all the pain meds I got last night. I slept all night and then dozed off for a while after getting Abby and Hannah off to school this morning. Becca’s preschool is on break all week for Thanksgiving, so I didn’t have to take her there, which helped too. We’re having a low-key day of tv watching and playing on the computer – but that’s ok when it’s necessary. And today it is.

I have an appointment with the doctor next Monday afternoon and we’ll look into getting surgery scheduled, hopefully before the holidays. The doctor isn’t as concerned about the cyst as the PA at Urgent Care seemed to be – but this is what he does for a living, so I guess I trust his opinion more. He’s seen the test results and doesn’t feel that the cyst is malignant at all (which is a relief), but obviously it needs to go so that the pain won’t come back. I have no idea why I went from July until now with no pain whatsoever, or what triggered it to start again on Saturday. But at this point, I just know that I never want to experience what I did yesterday again, so I’ll do whatever I need to to get rid of the cyst.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to explain why I was offline all weekend. Hopefully I’ll know more after next Monday’s appointment – I’ll keep you all updated after that.