Life with One ovary...

Besides removing my right ovary, the surgeon also told me that my left ovary is also severely threatened by endometriotic cyst. He strongly advised for me to seek a specialist's help. The hospital arranged an appointment for me with KK hospital which is available only one month later....

My dad felt that he has enough with the government hospitals, since I only have one ovary left, we better take all the pre-cautions that we can. We asked for a recommendation for a private gynea and they gave one residing in Mt E. Hospital. One week following my first surgery, I got an appointment to see this recommended private gynea and he was such a disappointment!

He was a gynea in his fifties or so, very set in his ways, he did an ultrasound scan on my abdomen area and claimed that he did not see any cyst around my only remaining ovary. Casually, he asked what's the big commotion about, we explained to him that the surgeons in the garmen hospital saw cysts!! And they said its better to be removed surgically asap! So this uncle said he did not see anything....

Next, he asked how old am I, I told him, 22, he said, got boyfriend or not? Have. Get married and have children, then the endometriosis will go away.

True enough, a pregnancy is so far the best known method to combat endometriosis.

But for a young woman at 22, still in the middle of university? with a boyfriend of barely 1yr? It sounds to me its a sure formula for disaster! Endometriosis may be treated, but a broken family?

I protested to his ridiculous "solution" to my conditon and he casually prescribed 6 months of contraceptive pills to prevent menstration and asked me to return 6 months later for another checkup.

Imagine that I just lost an ovary due to an erupted cyst.... can I just leave the other cyst on my only remaining ovary to just contraceptive pills? And a checkup 6 month later?????

I cannot believe that even the private sector physician can be so irresponsible and so unassuring to their patients.

Thankfully, I was persuaded to seek a second opinion from another gyneacologist who came highly recommended by a personal friend.

I discussed it with my parents and we decided to go for it, we made an appointment to see him within the 3rd week from my first operation.

He could see the cyst through his ultrasound examination and with an assuring smile, he suggested an operation to remove the cyst. We could only agree with his suggestion as it sounds more effective than taking contraceptive pills for 6 months and hope that it will magically go away.

In 4 weeks I went for 2 operations, the second one was a laproscopy, key-hole surgery.

Prof Chen (my gynea), taped the operation procedure and he showed me the extensive injuries that was done by the garmen hospital, not only did they remove the cyst and my ovary, they also made a mess of my internal parts, leaving behind some of the cysts and ovarian tissues inside ME. Thankfully, Prof Chen was very skillful and was able to clean up my internal parts to prevent further issues.

I cannot imagine what can happen if we just left things as suggested by the first gynea....contraceptive pills?

Why are the first surgeons so irresponsible? They left bits and pieces of decaying flesh, cyst INside ME!

I was still confused and lost as to what am I going to do, how am I going on with my life with one ovary, does it mean that I'm going to have trouble starting a family?

Shock at 22

I was a young lady attending my 2nd year of university. My life was full of promises, surprises and I had alot of dreams. To pursue a biological sciences degree with a minor in chemistry so that my career options would be boundless and a great assurance to my parents that I will definitely do well in life.

On the 16th of Feb, after a game of bowling and lunch with some friends, I headed home for some rest as I was having some abdominal discomforts. The pain got worse even after I tried to sleep it off, that was when I knew that I have to see a doctor about it, I cannot take the pain any longer.

At my request, my mum and brother took me to a nearby government hospital and have them check me up. At the A&E, I waited for almost an hour before I was wheeled into the small clinic area for the first preliminary check up. By then, I was speechless in pain, for a person with very high threshold for pain, this pain was way ABOVE my threshold.

The nurse checked that I had no fever, no other issues besides the severe abdominal pain and I was ordered to do an X-ray. So I got onto a bed, got wheeled around to the Radiology department and got zapped. The xray came back normal, they could not determine what's the cause for the severe discomforts. So they sent me up to the ward to rest for observations. There a medical officer ie those practising doctor, who many not have actually gotton their medical certification to BE a doctor yet came up to examine me. He poke around my abdomen and it was ok for most areas except for ONE spot on the right side of the lower abdomen.

He poked two fingers down on the same spot AGAIN, this time with MORe strength, held his fingers there for two seconds and released the pressure suddenly! The pain that it incurred nearly made me leap out of the bed, I was almost folded in half!
By this time, I was in severe pain for 3hrs with no painkillers and no doctor could tell me what's wrong with me. The blood test results will take a while to return to verify if it was the famous appendicitis condition that they suspect but yet with NO fever, NO obivious signs on the xrays either. Just one spot that hurts.......

At 1am, a young surgeon came to my bedside, told me and my family that they suspect that my pain is from an inflamed appendix and they recommend to remove my appendix as a routine procedure. Feeling assured, my family left me as I got wheeled into the surgery theatre.....

I went into the theatre thinking that it was something small and insignificant, the pain was too extreme for fear to set in, in addition, after 12hrs of starvation, there was little energy in me to protest or enquire....

I remember feeling extremely COLD after the surgery and felt like the world was so weird, my stomach was turning and turning.... then the same young surgeon came to my bedside and wake me up from my semi-conscienceness to tell me that my appendix was fine!

HUH?

The next few sentences that came out of him was quite tough to understand or comprehand, bascially he told me that there was a blood cyst in my right ovary which burst and to rescue ME, he had to remove the entire right ovary!

HUH??

This guy took out my ovary! Without my permission, without having a specialist to even come down to take a look at me!

I was angry and confused but was also extremely weak and sadden by his bad news.