Hello…
It’s taken a while for me build up the courage to share my story, and I do so partly for cathartic reasons and otherwise in the hope that it gives someone else some support too.
14th June 2021 was our early pregnancy scan day. Prior to this we have had 1 mc in 2017, 3 failed rounds of IVF 2018-2019 & a pandemic getting in the way - then finally we turned to egg donor IVF.
Everything had gone so smoothly, we had a 3 embryo and 1 was damn near perfect, after a text book cycle, 7 days after the embryo transfer we got a positive test. Blood test confirmed and early scan booked.
14th June, went and had the scan, which revealed absolutely nothing. No embryo, no sac - nada. Absolutely heartbroken & confused they took some bloods and sent us home.
Went to the pub and drowned my sorrows in a burger and a large Sauv… just so confused. Halfway through lunch the clinic rang to say my hcg levels were 25,000 and to go and see our local EPU unit for them to investigate.
By random coincidence, I had kidney ultra sound scan booked that afternoon at my local hospital (endometriosis investigative) so I said we’d do that and head down to EPU after. We very nearly sacked it all off and ran off to the coast for the day, I’d had enough of being poked & prodded & at no point was the word “ectopic” used. Thank god we didn’t as it may have cost me my life.
We went for the kidney scan, and I told the chap scanning my kidneys what had happened that morning. After he finished up he said - “let me have a little look & see…” and then there it was… a little blinking bean with a heartbeat. Incredible…
I soon very quickly clocked on to what was going on… that blinking bean was not in my womb. They called a nurse from EPU who repeated the scan and confirmed and she sent me quickly to EPU. My poor husband in the waiting room had no idea, I had to tell him en route to EPU what just happened… he collapsed in the hall in tears - utterly the lowest point of my entire life.
The rest is a bit of a blur, they were all frantically taking obs every 5 mins - it was dated 7w3days and I had zero symptoms. I was taken into surgery a few hours later and it was all over…
The care from our hospital was second to none - I have nothing but huge admiration and gratitude for all those nurses. They were waiting with a pack from the EPT on hand which was so useful.
My endo flared up terribly in the days to come, but all has settled down now - ish. End of October we are planning another round with a frozen embryo. I feel raring to go again but absolutely terrified in equal measures…
Thank you for letting me share and reading my story
sending love
x