Debbie's Story

I had a feeling I was pregnant, but my friends told me it was just PMS symptoms.  I was almost two weeks late for my period, but still I just blew it off. It  was Sunday, August 15,1999.  I had the day off work, and decided I was going to buy a new pair of running shoes.  I wanted to start exercising on Monday-I was feeling so fat!  I got my shoes, and  my fiancé and I decided to spend the day at home. As we were lying on the couch watching TV, I kept getting a very sharp pain shooting down my right leg.  I thought I might have pulled something, so I just keep stretching (trying to make it go away).  It never did.  Later that night, I began getting pain in my right side that was so bad all I could do was cry.  It wasn't comfortable to sit up or lay down. I didn't know what to do. My fiancé was out with his friends that night and I couldn't move. By the time my fiancé got home, I was in bed just crying.  At first I told him let's go to the ER, but then changed my mind because I thought it would be gone by morning. I finally got to sleep and slept for about an hour.  I got up and went to work still in a lot of pain. While I was at work, the pain started getting to the point I couldn't move I was on the floor crying, so I decided to call my doctor they told me to get in right away.  Again I thought it was nothing and it would go away so I told them if I didn't fill better tomorrow I would come in. Well about 10 minutes, later I thought I was going to die the pain was getting so bad.

I called my doctor again and got an appointment right away. My mom came and took me. When we got to the doctors office, I was just lying on the bench crying and almost yelling for my doctor. When I finally got to see him, he told me it could be kidney stones or a tubal pregnancy (which I had never heard of).  He gave me a few pain pills and sent me to the hospital for a serum pregnancy test which came up positive, so they sent me to the ER for an ultrasound. They did the ultrasound and found that my fallopian tube had ruptured. All they could see was blood everywhere! There weren't many doctors in my town that did this type of surgery, so they had to find someone.

As soon as they could, they were pushing IV tubes in my arms and telling me to put on a gown-I was going to be rushed in for emergency surgery. They got me into a patient room and had me sign all of these form saying that I might die during this surgery and that I give them permission to discard the fetus-my baby! I was a wreck.  My mom called my fiancé, dad, brother, and everyone else in my family.  They all arrived a few minutes before they rushed me into surgery. I was crying and screaming, begging my dad to let me go home.  I didn't want them to take my baby!

The nurses began giving me pain killers and sleeping aids in my IV, and the next thing I remember is waking up about three hours later in a lot of pain and with everyone in my family in my room just looking at me.  I wasn't even sure who all of these people were because I was on so many drugs for pain. The doctor then came in and showed everyone the pictures they had taken while inside of me. There were many machines hooked up to me that gave me pain medication every minute and buttons to push to make it give me more! They let me go home the next night,  only because I gave them no choice I wanted to be home!

The next few weeks I laid on the couch not allowed to do anything and so drugged up I had no clue as to what was going on. I remember taking the bandages off my three scars-three weeks after surgery.  It was awful.  It was so bloody, I almost got sick.  I kept fainting and my fiancé had to carry me to bed.  I just laid there and cried.

It has almost been one year and it hasn't gotten any easier on me emotionally. I want to have a baby, but it is so hard for me to get pregnant now. I still have one good tube but it will be a lot harder to conceive now!