Lately, part 1: ER to OR

The last couple of weeks have been wild. Amidst packing for a trip East I surprisingly found out I was pregnant. Since we aren't proactively trying to expand our family just yet, Justin and I were in shock. I'm not sure if I've written on my blog before about our experiences with trying to start our family but it took longer than expected. October 2010 I had a nasty experience with an ectopic pregnancy that was resolved with a methotrexate shot. Then nearly a year later, August 2011, I had what I thought was another ectopic pregnancy that dissolved on its own but I'm still not sure if it was that or a miscarriage. Both pregnancies ended around the 6-7 week mark. However when I got pregnant successfully with Caleb the following month I didn't feel any of the sharp, stabing pains on my right side as I had with the other pregnancies and things were smooth sailing. Anyway, I found out this month on the 19th that I was pregnant and almost immediately started to feel the pains on my right side. They weren't severe but given my history I called my doctor and wanted to have an ultrasound before we were flying to Virginia (morning of the 21st).

The doctor was able to squeeze me in around lunch time for an ultrasound. I packed up Caleb and went to my doctor, waited in the cold ultrasound room for a while, then after two different types of ultrasounds we were unable to see any signs of pregnancy in my uterus. I totally expected that. Again, given my history, I am not extremely emotional or hopeful at the beginning of a pregnancy-especially one that was a surprise! All along I am thinking, it's an ecoptic pregnancy, just go ahead and give me the shot and call it good, please! Instead the doctor orders an ultrasound be done at the hospital and quants be taken and assessed of my HCG levels. Thankfully my sister was able to come down to be with me at the hospital and her sweet husband took off work to come watch Caleb at my apartment-that was such a blessing! After waiting for a while and having two other unpleasant ultrasounds, the radiologist presumed I had a hemorrhagic cyst on my right ovary. I had my blood drawn then went home and rested.

On the 20th I had to go back for my 2nd blood testing. Oddly enough the pain on my right side subsided completely on this day and I felt back to normal, albeit rather tired. I continued packing for the trip I was taking the next morning. The results came back from my blood work and my HCG levels had nearly doubled in 24 hours. Typically the levels will double every 48 hours, so my doctor considered this a strong sign for a normal pregnancy with a cyst causing problems and I should just keep an eye on things. So on the 20th I thought things were normal.

Early in the morning on the 21st (around 2am) I woke up with the pains on my right side. I had a small amount of panic inside of me that I wasn't going to be traveling that morning at 10am and I hated the idea of missing my flight, changing my flight, missing my trip etc.  But after I called the doctor on call, he told me to head to the ER for another ultrasound. So at 3am I headed into the ER. They suit you up well in the ER, without reason from what I could tell they hooked me up to an IV almost immediately and then I waited for the ultrasound technician to come. After two other very unpleasant ultrasounds, they still couldn't find my pregnancy. Not in the tube, not in the uterus and so they were perplexed. The ER doctor came in and said they were most likely going to give it more time to see if the pregnancy would manifest itself somewhere and give me some pain medication so traveling could be bearable. So at 5am I was thinking I would make my flight after all. Then a few minutes later one of my ob/gyn doctors came in and delivered the news that it was an ectopic pregnancy on my right side and they would actually need to remove my right fallopian tube via laparoscopic surgery. Devastation! Not only was I crushed about having to have surgery that morning and missing my flight I was crushed because I thought I could have another shot and call it good, I desperately didn't want to lose a tube from this situation. My doctor explained that since it was my 2nd ectopic they have to remove the malfunctioning tube as to prevent future ectopic pregnancies since they are so life-threatening. After the initial let down of the news, I came to accept it and move on in my mind. Better to have it removed than risk the pain and complications in the future. So I called my family and told them, I called Justin and he headed over to the hospital to be with me through surgery. Our good friends in the ward were able to watch Caleb that morning.

We waited for an appendectomy to finish up then I was given the anesthesia and wheeled into the OR. I don't remember much, I passed out pretty quickly. The doctor spoke to Justin afterwards though and told him my right tube was swollen and they could tell the pregnancy was in it. But my left tube looked great. (They had told me from the beginning that having this tube removed would in no way affect my fertility. In fact the left tube is able to stretch itself over to my right ovary during the months I ovulate on my right side...we'll see how it goes with getting pregnant in the future). The worst part after surgery was how sore my throat was from the intubation and how intense the pain was in my shoulders from the air they had pumped into my body. Apparently the air bubbles stay encased inside your body until they naturally are released, but it was insane how much it hurt. The surgery was just laparoscopic, with three small incisions. One in my belly button, one at my bikini line and one on my lower left abdomen. The incisions weren't all that sore but overall the surgery just made my body feel sore and tired. We stayed at the hospital for a few hours then were discharged around 4pm. I went home that evening and rested.

Meanwhile my sister and her two kids had made that morning's flight into Virginia. I hated I missed it and that she had to travel by herself. But quickly after surgery we started making plans on how I was going to get back to Virginia for the trip we had been planning all along. Logically it made the most sense that I still went back to be with family through my recovery. Justin isn't quite yet comfortable taking work off at Goldman so I would have been home by myself through my recovery, trying to follow the post-op instructions to not do any heavy lifting for two weeks is nearly impossible with a 13 month old. My parents were extremely generous and decided to fly my mom out Sunday, the 22nd, to help me fly on the 23rd back to Virginia.