NEVER take for granted ANY pain you feel

hi everyone! i'm back home! thank you thank you thank you again for all the texts, prayers.. especially those who visited me and actually saw me at my worst! thank you so very much!

All i can say is that NEVER take for granted ANY pain you feel...

Anyway, i'll post my sister's email for my relatives abroad of the details of what happened to
me

Hi Tita Alma, (copying Tita Bonet here)

Thanks for  your email! As you can imagine, things have
gone really out of orbit because of Anj's surgery. But
we're glad to tell you that things are doing  well as
she is recovering fast and on track. She is homebound
by today,   I think, as she already got to move her
bowels! (Kadiri ba) We are still  waiting word.

Anyway, just to give you a rundown of what happened:
 A month ago, she was complaining of pains to her left
abdomen, so she  went through a blood and urine test,
bec the suspicion is UTI. But her test  was clear and
the pain ceased, so life went on...

Then last Saturday  late evening, she was complaining
of similar pains, but she had her period  and she was
hungry, so she dismissed it as caused by either one of
the   2. She got up middle of the night to snack so she
can take meds, but she threw it up, and the pain was
increasing. So we rushed her to the ER at 5am
 Sunday. She was given blood and urine tests,
then an OB looked at her  (external and rectal).
The tests showed that she had UTI, so they didn't
 consider it as an OB case anymore.
She was given meds for the infection   and
pain, and we were sent home. She was asked to go
through an OB   ultrasound the next day just to
eliminate OB case. But her pain never
 ceased and she kept on throwing up the meds, and she hasn't eaten
since
 Sat night. She was rushed to the ER again at
6pm, then we had to pull
 strings coz the ER was taking
its sweet time deciding on her case, and
 finally she
was given an emergency ultrasound. Tita Lu was there
as
 well, and at the moment her ovaries pulled up on
the ultrasound screen,
 surgery was imminent, bec the
cyst can erupt anytime... It was a fist size
 cyst,
twisted around or so on her left ovary, and 2 more
cysts on her
 right. She was scheduled right away for
surgery that night, 10.30pm. It all
 happened so fast
and decisions had to be made, before we knew it,
 she
was sedated na and the doc was telling us na her left
ovary may have
 to be taken out, depends on how twisted
the cyst is. Then at around
 11.30pm, the doc declared
the cysts to be benign (dermoid, they called it)
 AND
EVEN SHOWED IT TO US!!! Parang chico. Good thing it
was taken out na
 bec it was really ready to burst, and
it would have been a different case
 altogether. The
operation was done at 1.30am.

So she's been in the
 hospital since then and looks
like she's going home today. Good progress
 for her
recovery, but of course, she's complaining about the
stitches
 (it's like a caesarean cut! straight down)
and gas pains, which are normal
 post-op. It so
happened that she was admitted on the 2nd year anniv
of
 TCB, we even had some promos that day, but of
course, we didn't get to do
 full blast.

More so bec of this, and bec, last week, he was
 also
thinking of going home earlier than aug 18, Acky is
due to come
 home Aug 6, this Monday! Good thing his
school duties are done last week
 pa.

Wedding preps have come to a halt but all will come up
and
 running again soon. We have a month to go! Thank
you for your prayers and
 hope Anj will recover well. I
am so thankful that it did happen fast, bec
 we didn't
have to take a long time deciding on what procedure
would be
 best for her. God has a way of making time
for things, and her surgery
 happened after all of our
weekend tasks were done and completed, all
 crucial at
that -- coffee shop anniversary, home errands and
wedding
 errands -- and we didn't have to compromise
anything. We were given time to
 take care of her very
well. Thank you again and see you soon, tita
 A!

Alexie

so there, that's the full account of what happened to me since sat night. It is painful. But as the question that always pops, yes, i can stil have children coz i still have my right ovary. I'm still on my way to full recovery here at home (which means missing the first 4 days of grad school.) but i could still hear the screams of the other women in the labor room and even delivery room where i had my surgery...

But i have done my research on this dermoid cyst and i'm just too glad that it's benign and it is a "normal" accurrance for women that even my ob-gyn also had the same case.

lola, tita bong, tita lu, tito norman, tito danny, tita ruchie, jutes, lolo toto, lola nelly, lolo manny, lola nitz, ate jess, sj, tita rachel, tita ofie, tita carol, russle, meynard, carmi, armi, tito leo, tita mabbi, vito, and the ever beloved TCB-Banawe Baristas-- thank you for all the goodies, the flowers, the cards, the balloons so i can wake up with all the colors to cheer me up!

To my beloved FAB 5As and chris, Thanks so much for taking care of me! love you guys so much!

and to those who are asking where pierre was all these time, he was always there with me. he also saw the cyst. he was there when i was rushed back to ER. He waited with my family until my surgery was over. He was there everyday when i was in the hospital. When i was allowed to get to my full diet, he cooked pasta-- dry mushroom carbonara (complete with truffle oil!).

and to all those who i failed to mention here the emails, texts and most espcially the prayers... THANK YOU!

i'll be up on my feet soon enough to meet all of you!