Lou - I can't believe you're dealing w/ the ravages of Katrina and the infections you have on top of everything else!  I really feel so badly for you.  You have been helpful - thanks so much for sharing your history w/ me.

I also have a couple of children and one of them has all sorts of medical problems.  I agree w/ you that I would rather have them myself than have him have any more.  Like your son, it seems like he has gotten much more than his share (ulcers, diarrhea, white matter lesions, autoimmune disease on and on...).  I hate feeling badly or going through surgery/recovery b/c I feel like I already can't do all I should for both my boys.  But you really have your hands full.  I guess I figured out that life isn't fair, but I cling to the belief that we all can learn and become better people through our experiences good and bad.  Best wishes to you - Maura

Ok where do i start...When i was pregnant with my daughter ,which is now five they had noticed a cyst on my left ovary during routine ultrasound ,did not remove it when i had my c section..Four months later had to have my uterus and my cervix removed due to my uterus not contracting back down after she was born..They said that the cyst was still there but due to having harmonal problems they did not remove it or the ovaries...well everything was fine until she was two and then i started having severe stomach spasms in the lower part of my stomach so i went to the doctor and they did a pelvic exam said they did not feel anything and sent me home,well not long after that i started having alot of back problems and pain with my legs which through mri on my back was diagnosed with disk deteriation disease,but nothing about female problems..But by that time i was having problems with my blood pressure..Went to charity with severe chest pains ,blood pressure sky high they put me on meds and then i just seem to not have any more problems with it.and at this time no problems with my stomach except for bloating...Now about a year ago i started having the same stomach spasms but they were worse and lasted longer and happened more frequently so i went to the emergency room and they did a ct on me and found cyst on left and ovary and they thought on left ovary..said that the attenuation was higher than water..I started having a lot of pain with my back nausia ,dizzispells ,pain in my legs ,diahreah and constipation back forth from one to the other...and was also diagnosed with IBS.Went a couple of months and had to go back to the er and had another ct and said that the cysts had grown and that they were complex with septations and had soft tissue components in them and that i had to get to a obgyn immediatly...so i finally get in to see the gyn and they did the ultrasounds in october and set surgery for removal of both ovaries and tubes..So one night i had to go back to the emergency room because the pain was to much to handle and they did my blood pressure and it was 218/117 and it ran high like that for a while even with my meds..I had severe bloating by this time ,severe swelling in my legs,heartburn indegestion and alot of throwing up..looked like i was nine months pregnant..My surgery did not get done till january the 13th and it turned out that i had a 8.8cm endometrioma on the left ovary and a paratubal cyst that was four point something cm and scar tissue that had just glued everything together...the recovery is taking a little longer than what i had expected and alot and imflamation is still set up.but other than that every thing was benign...if i left anything out just ask...oh and i urinated all through the day and night,seem like i never quit....lou

Lou - Thanks for sharing your nightmare!  Wow - you really have had a lot and a lot of pain and all with a young child to care for.  I shouldn't complain b/c I haven't really had pain this time - just all the other stuff. My BP also got extremely high (250/160!!) and my heartrate was going all over the place from 40s to 140s.  I felt like I was dying for a couple of mos there til they got me on the right meds for the BP.  You ended up having a big surgery it sounds like and I can believe the inflammation that had been going on would take awhile to calm down after a surgery like that.  I've had the bloating, but my legs haven't swollen up or anything like you describe and also the alternating diarrhea/constipation.  

You said that your recovery has been tough; I'm sorry about that.  You are probably way past being ready to feel better already.  Has anything else improved since you had the surgery (eg bloating, swelling, pain, BP, bowel problems, etc)?  Or is it too hard to tell mixed in w/ recovering?    Those were huge cysts they removed.  Did the various scans suggest how big the cysts were ahead of time or was that sort of a surprise once they got in there?  One of the scans I had had it at close to 7 cms and another earlier one had it at around 6cms.  

Thanks again for your willingness to share your experience with me.  I hope your recovery starts speeding up for you and you can get this behind you.  Best wishes

Thanks for your concerns,i hope that i have helped in some kind of way..I will just  be glad to get my body back to normal...Since hurricane katrina hit here there is so much illnesses going around that it seems like when you get over one you catch another..I know that after we had come back to see if we had anything left,we werent back not even a week and me and my daughter caught a respitory infection,hers cleared up and i caught pheumonia.But it has really  been bad since i had my surgery ,sneezing ,coughing and puking are not the best remedy for imflamation...But all will be ok..I always have something to be thankful for .I have a child with IBS ,vaso vagal sycope,vahn wilabrandts disease and tons of allergies so it kinda hits hard when he gets sick..So i would rather be sick than him..So just knowing that my kids are doing ok makes me feel a whole lot better..lou

Oh man, Fancy, you've been through the ringer!  My sister got the flu after her surgery and it's the last thing you need.  Especially you since you alreayd have inflammation; last thing you needed.  The inflammation thing is what this immunologist I spoke to was concerned about for me.  I'm going in for a pre-op today and should have those immune tests back.  It seems that in the past few years, they are realizing that there is a connection b/t inflammation and cardovascular problems.  Maybe once you are more healed and/or figure out what else is going on (since your recovery is difficult to say the least), the inflammation will die down and your BP will improve?  My heart goes out to you w/ all you've had to deal w/ and trying to do it w/ 3 young children!

I no longer have the bloating ,but when i came out of the hospital they had to put me back in for 103 fever due to that my lungs could not kick out the gases,and they thought that  i had a post op infection..And by that time i was in so much pain they did another ct to find that i had a ton of imflamation set up and still have..My blood pressure bottomed out after the surgery for about two weeks but it is back to running high just not as high...My legs are stilled swelled.I had problems with my bowels for about the first three weeks.But i have been sick since i came out of the hospital.With all kinds of viruses or something..I have 3 kids and everyone of them have been sick ,so taken it easy has truelly not been a option..But thats ok...I am ok,just having a few harmonal problems and the imflamation...Hope all of this helps..I still get the pains shooting to my groin area but they said that is due to new scare tissue growing..i go for my post op appt. in a week and we will see how things are going then...I told my husband i truely think they forgot something or messed up on something ,because that was my fifth surgery and it has never took me so long to recover and get over the pain....lou

Hi Lou - Thanks so much for offering to share your info w/ me.  I would mostly like to hear your medical history and when symptoms or things started happening in relation to one another.  MickeyVicki had mentioned that you had really high BP, which also happened to me.  I keep thinking/hoping these things are related so there is some hope of resolving all the new problems w/ the correctly targetted therapy (hopefully just surgery??.  But I don't know. I feel like I'm going around in circles.  How high did your BP get? Did you have symptoms associated w/ it?  How did you find it?  Did you have any other symptoms that started at the same time?  Did you have any lab values that were off?  I assume you had an ovarian cyst/growth - what was it if you know yet and what did you do about it and did it help any of the other things going on?  You kinda get the picture.  I have all these lab values suggesting an adrenal problem, but nothing has been found on my adrenals or renal arteries.  I have high Renin activity, high aldosterone, high normetanepharine, low potassium, borderline high plasma sodium and low urine sodium, I'm bloated and feel like I go to the bathroom 4x as much as I used to.  I've had 3 24-hr urine collections and 2 of the volumes were double of the 3rd, so it's not all my imagination.  Anything you are willing to share would be great. Thanks!