I’m very, very mad today. A dear, dear friend of mine has been given the shaft. By nature, by the medical establishment, by fate. This poor girl has been trying to have a baby for the last five years. She has gotten pregnant three times. The first two, she lost the baby almost as soon as she knew about it. “Chemical pregnancy” is such a cold phrase, isn’t it? It’s still pregnancy, isnt it?
The third time happened just this month. She and her husband had turned to infertility treatments and she’d had her second IUI. She thought the cycle was a bust when one day she felt a sharp pain. She took a pregnancy test and it was positive. The pain continued so she went to the ER. Her beta numbers were fantastic. But the u/s didn’t show any pregnancy in the uterus. Could be it was too early, but the doctors were hesitant. She was told to go see her other doctor first thing Monday morning. Which she did. Still, nothing in the uterus but the doctor wasn’t concerned. Another u/s was scheduled for 10/20. Nearly ten days away.
The pain was still there. She was checked for a UTI, but there was some confusion on whether that was it or not. The night before last, she was having more pain so she went back into the ER. I’m not sure of the details but she was sent back home with instructions to see a doctor in the morning. On the way to her appointment, she collapsed. Her poor husband had to call 911. At the hospital, it was discovered she had an ectopic pregnancy. She was rushed into emergency surgery and lost her tube.
How is this fair? How is this even remotely *right*? I’m so mad at every doctor she saw. There is no reason they shouldn’t have caught this sooner. Instead her life was put in danger and she lost a tube, dramatically reducing conception chances when her chances weren’t that high to begin with. Am I wrong in thinking those doctors were horribly neglegent?
I’m mad, and I’m sad… I don’t really know which feeling is more dominant. I guess I’m just at a loss. So today is for Neecer. And her dear little angel.
