The Ultrasound

I went in on Friday for my pelvic ultrasound and was excited and curious to see what had been happening inside my body since the last one back in 2007. The technician was very professional and very kind. She instructed me on how to prepare for the exam, then told me that she would let me know what she was seeing as she saw it, but that of course the final diagnosis would be up to my doctor. I was pretty excited to be able to get some information right away instead of having to wait several days for the official report. The last time I had an ultrasound, the technician was wary of revealing any information. While I understand not wanting to either give someone false hope or upset them for no good reason, I felt like I was prepared enough to handle whatever she told me.

I lay on my back and kept my eyes glued to the monitor that showed pictures of my uterus, ovaries and fallopian tubes. In truth it all just looked like black and white smudges that changed shape as the technician moved the probe, but when she pointed out my cervix and then my uterus I felt such a sense of wonder at the miracles of both modern technology and the human body. To think that I was at that moment seeing a picture of the space where one day my baby might grow. Amazing.

The technician busied herself with measuring and snapping pictures of different images but talked to me as she did so. "We'll start with your uterus and go from there. Oh that looks good. You have a nice thickness to your endometrium (lining of the uterus) that corresponds to where you are in your cycle. That black part there is just some free-floating fluid in your abdomen, and this here looks to me like a simple cyst. But this--this looks very much like an endometrioma on your left ovary and another one here."

She moved the probe around some more and took more measurements and more pictures. I watched what looked like a dotted line move across a big portion of the screen as she locked the measurements into place. Just how big were these endometriomas anyway? "Now let's look at your right ovary." She tilted the probe and began measuring again. "It looks like there's another endometrioma hanging off the side of the ovary here. I can't quite tell what this part here is--could be incorporating part of the fallopian tube too." My heart dropped when she said those words because in the last test, it had only been my left ovary that showed signs of an endometrioma; my right ovary had been unaffected as had both of my fallopian tubes.

She finished up the test by telling me that my uterus looked fine (yay!) but that I seemed to have several endometrioma-like growths affecting both my ovaries. She left the room and while I dressed, I looked at the string of photos coming out of the machine. They were the same type of photos expectant parents get after they have an ultrasound of their developing baby. Instead of showing a tiny profile or hands and feet, these photos showed tissue that should be growing inside the uterus--not outside it on my other reproductive organs. I gathered my things and met the technician in the hallway. "I'll put these photos on the doctor's desk right away and she'll contact you." I thanked her and left, going over her words in my mind. Did she see something that looked more worrisome than endometriosis? Was that concern in her face or pity? Or was I imagining there was anything there other than professional courtesy?

I should hear from the doctor sometime this week.