Welcome to ehealth.

My cousin's girlfriend had one of her babies removed as it was dead when she was 5 months along with twins. Needless to say she only had the one baby after and Meena is almost 5 now and fine and the mom is fine too. A right ole' beeyatch, but fine.

I'm not sure there's anyone here who has gone through surgery while preggo but someone may pop up!

good luck!!!!

Hi Kearbear ~

I was searching the net for the exact same answer that you were when you posted this and I found your post. I haven't actually gone through the surgery yet. I go in on Tuesday July 31st. I will be starting my 20th week pregnant and I am just terrified, but I'm even more terrified that if I leave this mass in there that it is something bad. I am supposed to be having it done with the key hole procedure "laparoscopy" (not sure of the spelling) They are telling me that there is a small risk that I am going to go into premature labor if the uterus acts up. I'm praying and have reduced myself to begging God for a good outcome for me and my baby.

I was wondering how you are doing now? Any advice you could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.

April

She's actually doing well and is overdue right now but I think she might have gone into labor today.

Well, I am glad to hear that. It kind of gives me hope now. I wish her all the best. Thank you for answering.

hey. sorry i had a busy (yet uneventful) day today. no baby yet unfortunately.

I decided to post it here in case it's helpful to anyone else in a simliar situation.

OK, this is a really long story so bear with me!

I really sympathise with your situation right now. The unknowns are the scariest things to deal with. I asked every question I could come up with and read everything I could find on my situation when trying to make a decision. In the end I just had to trust the doctors and rely on prayer to get us through. I was so afraid for my baby when they told me that there was a risk of premature labour and that they wouldn't even try to save the baby at this stage of my pregnancy because it was too early. My cyst was so massive it caused me a lot of discomfort and I'm sure was not easy on the baby either. They were fairly confident about it not being cancerous because of the sheer size of it, but they still wanted to be sure and remove it intact just in case which is why we opted for laparotomy.

I don't know what else to tell you but I can tell you what my surgery was like because it may help ease your mind a little. I had gained so much weight (about 45 pounds!!) during my first 4 and a half months, I'm sure a lot of it had to do with having this massive cyst. When I went in to the surgery ward they made me change and put an IV in my hand. They gave me a heparin shot to prevent blood clots and made me drink a fizzy antacid drink. I had been on fluids the day before and fasting since midnight the night before.

I had to wait in a pre-op room while different doctors and nurses came in and introduced themselves and asked me questions. The anesthesiologist told me I would be having an epidural for pain control and general anesthesia for the operation. They said the baby would go to sleep like me but there would be no long term effects because all of the nerves/organs etc were already developed. Then an orderly rolled my bed into the operating room and he was so cheerful that I lost my composure and started to cry a little, it was going too fast. Then they moved me onto the table and a big nurse said to hug her while they put in the epidural. Nothing they did to me hurt at all. I laid down and they put an oxygen mask on my face and I was already feeling loopy from the sedative in the IV. They said, you'll start to get sleepy now, and Boom! I was in the post-op room. My throat was killing me and I couldn't swallow, they had warned me this would happen because of the breathing tube. I felt a little panicked because it felt like I was choking so I told the nurses and they swabbed my tongue with water and I felt a little better. I asked about the baby and they said the baby was fine. Then I told them I was feeling a lot of pain around my belly button so they must have increased my drugs and I felt better.

Then after about an hour they took me to my hospital room where my family were waiting. My partner fed me ice chips to make my throat feel better. I had a foley catheter so I didn't need to get up to use the bathroom. I just slept for the first while. When they finally took out the catheter and made me get up to use the washroom, it hurt a little and I couldn't pee and I got very nauseous. I threw up a lot every time I got up, but eventually, as they decreased the epidural, the nausea subsided and I was able to urinate on my own. I had to hold my stomach over the stiches whenever I coughed or threw up or got up from lying down. Going number two was a lot more difficult and I had a lot of gas pain and bloating which hurt my stitches. I had no appetite for a long time, maybe 4 or 5 days, and I hardly ate anything. I couldn't keep much down for the first few days anyway. I was only able to have a bowel movement 5 days after the surgery! I had staples (33 of them) and they hurt the most when I moved.

Getting comfortable is hard but once you're settled it's probably fine. Your incision would be a LOT smaller than mine, so you would have a lot less pain and less recovery time. Altogether, I don't regret doing it. It sounds a lot worse than it was in reality. My boyfriend stayed in the hospital room with me at night and that helped a lot. I feel wonderful now and I'm glad it's behind me. The baby is kicking me hard right now and reminding me why I did it. There was so much more room in there for it to move around. In the end there was no cancer at all but it's over and done with and now all I have to worry about is looking forward to my baby! Good luck with the procedure. I will be praying for you and your little one and for the doctors caring for you. Stay strong and be positive. Being a mother is the biggest blessing and challenge you'll ever experience!! God bless!

oops, one more thing. mine was a laparotomy which means open and invasive surgery. they had to do exploratory to make sure there was no cancer and there wasn't. also, my cyst was abnormally large, so big that i don't like to tell people. laparoscopy is a lot less invasive and is used on smaller cysts. so, just in case anything in my story scared you, your procedure will probably not be nearly as bad and your recovery time will be less. i just wanted to give you the details because i wished someone had done so for me before i went in. the not knowing really was the hardest part. ok! im done now. i'm so long winded, lol.

Hey Kaerbear ~

I just wanted to give you an update but first I wanted to thank you sooo much for telling me about your experience. It was really helpful because aside from them trying the laparoscopy and having to do the laparotomy everything that you said they did to you they did to me!

It turned out that they were unable to remove the mass by way of laparoscopy because my baby was hiding it and to not take any chance of harming the uterus, they went ahead and finished it by way of a laparotomy. I was in a lot of pain, but I'm relieved! They told me that the intial freeze showed no signs of cancer but that the final pathology test would be in in 7 -10 days, so we are waiting to hear on that. I'm being positive about that though. My baby is fine, they had to remove the ovary, so I'm a pregnant women who has/is going through menopause. They put me on progesterone for one month just as a precaution to help me maintain the pregnancy. She doesn't see any reason that there should be any ramifications from the surgery now. I was just so HAPPY when I heard them say that the baby was fine before they took me out of the operating room.

I was at an excellent hospital and if it wasn't so far away during December I would deliver there because of the atmosphere and all.

Well, onto you, I know on the 30th, there wasn't a baby yet. How about now? I think that that will drive me nuts if it happens to me. Well, I hope everything is still going great for you. I need to go lay down and rest. Let us all know when you deliver. God Bless!

April.