TW: mentions living children;
Hi Everyone,
I’m posting this as I have no one around me who has even come close to experiencing what I have gone through in the last 10 years.
In 2015, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. This was caught early and was completely removed via a bowel resection. The surgery left me with a significant amount of adhesions. In 2021, my husband and I decided to try for a baby. I fell pregnant after 3 months of trying. I had what I thought was a period around when my period would normally by due but because I was feeling sick and had a weird taste in my mouth, I did a pregnancy test. This came back positive so I assumed the bleeding I had was probably implantation bleeding. Within a week, I was bleeding again and this time is was heavy. My GP surgery referred me straight to the local EPU where they diagnosed an EP in my left tube. They removed this immediately via laparoscopy.
I bounced back pretty quickly and fell pregnant again 6 months later however I had a chemical pregnancy. We tried again and I then fell pregnant again in April 2022. The wait to find out if it was in the right place was excruciating. I gave birth to my son in January 2023 via c section.
In Jan 2024, my husband and I decided to try for another baby but little did we know what would happen over the next 12 months. Again, I fell pregnant fairly quickly in April 2024. I only found out as I was doing ovulation tests and they were constantly positive. Something didn’t seem right as like before, I’d had what I thought was a period when it was due. I had no pain or further bleeding. When we had our 7 week scan, we were told that again,I had another ectopic pregnancy. This one was a corneal ectopic in my left tubal stump. I had a round of methotrexate and my hcg levels dropped initially, although they did take a while! I had the jab on May 30th and by August 15th, they had reached 16. However, I came back from my holiday two weeks later to be told they had begun to rise again. I had more blood tests and scans which indicated that the pregnancy had started producing tissue again. I had another jab of methotrexate on Sept 13th which had no effect whatsoever and my HCG continued to rise. The next option was surgery which I had on October 1st. The consultant had to remove the pregnancy via laparotomy as the adhesions in my pelvis made a laparoscopy impossible. I recovered well and we began to move on with life.
In Jan 2025, I noticed I was late. I did a test and it was positive. This pregnancy was not planned at all. I had a massive sense of dread however at the time, I had no pain or bleeding. This gave me hope. I self referred to the EPU and the first scan didn’t show anything. The did blood which came back at 3000 so something wasn’t right. A repeat scan was booked for the following day with the consultant. She managed to see a tiny pregnancy sac but nothing conclusive. They continued to monitor bloods which still continued to rise but not at the rate they should. I was booked for a repeat scan the following week. I was starting to have left sided pain again but was told this is like pain from the adhesions, especially as it was belly button height. The following weekend, I was having really bad tummy trouble. I put it down to constipation and took some laxatives but none worked! My bowel had just stopped. 2 days later, I came home from work and within 30 minutes felt serverely unwell. I had pain all over my stomach, I was dizzy and felt very clammy. I managed to get to my parents and whilst trying to go to the toilet, i collapsed on their bathroom floor. By this point, I had a severe pain in my right shoulder and diaphragm. My parents rung for an ambulance and told the call handler I’m a high risk for ectopic. This seemed to ignore this and were only bothered by whether I was breathing or not. The ambulance took 75 mins to arrive and even when they arrived, the didn’t seem to take me seriously. I knew this was either a bowel blockage or ruptured ectopic. After 45 mins of deciding, they tried to do my BP sat up. I passed out straight away. Only then did they started listening to my parents who were insisting this is potentially a ruptured ectopic. I was blue lighted to hospital and wheeled straight into resus. By this point the pain was indescribable. I was attached to fluids straight away and the gynae team were sent for. A quick ultrasound scan revealed my abdomen was full of fluid. It was my lucky night as my usual consultant happened to be on call and she came straight to me, took one look at me and wheeled me straight to surgery. I was diagnosed with an abdominal ectopic and because the left side of my uterus is stuck to my bowel, it was causing all my bowel issues I was experiencing. Apparently my body was trying to abort it itself however, it ruptured causing my to lose 3 litres of blood. My body was struggling to cope with the extreme blood loss so I was placed into an induce coma and on a ventilator in ITU for 12 hours until my BP and pulse settled. I woke up attached to the ventilator and immediately thought the worst. No one had told me the outcome yet so I had no idea what was going off. Thankfully, they were able to remove the pregnancy and repair the damage but it was touch and go whether I’d survive because of the substantial blood loss. I recovered quite quickly once I was discharged from ITU. My stomach now resembles Chuckys face from Childs Play as my wounds are stapled instead of stitched. The bruising is pretty spectacular too! After 5 days, I was discharged home with pain meds and iron tablets. Despite the transfusion, my blood count is still low and is taking time to recover.
I have an appointment in 4-6 months time to discuss future pregnancy planning as I’m still determined to give our son a sibling. The doctor has said that I need surgery to remove all the adhesions before we try again as this is the #1 cause of my ectopics as all my organs are stuck together. I still have my right tube and to the naked eye, I’ve been told it looks ok but it is buried in adhesions. I’m just glad that the doctors have now decided to do something about the adhesions as they have been causing me issues for almost 10 years now. I hope that this most recent experience will open doors to more support when trying to conceive after multiple ectopics. I felt before like no one was taking me seriously before whereas now they’ve nearly killed me, they’re doing something about them and hopefully by removing them carefully via laparoscopy, it’ll help us in our journey.
For now, I’m in the recovery stage (again) and I hope that by writing this, it helps me to process what has happened better as well as connect with others that have suffered multiple ectopics.
If you reached the end of this post, I thank you for your patience and I hope my story hasn’t traumatised or triggered you too much!