Surgery # ? (Coccygectomy)

I have been chasing the doctors in circles about my chronic tailbone pain, trying to get answers. Multiple times I've posted on this blog about it. Literally, a pain in the butt. Finally, we saw an amazing orthopedic specialist through Dartmouth in Lebanon, NH called Dr. Bernini who has told me I am a good candidate for a Coccygectomy or tail bone removal. He said that a normal person has a sacrum of fused bones and at the bottom a flexible coccyx of 3-5 bones, but mine is only two stiff bones very near the skin causing coccydenia (coccyx pain or tailbone pain). We asked if it was a degenerative feature because my mother ad her mother also had coccygectomys for coccydenia. He replied that only the Maharaj's in India were known to have long coccyx as a sign of royalty.

So, on October 18th I will go in for my surgery and get my tailbone cut open for the second time and go under anesthesia for the millionth time in hopes to be part of the 90% whose pain was eliminated with such surgeries. It should be a couple weeks of recovery and hopefully not a rough first few days. Deep breath, maybe I'll finally be able to horseback ride comfortably.

Ovarian Cysts

Through the ski season I felt a strong rib pain that i thought was fr4om a tumble I took at a race practice the week before. It turned out this 'rib pain' that we thought was a fracture, then pleurisy, was actually a tennis ball sized (6 cm) ovarian cyst on my right ovary. It was large enough that it led me to the ER, thinking it was appendicitis, and then shocked an ultrasound technician when we discovered it was offsetting my uterus. In early February I went in for a laparoscopic cystectomy to remove the cyst. Everything seemed alright and the GYN said my ovary should be fine. In two weeks I was cleared to do whatever I wanted and had the stitches taken out, and I returned to school the following Monday. After taking it slow for awhile i was able to go skiing and my abs started feeling 100% again. I have three small incisions, one invisible one in my bellybutton, one on my lower left side along the pant line that might be the only visible one, and one in the center on the bikini line. The surgery may have been small, but was still a surgery, and threw my whole body off. I suffered with pain for a little while, and dealt with nausea and swelling at the site of the surgery. After the two week mark I tried to return to school once but couldn't make it and instead waited until the following Monday so I had the weekend to rest. I suffered with a lot of bleeding after the actual surgery, but it went away within a week and I was only left with cramps. A month later I had the worst period cramps ever, but they were followed with 7 days of heavy bleeding and then they cleared up after that. You may be asking why mine was removed when most people's burst or are reabsorbed. Mine had plagued me with symptoms for two months, was fairly large, and keeping me from school. Therefor we decided not to take the step of waiting to see if it would reabsorb. I thought I felt multiple cysts since then, and upon returning to the GYN we decided it could have been, but since she did an ultrasound and didn't see anything more, we would keep an eye on it. An option for me would be to go on birth control because it helps reabsorb cysts and reduce how many arrive. However, birth control and antibiotics both reduce each other's effectiveness and we decided instead of throwing my body off, we would treat the Lyme and put my on a diet. A few natural things we are now going to try to keep the cysts at bay- keep my weight in the lower range of my BMI, apply progesterone cream to my inner forearms mid-cycle to assist with hormone regulation, reduce caffeine, sugars, lactose, and increase exercise. We shall see overtime how this will work.

Recovering from Surgery

Hey everyone!
I got my stitches out Tuesday, exactly 4 days ago. I was told I was a tough cookie, had high pain tolerance, and healed nice and fast! I'm still healing of course, but the stitches being out is better. The only thing is she warned me that usually she only takes a few out, and I need to be careful not to over-do it the next week so that I don't rip it back open :-0 so I'm sincerely taking it easy.its hard though when I've spent so much time inside! Wednesday I was not going to go to youth group, but the thing was, it was my 15th day not getting out (other than the doc.s) and I needed to relieve some of my cabin fever...... I miss the horses and riding, and skiing, and being outside in the fresh air and sun! I went to youth group and had a warm welcome! It was awesome! Thursday I was going to go to Concord, NH because a bill was being proposed to protect NH MD's from treating Lyme Disease. I wanted to go so bad but snow kept my ride home and therefore I was stranded with no ride and watching it on the news, seeing all the familiar faces of my NH lyme buddies on New England News! I was sure upset.... But god kept me home for a reason, because I'm glad i didn't over-do it! Friday I stayed home, and hung out. i watched Castaway, what a sad but interesting movie. I made up my own ending to it, so the real ending didn't appear as sad and depressing, but I won't spoil it for anyone... hehe.... Now today is Saturday and I'm missing my mini horse Miracle and wanting to see her so bad, so I'm going to try to convince my mom to take me down to see her for a little while. I'll have to take it very easy though.... But oh, it will feel so wonderful to get out and underneath the blue sky, and feel the cool weather touch me cheeks! Just breathing in the sunshine and fresh air will be a relief! Not including the smell of the barn, and touc of the horses! It's true, horses have healing elements! :-D

Pilonidal Cyst

Hey everyone, again...... Well Wednesday the 13th I went in for surgery. For months I have had issues with a Pilonidal Cyst. Basically, the Pilonidal glands are right above and along the tailbone. Some people have issues with these glands as they get older and grow, and the glands may become blocked and create a cyst. The cyst and glands are very painful if this happens, so with my horseback riding and different activities the only result was to remove the problem so that it won't reoccur later on. They went in, with about a 3 inch incision, and scraped out the cyst and glands. This has left me with a very painful cut, with 8 stitches, to tend to as it heals over the course of a month. Its the 6th day after the surgery right now. The 1st day afterward I got really sick from the pain med.s! The 2nd day was a little better but sore, I was finally allowed to shower and run some hot water over it. The 3rd day was yet again a little better and I was on my side the entire day. The 4th day was yet again a little better, but that night I was up throwing up pain medications. The 5th day I was tired but able to sit upright on a soft pillow, and today I am much better. I've been up walking around and sitting on a pillow all day, so its been a good and fast recovery so far! The stitches look good and are only sore. I will be able to move some more in a week or two. The surgery went well, and they did not find any infection or anything. I am on 3 antibiotics for the Lyme Disease, so the possibility of getting an infection there now is extremely slim, I should heal nice and steady!