Had my first confirmed pregnancy after a well over a decade of trying, and it was also ectopic.
Long read, sorry. I’m pretty out of it and feel like releasing this jumbled up set of emotions into the world.
My husband and I actively tried for about a decade before pretty much giving up a few years ago on the idea that it was possible for me to get pregnant. I had one very faint positive last year but each day after was negative so idk if it was a fluke or not.
I do not get regular periods on my own. I take provera to start a period every month, to ever three months, to avoid cancer and stuff.
This year, however, I had a natural period in fabruary and March. And another one started, on time, in April. But it didn’t end. I bled from April 13th until today.
Long periods aren’t new for me. I have PCOS. My periods have always been irregular. Longest one was 45ish days of bleeding(was able to stop that one with provera).
However, while a long period is normal, the cramping changed. It felt super odd to me, like I felt full and pressure and sometimes like I had to poop. I had sharp pain in my vagina and rectum a couple times too. It actually felt like what I imagined a small real contraction to feel like.
So, yesterday, even though my period started on time, the odd cramping on top of extended bleeding led me to take home pregnancy tests. All were very clearly positive.
Panic set in and I called OBGYN’s office who said to go to the emergency room. I did right away. Bloodwork hcg was around 9100 mIU. I was in shock. Literally looked at my husband and was like “WHAT THE FUCK” in a total daze. Cried a lot but was mostly numb because I knew this was not going to be a happy story for us.
They immediately got me in for a topical ultrasound and vaginal ultrasound. They didn’t find it in my uterus or anywhere else. Dx me with “Pregnancy of Unknown Location” which I learned from these groups last night is aka PUL.
I was really worried, but the dr that was attending to me called my obgyn to see what she wanted me to to, and my obgyn said she wanted me to get bloodwork two days later to see if my numbers go up or down and go from there. A “wait and see” situation. Honestly didn’t sit right with me just going home to wait it out, but I had no idea how to navigate any of it, so that’s what I did. Had the same steady cramps and a fullness. Read the Reddit posts in this and other groups until like 3 am though. Worried me but I tried not to panic.
Next day (today) had same cramps. bleeding picked up slightly but didn’t fill pads as described on my discharge papers as cause to go back to ER. The dr told me before I left the ER to go back if pain worsened, bleeding filled pads quickly, right shoulder pain, uncontrollable intense pain, pain on one side, or even if I just felt like a shoulder, etc.
Then I got a few seconds of a sharp pain on left side. Not too terrible. I’m used to the pain in my ovaries from pcos. It felt similar to a cyst - maybe a slightly worse. I felt dumb going back to the ER but I read all these stories on Reddit about ectopic pregnancies and rupturing and noped myself out of bed and into the shower. Messaged my husband, and he left work to come get me and take me to the hospital.
They got my blood work right away. Hcg rose to 10,250. They did the ultrasound again, but this time I asked the tech to press as hard as she could to clearly see as much as she possibly could. Right side didn’t hurt when she pressed. Left side hurt pretty damn bad ngl. I was vocal about it but thanked her for doing as I asked. I wanted the images to pick up as much as possible. I don’t think she was pressing crazy hard, but as hard as her training would allow. The pain was probably so intense because that was ectopic side. When we were done, she said she think she got more than they got the day before! She was awesome, and she was correct that she did.
Dr came when results were back and told me it was ectopic and visible in the ultrasound (thank you to that tech for pressing harder! They couldn’t see anything in that tube the day before). She said that my hcg is too high for methotrexate and I’d need surgery. Surgeon came in and went over options again but included methotrexate as an option but said if it didn’t work I could still rupture, so the safest option was to do the surgery and they said they would probably remove the whole tube.
I was pretty scared, but the surgery went fast. My care team was super kind throughout. The OR care team was incredible. So thankful for them. The chill meds kicked in and my anxiety went away. They put a mask on me and I was talking about the OR lights and that’s all I remember last lol. Woke up in the recovery room. The surgeon came in and said everything went fine. Ovaries look good and right tube looks good. They did remove left tube.
I went home a bit after surgery. It doesn’t hurt as bad as I thought it would but I’m sure I still have some of the IV meds they gave me in my system so we will see when it wears off.
They gave me meds for pain, but I have only taken the ibuprofen so far. Did you guys end up needing the actual pain medicine or was ibuprofen enough?
I’m probably going to cry a lot when this all sinks in more. Idk still feeling numb, emotionally. If you read all this, thanks for letting me vent to you.
ETA: I follow up in two weeks. If my hcg doesn’t go down, they said I may still have to take methotrexate, which sucks so I hope it goes down on its own.
Also, I mean to say “or if I just felt like I should” not “if I just felt like a shoulder” haha