Jennifer's Story

I would like to share my experience w/ ectopic pregnancy with you.  In December of 1997, I was late for my period. I was very happy since we had tried for the first time to concieve and being late was a good sign. I took an HPT which was negative, so I ruled out being pregnant and waited for my period to come. A few days later, I took another HPT and it was a very faint positive. I called my OB and went in to be checked out. He got a positive and did an exam on me and declared me pregnant. I began to spot that night. I was put on bed rest and went in for a beta two days later. The first beta was 59 and the second a few days later was only 67, and by now the bleeding was heavy.  The OB thought I was having a miscarriage, and decided to do a D&C.  One more beta was done and it was in the 70's-so I had the D&C. The OB did another beta following surgery and the beta went up to 111! Now he was confused, and  suggested I have a lap done so he could really take a good look, because the scans showed nothing in the tubes! He did the lap and nothing was seen in the tubes.

Now the OB says, let's wait and do more bloodwork.  The HCG level continued to creep.  Finally, we know it is somewhere, but not in the uterus.  So, he introduces methotrexate to us and we take it. It was our only hope to save my tube, and not have surgery.  It made my beta go down over time, but after a week or two, the pain was worse. It would come and go, but it was a very severe pain. I called the OB several times about this and each time he'd have me come in for another beta and always it was lower then the one before, so he said take Advil and rest.

One night, the pain was unbearable and it lasted a long time.  I was at a friends house and she insisted I go to ER. She called by husband and drove me to the hospital. There I saw a doctor who said my beta was only 100 and that it was not the ectopic causing the pain.  He told me to see my OB on Monday (it was Saturday).  My husband carried me out of the hospital as I cried in agony and frustration that the doctor did nothing!  I was bleeding and wanted to die from the pain. I went home and waited for Monday morning.

When I saw my OB, he said it could be my gallbladder and sent me to the hospital to see a general surgeon. He did CT, but they couldn't see anything on it, it wasn't clear. He scheduled surgery for the next morning and I spent the night there. My OB said he would sit in on the surgery for me. God thing, because when they went in with the lap, blood squirted out heavily and they knew this was bad. I had an emergency salpingectomy and they removed the ruptured tube and 400cc's of blood.