I was sitting at home watching tv when my side started to hurt. I was 8 weeks pregnant and although I didn’t think it was a problem with the baby, it was disconcerting. After an hour of pain I called my OB for advice. The nurse said it was probably a cyst on my ovary (a very common occurrence during pregnancy) and that I should try a heating pad. The heating pad definitely helped. I sat with the tv on for awhile longer but every time I went to use the restroom or get up for anything, the pain would intensify until I could get back under the heat.
As soon as Brian got home I asked him to check me out. He had been an EMT the year before and I knew that he could confirm what I suspected. He examined my side and pushed in with his fingers. The pain subsided and as soon as he released, the pain came flooding back. My fears were confirmed and off we rushed to the hospital.
After an initial examination and a lot of time, they decided to do an internal ultrasound. It was after 2am when they finally wheeled me in. They examined the baby and everything looked good. The heartbeat was strong. She then poked and prodded me from the inside and as soon as she landed on one spot in particular I started screaming, “That’s it! Whatever your on right now. That’s where the pain is coming from.”
They admitted me to the hospital at 4am. Since there was risk in having surgery during your first trimester, they still hadn’t decided if surgery was the best option yet. But by 7am someone came to do a pre surgical scrub all over me and I knew surgery was imminent.
I had laparoscopic surgery at 8am that went without a hitch. I spent the next few days in the hospital healing and with the exception of 2 latex band aids that gave me a huge rash on my skin, I was healing great. Despite the latex allergy signs all over the place, for some reason bandaids are always forgotten. I came home on a Monday and was doing better everyday until Wednesday.
On Wednesday the vomiting and diarrhea started. Every time I ate something I felt sick. I figured it was a symptom of my pregnancy and I just took some of my anti nausea medicine from my first pregnancy which helped a bit.
By the following Monday, things had gotten worse. I started having these rolling stomach pains that were really excruciating. They would come on every couple minutes for about 10-15 seconds. It was much like labor though not at all in the same place. The pain was in the front of my stomach but more on the surface. I knew it wasn’t the baby but the pain was so intense I convinced my husband to take me back to the hospital.
Again, we waited forever and again they took me right in for an internal ultrasound. I tried to tell them that the baby was fine but they said they had to be sure. They ran a few more tests but never found anything definitively pointing to one thing. They asked me if I wanted pain killers. I said no, I want answers. But since there was nothing wrong with the baby, they were out of suggestions. When they told me they were sending me home without answers I started crying. I didn’t understand why they were allowed to do that. They told me to take a probiotic and follow up with my appendix doctor in a few days.
I immediately went to buy the probiotic and I’ll admit, it did help some but I wasn’t about to let my symptoms go unanswered. I took to the internet looking for solutions. That was the first time I came across C-diff., a deadly superbug that can be caught through unclean equipment used in abdominal surgery. I seemed to have all the symptoms but the disease seemed so far fetched.
By the time my appointment came on Thursday, the pain had lessened and wasn’t coming nearly as often. I told the surgeon of my stomach pains and he suggested it might be C-diff. He sent me to the lab the next day to be tested and sure enough it came back positive. So there I was, 9 weeks pregnant facing a 21 day hardcore antibiotic course that if I take, could harm my baby and if I don’t take, will die. With a prayer in my heart I went through the entire antibiotic cycle. I continued with the probiotic but after nearly a month of the antibiotic I developed thrush.
Thrush is a bacteria that grows on your tongue that makes everything taste bad and is a real pain to get rid of. The overly sweet and ill tasting medicine must be swished around in your mouth a couple times a day for 14 days. It was already hard enough to keep things down from my morning sickness. Adding this awful medicine didn’t do me any favors. After 14 days the thrush cleared up and my body returned to normal. That is except for the baby growing inside my belly. Several months later I gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby girl. I was so glad there wasn’t any troubling effects from my experiences early on in my pregnancy.
11.25.2020
Stories from my Life 