The Patients Experience 7

My husband and I decided to try for our 2nd child as we already have a beautiful healthy 2 and a half year old daughter. So we were so excited to find out we were pregnant after 11 months of trying to conceive. I found out I was pregnant very early, even before my missed period. I was around 3 weeks pregnant when I found out! When I reached 5 weeks, I noticed some light spotting in my underwear and when I wiped after using the toilet, but I knew this could be normal in early pregnancy and brushed it to one side. About 4 days after the bleeding, I started getting some left sided abdo cramps that were similar to a period pain but wouldn’t disappear. It would be constantly there..as a dull/niggly ache but would have episodes of where the intensity would increase and the pain would spread down my left leg and into the left side of my lower back. This pain would knock me off my feet and I would need to sit down. It even made me feel abit sick as the pain was so intense. I just knew in my gut something wasn’t right. I knew I was miscarrying.

I googled my symptoms and it said ‘ectopic pregnancy’. My worst fear. However, I thought surely not. It’s so rare. It wouldn’t happen to me. But something in my gut was telling me something was wrong. I phoned a private clinic and booked in for an early scan at 6 weeks as I knew they wouldn’t scan me before then. So on 11th June 2023 I went to my early scan and explained my worries to the sonographer. The sonographer told me they were going to run some checks and will be quiet for a few minutes while they scan me. The silence felt like a lifetime. Then eventually the sonographer turned to me and said ‘I’m so sorry, but the baby is growing in the wrong place’. I just burst out crying and didn’t know what to think. They called me an ambulance which rushed me to the nearest hospital.

They monitored me overnight and ran lots of checks, took bloods, and then scanned me again where they confirmed my ectopic pregnancy in my left fallopian tube. They also confirmed that the embryo had a strong heartbeat and was measuring at 6 weeks and 1 day. I was heartbroken. On the 12th June 2023 after the consultants explained everything to me, I was then rushed down to surgery where they put me to sleep and removed my left fallopian tube along with our baby. It all happened within such a short space of time and I am still getting my head around everything but I am now home and recovering. I will never ever forget this day. It was the most scary and heartbreaking day of my life but I wanted to share my story with others who may be going through the same thing. The support and care I have received from the hospital was incredible and I feel so grateful and lucky.