The Episode

I've been at home for a week plus now, recovering from the laparoscopic surgery to remove the endometriosis (and infection!) on 27th Mar. This is the second time that I've been warded into a hospital the minute the gyne  (first case at Pantai Hospital 7 years back, and now at Putra Hospital) did an ultra-scan on my uterus. Funny thing was, in both cases, I didn't feel I was sick. 7 years ago, Fairuza was not due for another week and I didn't feel any rush of water coming out to explain the 'lack of / decreasing amount of amniotic fluid'. But the gyne explained the risks involved and after a number of phone calls to my family and friends, I resigned to the fact that my first baby would be born via cesarean section.


This time though, I had an abnormal discharge throughout the week that didn't feel quite right. Since I've been tracking my monthly periods (we were trying to get pregnant, to no avail, obviously) I knew it was not the regular menses. It didn't look or smell like blood even though it was watery and brownish in color. No itchiness either, so that strikes out infection.  I couldn't figure it out. Went to my company's clinic and the staff nurse was kind enough to give me a referral letter to a specialist. As I thought I was making it a bigger deal than what it was, I went to see my GP after work the next day. Since she attended to me throughout my first pregnancy, she would've known what's wrong (or so I thought).  She said I was going through my ovulation period and there's nothing to be worried about; prescribed me some folic acid to get me going on the 'trying-to-conceive' plan and dismissed my case. Well, looking back, I'm glad I followed my instinct and went ahead to get myself checked at Putra the following day.  


Apparently my condition was quite bad, as indicated via the ultra-scan and c-scan. There's a lesion/cysts on the left side that was clearly indicated on the CT images.  To confirm what it was, the gyne said she would need to perform a key-hole (laparoscopy) surgery to have a visual inspection of the condition inside my abdomen / pelvic region.  This way she could see clearly what's happening to my uterus, fallopian tubes, ovaries, etc and diagnose my problems more accurately. She obviously thought my condition was so bad (even though I didn't feel any pain when she examined and poked me all over) that she admitted me into the ward right away. 


At that point, I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. I wasn't feeling any pain, I was all alone here with millions of things to take care of (Fairuza, for one - work, the other).  I just took a few hours off work to get things checked and should be on the way to Putrajaya after work for a treasure hunt stint to Penang with my closest friends!  I couldn't just drop everything off and lie in bed now??  But the gyne was adamant, asked me to deal with it via phone calls and made sure I wasn't going anywhere - she even ordered her staff to put me on a wheelchair and wheeled me into the ward (which I totally refused, coz hey lady, I could still walk here!).


Anyway, I called my hubby, who was millions (err.. okay,  maybe thousands) miles away and frantically explained the situation to him and cried over the phone coz I was shocked and didn't know what to do and needed him here pronto. Thank God he had an open ticket and able to take the last flight out of Kolkata to Singapore & KLIA the same day.  Thank God my babysitter was understanding enough to let my daughter sleep over at their place for the night. Thank God I had a spare house key stashed in my drawer at work and thus a good friend was able to bring over my overnite bag (which was already packed for the Penang trip). And lastly syukur alhamdulillah my mom and sisters made it a point to come visit me the very next day, and arrived at the hospital just before I got into surgery.  If not for me, they were definitely a comfort to my daughter, who started crying whenever I called her to explain I'm in a hospital the night before. It must've been hard for her :(  Even at this age if my mom was warded for whatever reason, I'd feel this knot in my gut and would've run to check on her right away.


So.. that's how I ended up with only one fallopian tube.  And monthly Zoladex injection until Sept'10. And hysteroscopy with salpingography scheduled for later. 


Hopefully after all these trouble, our second baby will materialize. God willing, insyaAllah.