I very recently went through emergency surgery for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and wanted to share my story. So here goes nothing....

My husband and I had been trying for ~ 2 months for our first baby. At this point, I knew I was like 6-7 weeks pregnant. The main symptom I had that was the biggest red flag was the fact that I was spotting literally the entire time I knew I was pregnant. Not a ton though. No clots or anything like that. Just enough where I had to wear a panty liner every day. Of course, naturally I was panicked about that but have heard stories of people spotting their entire first trimester of pregnancy and ended up giving birth to a beautiful full term baby. So I just kept constantly reassuring myself of that... otherwise had some low back pain. That’s it.

11/26/18 - Went to work just like any other day. At about 10 AM, I noticed this right lower belly pressure start but at the time was real mild. I tried ignoring it and just hoped it went away. Nope... Not only was it constant, it got worse and worse, and 2 Tylenol didn’t even take the edge off. Long story short, was thankfully able to be seen at an OB/Gyns office early that afternoon. Got an ultrasound at the office a little later that confirmed my biggest nightmare.... Ectopic in my right Fallopian tube. Now at this point, there was a little bit of free fluid around it in the ultrasound so the doctor explained that that meant it was already starting to rupture. He directly admitted me at that point to the hospital from his office. The pressure got exponentially worse quickly. I kid you not- best way I could describe it was that it felt like a balloon that kept getting bigger and bigger.... (Now knowing it was due to an ectopic in my tube literally rupturing.. makes perfect sense). The pain was basically unbearable once I was admitted. Because of how bad my pain got and as fast as it happened, doctor rushed me into emergency surgery. Unfortunately for me, the ectopic not only ruptured my right fallopian tube completely but also caused a lot of internal bleeding in the process. Because of that, I had the invasive surgery option, lost my right fallopian tube obviously and now have basically a c-section looking scar.

I wanted to share my story about my ectopic in hopes it’ll help someone else out. A few tips I just want to give in summary:

1. While pregnant, ONE-sided belly pain is NOT normal. Think about it- your uterus is in the middle, where baby should be. If you know you are pregnant and/or are trying to get pregnant and get one sided belly pain, go see a doctor immediately to get evaluated. Do not be in denial about it like I was initially.

2. Ectopic pregnancies are VERY serious for many reasons but the biggest reason is because you can very quickly bleed out internally and could die because of it. Everything literally happened so fast for me. The doctor told me if I waited much longer I probably would not have made it... So, again, PLEASE don’t be in denial. Find out what’s going on ASAP so you can get treatment as fast as possible.

My husband and I are wanting to start trying again and needless to say, I’m so excited but absolutely terrified. Reading all these positive stories has been beyond uplifting and encouraging 💖 So thank you to everyone who shared their stories too.