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I just remembered the doctor told me post-op that he took my left fallopian and “part of my left ovary.” I asked for clarification but I didn’t get a clear answer, so now I don’t know what organs I have and don’t have.
I scheduled a gyno after I healed and she was like what did you want to know & I was like if I have a left ovary or not & if my right Fallopian tube is shot to hell, too. & she basically told me there’s tests for that but unless I’m trying to have kids right now it’s not worth it
Like can a bitch just do preventative care in America?!
I don’t want to go through another ectopic pregnancy. It was excruciating pain and I’m still paying for it (had good insurance at the time). And if I get pregnant again, it’s likely it would happen because scarring on the Fallopian tubes can be a byproduct of chlamydia.
Yes, I had chlamydia before. No, I’m not ashamed. I was routinely getting tested at that time, so it was down to two people who gave it to me. And one being from my hometown and that specific STI is high around there.
I mention that because I did my due diligence of informing my partners at the time. (I had just started dating someone so that was a hard convo). The person who I think it was told me “it wasn’t him becauee he didn’t have symptoms”
I was also having an adderall-induced manic episode at the time, so I was wreckless during that time of my life.
But the ectopic pregnancy didn’t come until like 5 years later. And until I had my EP, I had no idea that my Fallopian tubes were scarred from chlamydia. People don’t talk about that long-term effect. They dismiss it as a STI that is low risk because you can get rid of it
Also, chlamydia? You don’t want her if you have symptoms.
The pain starts as a pelvic/lower back pain. You think it’s cramps. Your period never comes. By Day 3 of the pain, it is now up in your mid back. The pain may be worse than the EP itself.
In the span of a week, I had gone to the ER twice. They had given me muscle relaxers. Valium because I couldn’t sleep. I was on the floor, on the bed, laying on my back, on my stomach. The pain was never-ending for a week.
Luckily, I had gone to the gyno days before the ER because at that point it didn’t feel like back pain necessarily. She told me she wanted to run another STI screening in case since I had a couple new partners since the last test, which was 6 months prior.
The day after going to the ER for the 2nd time, I got a call saying it came back positive for chlamydia and all I needed was to come get an antibiotic asap and I would feel better in a day and I did.
Literally would have never guessed it was an STI because by the 5th- 7th days of the symptoms showing, the pain was up to my mid-upper back and down my spine and to my pelvic.
So when I read that chlamydia can be the cause of scarring on a Fallopian tube and lead to an ectopic pregnancy, I knew I had to let go of any lingering shame and share my story. Eventually, I will share it on a bigger platform but this is good for now.
I don’t know if I can ever have kids. And I’m okay with that, but others may not be. Education and screening are essential to preventative health.
Also, I think it’s important to discuss that my sexual activities wasn’t the risky behavior of my manic and hypomanic episodes. It was the lack of protection I was using at the time that was wreckless.
Also, when I got pregnant, I was having a hypomanic few days in retrospection. I had unprotected sex at a period of time I knew I was ovulating. I was irrational about it. And it was unconscious behaviors influenced by my brain chemistry that led me to getting pregnant.
And I was a therapist at the time. Albeit, a very new one. But, I couldn’t even see my own symptoms going on until it led to the result of EP that made me really reflect on it. It could have been a worse result. Hypomania/mania symptoms can be hard to detect.
And when the person is seemingly more stable than their past, it can even be harder for them to recognize symptoms leading to behaviors out of alignment with their safety and values.
I didn’t know this thread was going to lead here, but here we are.
