Ok I'm bored of birth and induction posts, it's making me anxious, I'm due on the 23rd with no signs of baby coming out at all. So instead I'm gonna tell you about my worst experience ever this pregnancy. Just to mix things up a bit. I wasn't gonna share this story but if I have to watch another YouTube video with my toddler, of a grown ass man playing with peppa pig toys and getting paid more than me, I'm gonna set myself on fire 🤐

So at 37 weeks pregnant I wake up to pain in my vulva. It was horrible. Super itchy and made every trip to the bathroom a nightmare. I asked my partner to have a look because with a mirror and my phone torch I couldn't see anything. He has a look and there's 3 small paper cuts on my labia.

Called my doctor the next day, he didn't do an in person appointment due to me having a chest infection, but I described to him what was going on and he diagnosed me with genital herpes and told me to call my midwife ASAP to book a c-section. I'm crying and freaking out about how the hell I've got genital herpes. Me and my partner hadn't even had sex in 2 weeks because we'd both been so ill. What if he was cheating. What if I caught it ages ago from him having Coldsores and didn't know until now. What if that happened and he thinks I cheated. How will I deal with herpes for the rest of my life. My Mum died from c-section complications - What if I die. Etc etc etc.

My midwife suggests I go get tested just to be sure and arranges an appointment for a few days later. In the mean time My doctor had given me medication. I went to pick it up and they had accidentally prescribed me more amoxicillin (the antibiotic I was already on due to a chest infection) by accident. After a lot of freaking out thinking I'm gonna give birth any second and kill my baby by having open sores I finally get the right medication the next morning. Awesome.

Finally the day comes when I go to the clinic to get tested. I'm crying going into my appointment. I'm a rape victim so its bringing back a lot of old feelings and memories, and when I have to take my pants off and lie down I have a panic attack so bad I thought I was having a heart attack. My chest hurt, I couldn't breathe, I felt dizzy

Then the nurse takes a quick look and says "do you want the good news?". It was thrush. I got thrush from being on antibiotics. Turns out thrush can present as tiny papercuts, itching and thick discharge (whereas herpes is blisters, hurts instead of itches and doesn't change discharge).They gave me some canesten cream and the little paper cuts were gone the next day, but they also swabbed for herpes and took a blood sample just in case and told me to stay on the medication.

After a long 2 week wait and 3 anti-herpes pills per day, I got a phone call this morning. Negative for herpes. All I could do was laugh I was so relieved. I mean by this point I presumed I'd be negative because the thrush cream cleared it up but there was still the "what if" stuck in my head. Yeah. So... That was a terrible experience.

Also shout out to my partner for making 0 assumptions and comforting me through the whole experience.