recovery for the removal of a large ovarian cyst

[ambie84]

Hey guys,
I am new here and just wanted to talk to others that may have had similar experiences to me. I am a 26 year old female who had a laparotomy to remove a 23 pound ovarian cyst and my right ovary in August 2010. The cyst turned out to be a borderline cystic tumor and was catagorized as stage one cancer. The good news was the cancer was contained to the cyst and the cancer did not spread. The growth of the cyst took place over one and a half months.

The surgery went well, and I was discharged from the hospital in five days. I had to be off work for six weeks and take it easy. I was very tender and sore (the cyst had pushed all my organs up into my rib cage, so after my surgery it took awhile for everything to go back to the right place.

I was told I would feel tired for a long time. And I did. I am only now getting back the strength I had before surgery. My problem is that I still do not feel normal. I am still very tender and sore. My stomach and my ovary still experience pain daily. About twice a week I throw up all day. I have gone to my doctor numerous times, and he told me I am fine and just being paranoid.

I dont know if I am being paranoid or if something is still wrong. I did have an ultra sound in November, which showed nothing out of the ordinary, and have another one scheduled for May. But I just do not feel right. Is this normal?

[MarieMichele]

I don't think you should still be in pain and vomiting so many months after the surgery, even though it was an extraordinarily large cyst.  Not for a typical laparotomy.  You should be relatively back to normal after 6 months.  But I do not know of anyone that had organs displaced as much as you did.  Do you know what triggers the vomiting? Large meals? Do you have regular and normal bowel movements?  Do you have any food intolerances (gluton?)  Maybe your hormones are still adjusting to having a single ovary.  How physically active have you been?  Some things like vacuuming can be almost impossible for many months after this surgery (or will cause days of pain).  This is all just guesswork on my part.

I had a laparotomy and needed a bit more than 6 weeks to feel better (more like 10 weeks, but it really took months to be normal again).  My surgery story is in my profile.  I was 48, almost 49 at the time of my surgery.  

[Sconnie]

Hi There,

Wow that was a massive cyst.  Something that big and heavy must have really placed some weight on your internal organs, and I would imagine this would take a long time for everything to go back to normal and settle.  Its positive that your ultrasound in November showed nothing, I am very sorry to hear it was borderline, but good news it wasnt anything worse and it was all contained.  

I would seek a second opinion about the sickness, it cant be good for you to keep being sick twice a week all day since August, that must be awful.  I am not sure what this could be related too.  I am only a week past my laparotomy, I am feeling stronger each day but obviously still feel tender and sore, but I would expect by 7 months you would be feeling back to yourself.  However this maybe due to the size of the cyst and the fact it pushed all your organs out the way, it could take a long time for everything to go back into place, I am not a doctor, so I am just guessing.  I would definately go to another doctor for a second opinion.

I hope you get a resolution soon and things start to improve.  Best Wishes, Yvonne x