Pregnancy info tells us about all these new pains and feelings and it’s so easy to dismiss ourselves. I did this for a few days last week and it almost cost me everything.

I felt bloated and uncomfortable on Thursday. I had more bloating, a stomach ache and just not feeling hungry on Friday. I felt constipated and decided I would take a laxative on Saturday morning. A few hours later the constipation was gone, but the weird stomach pain had moved to just my right side now. It felt like bad ovary pain or a pulled muscle and just wouldn’t quite go away. I was uncomfortable and worried about how close it might be to the baby so I decided to go to urgent care.

They send me to the ER for an ultrasound. The ER puts me though a painful abdominal ultrasound, checks Baby and decides to run an MRI. It’s official, I have appendicitis and need surgery now. It will be laparoscopic and I should be out in a day.

Fast forward a few hours - the surgery didn’t go as planned. My surgeon discovered my appendix was a mass and was about to burst, so she quickly had to open me up for more extensive repairs and reroute bowel connections.

Baby and I made it through surgery and I spent almost a week in the hospital recovering. It has been far more painful than I could have imagined and it will be about 6 weeks until I’m fully recovered. Thankfully, the mass turned out to not be cancerous.

Bottom line? Listen to your body. I Dr. Googled and looked on this app and everyone says you know when you have appendicitis. I didn’t. I didn’t stop functioning. I never had a fever. I didn’t throw up. The pain didn’t drop me to my knees. It was a palpable and persistent ache between my hip and my belly button. Appendicitis is more common in pregnancy, so please, if you have doubt, get checked!