Angie's Story 

I just got out of the hospital almost a week ago. This would have been my seventh child and I think that people feel that since I have so many kids that I should be okay.  We are not sure how far along I was, about 5 or 6 weeks. I had been feeling funny for a long time, and I thought I was going to start my period. When I did start, it was not a normal period but that's what my doctor used to give me a due date. At that time, I had begun to cramp and bleed, and they thought I had low levels of progestrone.  They put me on a hormone to help the pregnancy continue. When I finally made it to an OB, my stomach was really bloated, I thought I had a gas problem, but I was bleeding inside. I went from the doctor's office straight to the hospital and had surgery.  They removed a big blood clot that the baby was attached to and part of my tube and lots of blood. Right now I'm not sure how to feel, sometimes I think I'll be okay and that God allows things to come into your life for a reason.  Sometimes all I can do is cry and ask, "Why?". I am so blessed that God has given me so many children and this has made me appreciate them even more. I just miss this baby.

August 1999 is where my story starts. One Sunday I was feeling nauseated. That Monday, I had to work a 24-hour shift. Monday night, I took a home pregnancy test. It read negative  (keep in mind that I was still having my monthly cycle or what I thought was a monthly cycle). Tuesday,  when I got off shift, I went to sleep for a couple of hours. When I got up I fixed something to eat. Once I finish eating, I threw it all back up. Then I started having real bad abdominal pain. I could hardly walk. So I crawled into the bedroom and laid down. I started having hot flashes-feeling like I was going to faint. I phoned a friend and told her to come and take me to the medical clinic. We got there and they told us that we had a 4-hour wait. I sat down while my friend sign me in. I was still having hot flashes, so I decided to go and get a drink of water except I didn't make it. I fainted.

The next thing I know they had me in a room with IV's and all sorts of other stuff, asking me all kind of questions. Then all the veins in my body collapsed, my blood pressure was dropped very fast.  They rushed me to the nearest ER. As soon as I got there they did emergency surgery, not knowing exactly what was wrong with me. Two hours later, I wake up finding out I had lost what could have been my first child and that my right fallopian tube ruptured. There had been internal bleeding, and my appendix was damaged and removed.

Two days later, I had to have a blood transfusion. I was sent home a couple of days later with bed rest and no work for three months. The doctor advised me not to try to conceive until six months later.