Haley's Story

I found out I was pregnant five months before my wedding.  We were still very happy.  I knew I just needed to not splurge with food in order to fit in my wedding dress!  The night before my wedding shower (at 9 weeks pregnant).  I was out of town, where the shower was taking place.  My sister and I sat down to eat supper-shrimp salad (I'll never forget that)!  All of a sudden, I felt this huge pain. I thought it was gas, so I ran to the restroom.  I got pale and sweaty.  I stripped down to being naked.  I was sopping wet with sweat,  but also clammy. I had a small bowel movement, and continuous pain. I thought I was constipated-you always hear people saying that pregnancy causes constipation.  I threw up twice. I could not find a comfortable position, and I even tried lying on the floor but every thing was hurting. My sister came and knocked on the door to check on me every now and then, but I would tell here I was okay.  That I just needed to have a bowel movement.  I really thought it would pass. Finally she came into the restroom.

My stomach was very swollen. I put on very large boxer shorts and a T-shirt and came out. I tried to drink some water but it was even painful to do that.  My sister tried to lay me down on the couch and all I could do was holler. She said that she was going to bring me to the hospital. She and my uncle had to carry me to the car. We go to the hospital- which it was very small and not at all equipped for my situation, but at the time I just thought I was very constipated. I guess I was just hoping that's all it was.

They were just awful. They couldn't do anything for me. I was transported to a much larger hospital. They were wonderful. By this time my stomach was so huge, I looked as though I was nine months pregnant.  They could not give me anything for pain because I was pregnant.  The pain was so intense. From my stomach all the way to my pubic area, I was in pain. I would have steady pain, but every couple minutes, I would have much much more striking pains. I later found out that it was my intestines contracting, because I was bleeding internally and the blood was irritating my whole stomach cavity. I lost over half of my blood volume. The worst part out of it all was that I work in a laboratory.  I'm a lab tech, so every time they would do lab work, and come back in and say my blood count I knew exactly what it meant.

And it wasn't good at all. The hospital that I was transported to had anticipated an ectopic pregnancy, and by the time I arrived the OB/GYN was there and the surgery crew was waiting for me. They did a vaginal ultrasound and took me to surgery. When I woke up in the recovery room, they were giving me blood to help replenish my blood volume. In surgery they had to remove over 1200cc of blood out of my stomach cavity-some clotted, some not. They had to cut me from one side almost to the other. I didn't lose the tube, the doctor had to cut the bad part and reattach the tube. My doctor gives me about a 30% chance of it happening again. Three weeks after surgery, I had to figure out how to walk with my back straight. I had to walk down the aisle to get married.

I think we may try later, maybe in about a year.  I hope I never have to experience that again. I would never wish that pain on anyone.