Stacie's Story
itsnevs2
My husband and I decided it was time for baby # 3. We decided when the time was right to conceive. The first day of my missed period I did a pregnancy test and it showed negative. So immediately I gave into to the fact we would try again the next month. That night I noticed some spotting and figured it was the onset of my period. The next day AF did not come into full effect, so I sent my husband out to get a test. I swear I saw a faint, faint positive. My husband would say otherwise. I still was feeling unusual and made him get two more tests the next morning. Sure enough! they were positive. Two days after my expected period. With my other two boys I should up positive exactly on the missed day.  Well, a week later I felt some irregular cramping. I asked my OB and he said to rest that night and come in for an U/S the next day. The day one of the Doctors' in the group performed an U/S. I use to be an infertility nurse and I can read a Physicians face when something isn't right. I noticed there wasn't an image of a embryo on the screen. I asked him why. He said its probably too early. At 6 weeks and no Sac nothing? He said he would run two BHCG levels and a Progesterone and would see me the following week for an U/S. The level came back at 7,000. The nurse said it was normal. I was skeptical she said nothing shows up until reaches 7,000 or higher. She wasn't making sense. So the second level came back at 13,000 and the P4 was 19. So the Doctor on call said it was normal. I was still skeptical but the doctor treated me as if I was overreacting. Fine.  So maybe I was...

The following Wednesday I had just finished my breakfast with my kids. I went to go to the bathroom upstairs when suddenly I felt a horrible pain in my pelvis. I kept having the sensation of having to urinate. My bowels were hurting too. It was painful where I couldn't straighten up. So I laid down for 15 minutes dozing off and deciding It wasn't going away. I called my husband and asked him to take me to the hospital. He rushed right home and took me to the closest hospital. The hospital where my OB's reside was too far.

When we arrived the ER attendants were slow. It took them 20 minutes to put me in a bed. Then they performed an ultrasound. It wasn't a bladder infection. My husband and I knew exactly what it could be just by exchanging looks.

They decided to catheterize me (extremely painful) and take me to Ultrasound. I kept throwing up on the way there and during. The first thing the U/S tech told me was there was no Embryo in the uterus. I could tell by the look on his face it wasn't good. I was vomiting so much we had to quit and go back to the ER. The ER Physician came in and told me I had an ectopic. Never in a million years would I have thought I would go through this. I asked if it was too late for Methotrexate and she said yes. Surgery? I never had surgery I was terrified. Of course my husband who is always the calm one during the medical emergencies is a little thrown off by this. So I cried. Cried out of fear, cried for my lost baby and cried for the tube I was going to lose. My world came crashing down. Little did I know!

I suddenly felt like throwing up again. My husband handed me the little kidney shaped dish and stood next to me. I felt myself become so flush then I could feel the blood draining out of my face but it was painful then blurry. Next thing I was being wheeled down the corridor with five nurses over me tearing open my gown and hooking me up to EKG leads. Someone slipped an oxygen mask on my face and I heard my husband say "she's turning blue." Another nurse yelled "get the crash cart." I didn't realize it but I stopped breathing and I blacked out my husband later told me. I almost crashed right in his arms. He finally had to grab a nurse by the back of her neck to get her attention. After the transfer to the trauma curtain they tried to draw blood for a Type and cross match. It took three nurses a phlebotomist to get blood out of me. They tried all my arms and my feet. They finally had to tap into my IV. The OB surgeon came in along with the anesthesiologist. Two great people who noticed how terrified I was.

They transferred me to the OR. I left a teary husband at the door and I was transferred to another bed. The Doctor tried making conversation to ease my tension. Then the anesthesiologist injected my line and I was asleep. I woke up with no pain but very nauseus. I didn't even realize they performed the surgery.

I met my husband in recovery and he was mortified by then. I never felt so helpless and weak at that moment. He told me the Doctor came to him after surgery and demanded to see my medical records. She said I suffered a right side rupture. I had lost 2/3 of my blood inside pelvis. She spent a half an hour removing the tube and three hours removing the blood luckily only by laporoscopy. She wanted to forgo the transfusion to see if I could make it on my own. Unfortunately, my Hemoglobin was so low I had two liters transfused. She said another ten minutes and I would have died. Because of some other Doctors stupidity.

I was released three days later. I am a fast healer. But she said I would be bruised all over my body which I am and that it would take months to recover because of the transfusion.

Its been three weeks since then. She said my other tube looked fine and I could resume trying again in about a month. My husband rather try in about three months because of my health. But I know it's because this whole experience terrified him.

I have to have faith I will become pregnant again but this time I would be a miracle child because of one tube and to carry full term.

The nice part is my husband is not an over emotional guy. He was feeling bad one day after seeing a similar family only they had a newborn. He went out and bought a Thomas Kinkade painting with a small inscription of the Serenity prayer on it on behalf of the pregnancy I lost. Then he gave me a gold bracelet with the little charms of boys with birthstones in their bellies. I never was so grateful for a present in all of my life. It probably will be the most special gift he ever gave me.

I just learned to except it. I can't change the past. Yes we are pursuing after the old OB that let this happen. But I just have to believe that my life was a gift back to me and my husband and children. And if I get pregnant again that to not take that for granted like I did my other pregnancies. It helped me appreciate the experiences that all those patients I worked with went through.

Thank you for listening.