I'm slowing coming out of my anesthesia fog from my venogram. The doctor comes in and tells me, "It was worse than I thought... " He then explains some of what he's done. Something about about embolizing and coiling. I'm thinking to myself, 'Oh NO!' So I ask, "What about my renal vein?" He tells me it isn't compressed and my iliac vein looks good too. He's called away for a moment and I turn to look at mom, "What is he talking about, can you have him draw a picture?" I just keep thinking that I hope whatever he's done was the right move, because it probably can't be undone. This is a good time for us all to take a moment to wonder, "Why did Ashlee not know all the possibilities going into this?" And this is a great question. I asked myself the same thing. He said he hadn't planned on doing anything while in there and I just went with that. I didn't take time to dwell on 'What Ifs' and ask more questions about those 'What Ifs'. My lame excuse is that I'm just so tired and I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and taking it hour by hour. I just needed this venogram as part of my slew of tests. So my goal was to just get the x-rays for my OKC doctor and carry on.
The doctor has come back. Mom has a diagram already up on her phone and we ask him to explain. He said my right ovarian vein was worse than my left. But both veins were not flowing the right way. The blood is supposed to go up to my heart, but it was going toward my ovaries. My ovaries developed varicose veins around them to help contain this congestion of blood. This is what causes excess pain, especially once you ovulate and enter the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle.
Pelvic congestion can happen after pregnancy, especially multiple pregnancies. But it can also be caused by Nutcracker Syndrome or May-Thurner Syndrome. These are both types of vascular compressions. If the left iliac vein or the left renal vein are compressed it can cause pelvic congestion. This was the cause for my concern and the main reason we did the venogram was to check for these compressions. If either of those veins are compressed and then are fixed, the pelvic congestion should resolve on its own. All I know is that it's not advised to fix the PCS first if you have Nutcracker or May-Thurner. But he said those veins are fine and clearly the pelvic congestion was not great. So I'm hoping all is fine and I will just discuss it with my Oklahoma doctor.
He explains that he put in a sclerozing foam that reaches into the smaller varicose veins. This ultimately causes them to die off so blood can no longer flow there. Then he coiled the ovarian veins, which is 6-7" on each side. Honestly, sounds intense.
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| The embolization looks something like this, but on both sides. |
After my mini panic and his explanation I still have zero desire to want to move. They are working on getting all the images on a disk for us to mail to Oklahoma. I no longer trust other people to send images anywhere. It takes some time to get the disks ready, so I rest. I am given a sheet with post-embolization instructions... it's a very small list. It states no strenuous activity or lifting for 5 days, except they crossed out the 5 and wrote 2. The doctor did mention I may experience some pain and inflammation for 1-2 weeks. It was good he said that, because the sheet of paper did not.
I get myself back together, we get our disks, and off we go to the car. I immediately ask for ibuprofen and coffee. I am granted with both. We make a pitstop at the post office to overnight the disk and make our way home. Thankfully, I start coming back to life after a bit.
We will keep adding to our care calendar as we need help. It's been tricky with Ben not being able to lift Otis and me being in so much pain. The big kids help some, but Otis is very busy and needs a lot of attention. https://www.giveinkind.com/inkinds/P4E4L6L/support-the-suker-s-1
🙏🙏🙏🙏. 💕U MOM
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