It really DOES have teeth and hair

From Wikipedia:

A dermoid cyst is a cystic teratoma that contains developmentally mature skin complete with hair follicles and sweat glands, sometimes luxuriant clumps of long hair, and often pockets of sebum, blood, fat, bone, nails, teeth, eyes, cartilage, and thyroid tissue.

Why am I boring you with the definition of a dermoid cyst? Well, because I found out Friday that I have one of these fabulous things growing inside of me, attached to my left ovary.

I went to the gynecologist last Tuesday, just for a regular annual check-up deal. The doctor thought my uterus felt enlarged, so she sent me Thursday for an ultrasound... to check for uterine fibroids, which are fairly common and not nearly as scary as this dermoid cyst thingamabob.

So, ultrasound was Thursday. Friday morning, my doctor called to tell me the good news and the not-so-good news. The good news is that they found no fibroids... in fact, my uterus is "beautiful." Oh yay. She's guessing it felt enlarged just because the wall is probably a tad muscular from carrying two babies. Groovy.

The not-so-good news is that she was shocked to see a "huge" ovarian cyst... a dermoid cyst, complete with hair and teeth (seriously, Google it if you don't believe me... my dad didn't believe me... but, they're hideous and scary and just... yuck). Mine is measuring over 8cm (the doc tells me that's bigger than a tennis ball), and it needs to come out (along with my entire left ovary) ASAP. The one good thing about this cyst---they are almost always benign. There's only a 1% chance that it will be malignant, so hopefully we won't have to worry about the big C word. That's probably the only reason I'm not completely out of my mind freaking out right now!

So, I'm checking into the hospital this Friday morning (4 days from now!) to have a pretty major surgery. My incision will go across my belly, similar to a c-section incision. See, all these years I thought I was sooooo lucky that I never had to have a c-section and get cut open. But now I will get to experience that anyway. Oh goody!

The worst part is that I have lots of deadlines coming up for work in the next month. And, well, it's just not gonna happen. The doctor says I won't feel like working for at least 2-3 weeks; if I worked outside of the home, she wouldn't let me go back for 4-6 weeks.

So I'm currently trying to get in touch with work people, delivering my bad news, and waiting to see how they want me to proceed with their projects.

Tomorrow morning, I go to the hospital for pre-admission testing and lots o' bloodwork.

Today, I'm trying not to worry too much... I'm trying to be thankful that we found the cyst before it ruptured and caused real harm... I'm trying to line up family and friends to help out with the kids/dogs/housework/etc. for the next few weeks... and I'm picking up my daughter and giving her huge hugs while I still can!