I havent been posting because I ended up in the hospial friday morning after I had stabbing, sharp pains in my abdomen. Last week, I had miscarried or at least thought I did with twins. I have been on a rollarcoaster trip, in and out of hospitals, IV's in and out of my arm, its been insane.
Friday morning, I went to work as usual, I was working on more custom shoes until an hour after working, at 10am I started feeling sharp pains and I could not stand or even breathe, the pain was soooo intense. I thought maybe it was the cyst on my left ovary that had possibly ruptured. The pain felt like it had since I had it rupture around two years ago. My coworkers helped me to sit down and relax and I was driven to the hospital where my mom met me. I didnt go back to the VA hospital, instead I went to Sentara-which is alot better.
This time, when they did another ultrasound, they finally found something. The doctor wasnt sure what it was, but my bloodwork still showed I was pregnant and my HCG (my hormone levels) were still rising. So we were all confused. I was still pregnant but the baby was not in my uterus. It had attached itself somewhere outside my uterus. I also have a tilted uterus-which makes things even somewhat more complicated.
The on-call OBGYN doctor came in and explained what was happening and that she recommended surgery. Or I could take this pill which could flush out any pregnancy in my body- but even that is not guaranteed to get rid of it...It could leave me still pregnant and could leave the baby deformed. So, I knew deep down that I would need the surgery- the only problem is INSURANCE. I know when it comes to life threatening situations- you just do it and not worry about money- but I needed to have this paid for. I told the doctor that I wanted to go to the VA hospital and have them refer me back to Sentara so they can pay for it. Im already pretty peeved that the VA did nothing when they thought I was having a miscarraige- I mean nothing- no pelvic exam, no ultrasound, no sonogram..NOTHING! They just did bloodwork and sent me away. They didnt even catch that I was having an ECTOPIC Pregnancy-which is LIFE THREATENING!
When I got to the VA ER room, the doctor there was a complete moron, he kept yelling how me being sent there from Sentara was a $50,000 violation and such a taxpayers waste of money for me to keep going back and forth from a top quality care to a lower quality care. Really??? How about lets just care for the combat veteran who is having an ectopic pregnancy.... That doctor didnt even know that the VA covers women veterans that get pregnant. What kind of doctor are you???? He kept saying out of all his "10 years" of being a doctor, he never heard of this- never heard of an ectopic pregnancy???? All I wanted was for him to write up the paperwork to send me back so that my care and surgery was covered. It took literally 5 hours for that to get done and alot of phone calls from the Doctor at Sentara to the VA. Luckily, the nurse was awesome and he remembered me coming in for an ear infection a few months ago- my hair was a different color, but he was diggin the purple hair. He treated me with awesome care, got me a drink and a blanket. I was the only patient left around 100am when I was finally transported by ambulance to Sentara.
This whole time I was in the hospital, my husband was in Arizona, getting ready to go to Las Vegas Airport to fly back home. In between all the hospitals and him driving through the desert- it was hard to keep him informed on what was going on with me. It was so scary to not have him with me while I was going through this. He agreed that what ever was in me-where ever the baby was- it was not good and I wouldnt survive if something had bursted. I could have bled internally and died. What a scary SCARY thought.
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| Back At Sentara |
I arrived back at Sentara at 230am and the same OBGYN doctor, I believe her name is Dr. Kwon came in and I told her I wanted to do the surgery. Nobody was with me- but only because it was so early in the morning and I tried to call my mom and dad-but signal in the hospital is nearly impossible- so I had to have the nurse call all of them when the surgery was done. I have never had surgery before and it was alil scary. I said a quick prayer before they led me into a bright white room. I said "Lord, give me Strength". All I know is that the doctor said the precedure takes about an hour unless there are complications. They put a face mask on me- for the anesthesia to set in.
About 3 hours later- I awoke in a recovery room coughing and almost wanting to throw up. My mom had made it to take me home as the sun was rising. I remember breifly the doctor telling me about the surgery and showing me pictures of my ovaries. The baby was in my right fallopian tube. The tube was so damaged, that she had to remove it. They made incisions on my belly button and on both sides of my stomach. I was hoping that she could have removed my cyst on my left ovary-but since there was so much scar tissue- she was not able to. My biggest concern is whether I am able to still have more children. Well, due to the cyst- if I get pregnant again- it will more than likely result in another ectopic pregnancy, so Jermie and I would have to have a precedure done to have the egg and sperm insiminated into my uterus for a baby to grow properly.
My mom got me home and my father came by with flowers! How sweet! I went to sleep immediately and of course took the pain pills they prescribed to me. Jermie came home a few hours later and took over taking care of me. Its been a few days now and I have been recovering ok. I can somewhat walk and move around-but i cant overdo it.
Jermie has been helping me with everything- in and out of bed, showers, we took the kids to the movies to see Avengers, and today we attempted to walk around the beach and grabbed coffee. Its been relaxing. I cant go to work yet. I follow up with the doctor in two weeks. I know this post was very detailed, but I wanted to write it all out before I forgot this experience.
I also wanted to share my experience for any other woman who has gone through this same thing- you are not alone- if you suspect for a second that your pregnancy is ectopic or there are complications- TRUST YOUR GUT FEELINGS! Get to a doctor and make sure they check your body. This type of pregnancy is severly dangerous. For more information on this type of pregnancy check out this site WEBMD.
Thanks for reading and sharing this experience with me. I am doing good and I dont want you all to worry. I am just happy I got the surgery and no longer at risk. Its sad that I lost the baby too, but since I thought I miscarried I already came to terms that I was not having a baby. It was hard at first for Jermie and I to understand, but we worked through it. It is very hard to go through something like this- and is important to have support and family and friends understand what you are going through.
"Keeping the faith and keeping a hopeful positive attitude is one of the hardest yet most rewarding concepts to understand and to apply into our everyday lives. Through the roughest times in our lives it seems as though all we should and can do is give up. Keeping our heads up to the sky, and keeping a forward resolve, even through times of adversity is essential to making it to where we want to be in life. Remember that the greatest of people are those who overcame some of the greatest challenges that life had to offer.
Maintain hope, for hope is sometimes all you have to hold on to during times where it seems as if all is lost, and that you shouldn't continue forward. Maintain the fight, and keep believing in yourself, in doing so everything else will fall in place, and everything will work out for the greatest good!"
