My young altered life

My Husband, Mom and myself flew to Arizona for my surgery. We went to my pre-op appointment, but instead of seeing the surgeon, we met with his fellowship student. He explained the upcoming procedure and directions for my bowel prep (Yuck). It was explained that my radiology report showed that my fallopian tubes were damaged, and they may remove them during surgery. I asked if I could request they not take them out unless the damage would cause major complications; since, I would be so disappointed if a few years from now, medicine discovers a way to repair damaged fallopian tubes. The doctor agreed I had a valid concern and said they would not remove them. He said that IVF would be the most likely option for me in the future, but even that has risks for future ectopic pregnancies. He also explained that there is a possibility that my pain would return and I would need to see a pain specialist.

The next day, I checked into the hospital for surgery at 6:00 am. I met the Anesthesiologist along with his fellows who started my IV. Then the massive (6-7 people) surgical team came to see me and ask if I had any last minute questions before going to prepare the operating room. The preparations took longer than expected because of the complexity of the DiVinci robot, so they came to get me around 8:00 am. One of the Anesthesiologists gave me some more sedation and rolled me into the OR. I remember expressing how amazed I was when I saw the room and the robot. The Anesthesiologist jokingly said, “The surgeon’s skills are amazing with this machine, but you should see when he makes it dance.” I laughed and that’s the last thing I remember before waking up.

The doctor spoke with my husband after surgery. He told him that my right fallopian tube had a massive hole in it and there was necrotic tissue surrounding the tube, connecting everything together. He removed the dead tissue along with a portion of the tube. The tube was then reconnected. The adhesion's were removed along with my appendix. He said my intestines looked good after they were freed, so no bowel resection was necessary. He also removed tissue that looked like endometriosis to be tested and explained that if I had endometriosis, that may have been the cause of my ectopic pregnancy, but the adhesions were most likely caused by the ruptured tube. My uterus was tilted because of the adhesions, so he suspended it back into place with sutures.

I was in shock when I found out that my tube had ruptured. Three times I went to the emergency room yet nothing was done. To this day I wonder how I survived. I have had medical professionals say to me, “if your tube had ruptured you would be dead.” Therefore, I always take my surgical report with me to prove that I am not exaggerating.

For over six months I had a hole in my tube. I really want to know if this has happened to anyone else. None of my doctors want to talk about it because of the liability. In fact, after my surgery, I never saw that surgeon again. He had his assistants deal with me, and they, conveniently had very little knowledge about my case.

After many months of constant pain, I scheduled an appointment to check everything out. The doctor first did an exam and then sent me down the hall for an ultrasound. During the procedure, the first technician had a hard time reading the images on the screen so she called in another tech (the same woman who found the ectopic pregnancy). The second technician told me that the first woman was having trouble understanding the images and she did not know what to tell me. She then explained that she had extensive experience, so she would assist with the procedure. The technicians never explained anything to me directly, but I did hear them use terms such as “adhesions” and “debris.” They were also debating over what were my ovaries and what were my fallopian tubes. Both technicians were confused by what they were seeing but they continued with the procedure and joked with me about being a difficult patient. After about 20 minutes, I was sent to wait for the doctor.

He called me in to his office and said my fallopian tubes looked very swollen, but my ovaries looked good. This was strange to me since my ectopic was only on the right side. He explained that he would like to do a diagnostic laparoscopy to actually see what the problem was.

My Mom went with me to my pre-op appointment. We were escorted to the doctor’s office where he confessed that he was not sure what was going on. He said that the sonogram images were “perplexing” and he had “never seen anything like this before.” He was unsure if something was wrong with my tubes or ovaries (even though he said my ovaries looked fine at my previous appointment). When I asked him what he thought caused the problem, he suggested that it was unrelated to the pregnancy and may have been there before. However, I pointed out that everything seemed normal several months ago; so, he looked back at his notes and agreed saying, “It says here that everything looked fine.” I asked him if it could be Pelvic Inflammatory Disease caused by the pregnancy loss, but he said that I would be near death if it was PID since the symptoms are very extreme. He cited a patient of his who had PID and he had to do a total hysterectomy to save her life. My Mom asked if the injections I received could cause any problems and he said, “It shouldn’t.” He explained that he could not be sure what the problem was until after the surgery.