Surgery Pictures

I received the pictures from the surgery I had back in May. If you're interested in seeing what endometriosis can do then take a look.

To start, you'll need to see what a normal ovary, fallopian tube, and uterus look like. This first picture shows the norm and was obtained from www.dallasivf.com.

As you can see, most of the tissue is a healthy pink. It's not zoomed in but you can see the veining as well. The ovaries are white to light gray in color.

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Below you'll see the pictures from my surgery. I'll do my best to explain what you are looking at in each picture.

1. Right ovary & fallopian tube. 

The tube is going right down the center and has some fat (yellow) running along it.On the bottom right of the picture you can see a dark circle. That is my right ovary.

For the most part, the right side is alright. Endometriosis on this side is fairly microscopic, or at the very least you'd have to zoom in to see any.

2. Left Side

In this picture all you can see is a bunch of tissue attached to everything. This is an excellent picture of the adhesions and scar tissue that form as a result of endometriosis. Endometriosis causes ovarian cysts and fallopian tube blockages which can result in engorgement and eventual rupture. When the engorgement happens, the organs get so large that they touch everything from the uterus to the bowels. After some time, adhesions form connecting them together. When the body finally addresses the engorgement, either on its own or via medication, the swelling goes down. As this happens, the adhesions stretch, tear, and try to heal. This inevitably causes more adhesions and scar tissue to form. Now, sometimes the ovarian cysts will rupture. This causes even more scar tissue and adhesions. On top of that, the body now has to absorb the contents of the cyst throughout the entire abdominal-pelvic cavity.

3. Left Side (After laser removal of adhesions.)

She wasn't done removing all the adhesions when this picture was taken. You can now see the ovary on the right. It looks white with blue-purple like tones. The remainder of the fallopian tube is also there.

She did successfully remove just about everything you can see in that picture. She removed the adhesions, the left ovary, and the remainder of the left tube. Unfortunately, she did not get a picture of what it looked like after total removal.

4. Bowels connected to the back side of the uterus.

In this picture you can see long strands of adhesions connecting the uterus to the cavity wall as well as connecting the bowels to the uterus.

The yellow is fat. I honestly had no idea how much fat we had surrounding our organs but it's normal.

She was able to remove all of these adhesions and free up the uterus and bowels.

5. Uterine Fibroid

The little darker pink bump in the picture is a uterine fibroid. It's a benign non-cancerous growth on the outside of my uterus. They've been watching this one for a while via transvaginal ultrasound and it has not grown much in the past couple of years. So, she left it alone. She felt that removing it would cause extra scar tissue that I definitely don't need. Basically, it isn't doing any harm so she left it alone. The picture is just for documentation and for my next doctors records as I'll be moving within the next year.

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She took several other pictures but those are the ones she made sure to explain to me as they showed the most concerning my condition. 

Thank you all for praying for me during the surgery, prior to the surgery, and continuing to pray for me. This has been a rough rode for both me and my husband. 

I'd love to say I'll never have another surgery but Dr. Brickman has already told me I'll need another in a couple of years. She still recommends a total hysterectomy but isn't pressing the issue because I am so young. I'm fortunate she was able to clean me out and not take away what fertility I still have left.

I continue to put this situation/condition in God's hands and rely on Him for the strength get through it. He has a plan even though it isn't clear to me yet. Whatever His plan is will surely be better than anything I could imagine. 

Side Note: My final semester in nursing school started this week. I've gotten my schedule and it is going to be a busy semester. Please pray for focus, energy, increased memory, and peace.