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I've been carrying that!

I'd been in agony for years - but the biggest shock was learning why!


Published by: Laura Hinton
Published on: 29th November 2010

G ive me morning sickness, bald spots, flaky skin… I’d happily have taken any of those horrible symptoms during pregnancy after I found out I was having a baby.
I’m no glutton for punishment but, ever since I was 14, I’ve suffered with the most crippling period pains. For a whole week every month for nearly 10 years, I’d curl into a ball on the sofa, groaning in agony.
Of course my dad, who brought me up on his own, had taken me to the doctor loads when I was younger, but each time I was sent packing with painkillers.
‘It’s perfectly normal,’ my doctor had reassured me. ‘It just goes with being a woman, I’m afraid.’
Easy for him to say!
Now though, squeezing my partner Paul’s hand as we saw our baby for the first time at my 12-week scan, I was so excited – and for more than one reason.
‘It’s going to be like a holiday,’ I beamed. ‘No periods for nine whole months – heaven!’
Paul laughed, hugging me.
I was right about my pregnancy. Nine blissful months passed and, although I had the odd twinge in my stomach, it was nothing compared to the painful cramps.
Giving birth to our baby boy Jason was the icing on the cake.
Even when Paul, 55, went back to work as a delivery driver, I didn’t worry about being at home with him by myself. Until a month after he was born…. Putting him down for a nap, a stabbing pain shot through my stomach. ‘Ouch!’ I gasped, doubling over.
I waited for the spasm to pass. These pains usually came in waves. If I could just get to the sofa…. As I took a few steps, though, it didn’t fade – it got worse.
Within seconds, I felt as if someone had gripped my insides in a vice, squeezing them tighter and tighter. My heart pounding, I grabbed the phone and rang Paul. ‘Come… home… now,’ I wheezed, dizzy and sweating.
I managed a few more steps and collapsed on to the sofa. I could barely focus on what was going on.
The next thing I saw was the white walls of a long corridor whizzing past, and I could hear footsteps next to me. Where was I?
‘Mikalina?’ Paul’s voice drifted through the chaos. ‘Can you hear me?’
I tried to reply, but all I could do was groan.
‘You’re in the hospital,’ he explained.
‘Mikalina, can you describe the pain you’re feeling?’ a woman’s voice asked, gently. ‘Have you felt anything like this before?’
Was she joking? Even childbirth hadn’t felt this bad!
I shook my head slowly. But just the tiniest movement sent what felt like an explosion of knives through me…. The pain was unbearable.
When I woke up, I was hooked up to a drip.
‘We’ve run a few tests,’ a doctor told me. ‘You have appendicitis. We’re going to remove it. You’ll be feeling better in no time.’
Relief flooded through me. So that’s what had been bothering me all these years – my appendix? I was too exhausted to ask questions, I was grateful to finally have an answer. At least now, I could get on with living a normal life.
But, opening my eyes hours later, I knew straight away that wasn’t going to be the case. It was nothing compared to the pain I’d felt when I’d been rushed into hospital, but something was still bothering me – a dull ache that seemed to be getting worse.
‘I think I need another ultrasound scan,’ I said to a nurse. ‘I’m still in pain.’
‘It’s just the anaesthetic wearing off,’ she reassured me, walking out.
But even as I was being discharged, the throbbing ache grew worse. It was like something was trying to claw its way out of me. ‘Something’s not right,’ I wept.
 Nobody would listen, though. ‘Come on, love,’ Paul said, softly. ‘Let’s get you home.’
A few hours later, though, writhing in agony in bed, I felt like my chest was being crushed. Paul rushed me back to hospital. ‘I need a scan,’ I sobbed. ‘I’m not making this up!’
Finally, the doctor listened.
As soon as he had my results, he came back. ‘Well,’ he started awkwardly. ‘I’m afraid I have some bad news. Your scan results show you have gallstones…’
Gallstones?! Well, that wasn’t so bad, plenty of people had those.
But he carried on. ‘There’s something else, too,’ he frowned. ‘You have a dermoid ovarian cyst, the size of a grapefruit.’
‘A…what?’ I asked, baffled.
‘It’s very rare,’ he explained. ‘That’s why your doctor would never have checked for it when you suffered from bad period pains.’
‘So, how’d I get it?’ I added.
‘Most women who have this kind of cyst have had them from birth, but they’re known to grow rapidly with pregnancy hormones,’ he continued.
‘Do you mean a cyst as in… a tumour?’ I said, stunned.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘It’s not cancerous. It’s made up of abnormal cells that can form teeth, hair and bones.’
What the…?
‘It has teeth?’ I gulped.
He nodded gravely. I gripped Paul’s hand for support.
‘We’ll operate in a week and remove your gall bladder and the cyst at the same time,’ the doctor said. ‘It’ll all be over soon.’
I nodded, but the thought of this fanged thing inside me for another week turned my stomach.
While my sister Charlotte, Paul and friends  took it in turns to look after Jason, I waited anxiously.
I could barely sleep. Visions of bloody lumps of flesh with teeth and hair haunted my dreams.
I’d thought my pregnancy would be a lovely break from the pain I suffered each month. What I hadn’t known then was that I wasn’t just feeding my baby – I was feeding the monstrous cyst inside me, too.
A week later, I had a four-hour operation to remove my gall bladder and the cyst. This time, when I woke up, I knew it was over. ‘It’s gone,’ I sobbed with relief to Paul. ‘No more pain.’
‘At last,’ he smiled.
I’m just thankful to be living a normal life now. After the nightmare 10 years I’ve been through, I think I thoroughly deserve it!
Mikalina Bell, 24, Doncaster, South Yorkshire