Hi,
Firstly by way of introduction, I’m Sarah, I turn 35 in a matter of weeks, I’ve been married to my DH for 5 years on Saturday and have a DD who will be turning 4 in Jan and I really hope I’m getting these abbreviations right 
I believe that my story is quite unusual, but I’m hoping that in reaching out, there may be someone out there that can help make sense of what has just happened to me and my family…apologies for the length of this story in advance- if you are reading this, get comfy!
Where do I start?
I had no problem conceiving my DD, but at my 12 week scan, an ovarian cyst was detected-initially it was believed that it was just a simple fluid cyst that would sort itself out as the pregnancy progressed, however, it remained persistent throughout the entire pregnancy. A scan 6 months after my daughter was born, showed that the cyst had grown to over 10 cm, a decision was made to remove the cyst laparoscopically- it turned out that the simple cyst was a dermoid cyst resulting in losing both my right side Fallopian tube and ovary- I was assured that this shouldn’t hinder my chances of conceiving again.
After 2 years we decided to try for another, after a year of TTC but not getting anywhere we were referred to an assisted conception unit, after the standard blood tests, I had a hysteroscopy to check for any blockages in my left Fallopian tube in the hope that I would require a little medicinal help to conceive. Unfortunately, the consultant advised me that my left Fallopian was distended and out of shape and diagnosed a hydrosalpinx- advising us that we had less than 5% chance of conceiving naturally and recommended clipping the left tube to increase the chances of a IVF, should we wish to take this option. After much deliberation, we decided that we were grateful to be blessed with our DD and that we wouldn’t go down the IVF route…
Fast forward 5 months
It all started on the Friday night (although, I didn’t know at the time) after a few glasses of wine and a lovely meal with DH, I suddenly started to get, what I can only describe as strong stomach cramps verging on contraction type pain, as they got stronger, I started vomiting as well- however, this seemed to help the situation a little, and after popping a couple of neurofen and with a sick bucket next to my bed, I was finally able to get to sleep. Next morning I woke up, and other than a mild stitch and slight nausea, I felt reasonably ok, so I put the previous evenings episode to a random stomach bug. As the day went by and after a few visits from various family and friends- the sickness bug had been diagnosed as a grumbling appendix with the cautious warning that if it happened again, my DH should really take me to A&E Everyone’s an armchair Dr! All very good humoured, we didn’t really take any of it seriously until the Saturday night when it all happened again- but this time, it felt worse! On my insistence my DH called 111, despite him protesting that we should go straight to a&e- I think I was worried that all the days talk had made me more sensitive than the previous evening and as ridiculous as it sounds, I was worried that I would be wasting their time! 111 advised for me to stay at home until a Dr called us back within 2 hours, and on that advice, my husband decided that a&e it was!
On arriving at the A&E waiting room on a Saturday night, I was really worried that I was going to have a long wait as it was busy, but I was seen relatively quickly and luckily for me I only had to be sick 3 times in those toilets! On being questioned by the triage nurse, my pains once again seemed to subside, which again, convinced me that I was wasting their time- luckily for me the nurse didn’t think I was and took my to a bay for further checks. Having established that I didn’t think I could be pregnant due to my hydrosalpinx and more importantly the fact that I had AF 2 weeks previously, The a&e nurse asked if I could do a urine sample to rule out pregnancy and to see if it could be a severe UTI. Unfortunately, I couldn’t perform on demand so was taken straight to the bay where I was examined by a Dr, who advised that she was going to ask for general surgery to examine me as well as gynae as she couldn’t be sure which it was and that I would also be sent for scans, once again I was asked if I could give a urine sample- so I dutifully traipsed back to the toilet only to find myself throwing up instead of peeing! This is when it all started to go wrong…on leaving the toilets, I began to feel dizzy and light headed, on seeing the face of a nurse coming towards me, I figured I wasn’t look too hot either, as I fainted into her arms! I was wheeled back to the bay where my concerned husband advised me that I looked white as a ghost- nice! I was hooked up to all the monitors where a concerned team advised that my blood pressure had dropped too low, they made a decision that they would move me to recuss to keep a “closer” eye on me, I decided I would help them by moving back to the wheelchair where I promptly collapsed yet again- so off to recuss I went! The registrar decided enough was enough and decided to catheterise me as well as link me up to yet more fluids and just to be on the safe side ordered some blood in…then the shoulder pain started which OMG, felt like I was having a heart attack (how I imagine it might feel) Within seconds a pregnancy was confirmed and that I was rupturing- the shoulder pain being attributed to my diaphragm being pushed up be accumulated blood- emergency surgery was required, however, I wasn’t stable enough to be transferred as I’d lost too much blood- so 3 units of blood had to be transfused before I could be moved. All I can say is by the time I was put under anaesthetic It felt like I had no capacity left in my lungs - when I came round it was 7.30am on the Sunday morning and I’d survived!
The consultant advised that I’d had a right side ruptured cornual ectopic and had to have 6 units transfused in total and that I had approx 2 litres of blood in my abdominal cavity as a result of the rupture and that I was a very lucky lady indeed! She also advised that my left Fallopian tube and ovary were normal- as the baby had unfortunately had decided to bed in in a small remaining bit of the old Fallopian- so out of a very traumatic experience, there is a little ray of hope that we still may have a chance to have another - although this needs to be discussed further with the consultant! She has said that we will need at least 6 months to recover before we even think about trying again and has advised that there is a higher risk of another ectopic or rupturing - I guess we need to understand this further!
I’m recovering post op very well and was discharged on the Tuesday evening, and on the whole I’m feeling ok- but as the body is healing, I’m feeling increasingly emotional and down about what has happened, which is not at all like me! I feel annoyed at myself for accepting what I’d been told as 100% truth and that having been told we only had 5% chance that I 'd accepted this as a done deal we wouldn’t get pregnant as it nearly cost me my life because of my denial! I also seem to spend a lot of time in that what if scenario- thinking about what my husband has been put through- he admitted sitting there wondering what he was going to say to my daughter if I didn’t pull through 
I just feel for the first time ever the need to reach out to others that know what I’ve gone through!
So to all of you- Hi and thank you for reading all my story- it was definitely an endurance test 