Trust your body and intuition.

Summer 2017

This a deeply personal and somewhat graphic story. Sharing what happened to me is part of my healing, to inform and to inspire others.

My boyfriend and I were trying to get pregnant when I went in for femvue at an obgyn private practice in Marin, California.

The procedure did not go well. The doctor tried three speculums to insert a catheter. I was in physical pain, I was emotionally distressed; I was crying and tense. The doctor stormed out of the room.

I felt asaulted. 

A few weeks later I was admitted to emergency at Marin General for excessive bleeding from a uterine fibroid. During this time I also developed intense abdominal pain, not related to the fibroid. The pain was so intense that the radiology tech had to stop an ultrasound and called for dilaudid, a morphine-derivative painkiller.

My white cell count was very high, evidence of a significant infection. The pain continued, CT scan showed something misty in my lower abdomen.

The fibroid bleeding was controlled but the abdominal pain continued. 

The doctors did not pursue a diagnosis of pain and I was discharged after four days. I was sent home with a bottle of percoset for the pain.

Once home the abdominal pain continued, we were in frequent contact with the on attending medical team. After several days it was clear something was very wrong and we went back to Marin General where I had emergency surgery resulting into removal of my right ovary. I had a massive abdominal infection. A second surgery was performed a few days later as the surgeon wanted to be certain he contained the source of the infection. The surgery was successful.

I was incubated and in a coma for several days. I developed several serious complications, including sepsis, a fungal infection in my blood stream, acute kidney failure and deep vein thrombosis.

Knowledge is power

The pathology from labs confirmed an ovarian abscess that had ruptured. My surgeon said the bacteria that caused the infection does not occur in the body, and came from medical instrumentation.

Pause. Rewind.

I was a healthy adult. I had a shitty medical procedure and found myself fighting for my life a few weeks later.

With any medical interventions there are risks. In California there is essentially zero retribution a patient can take against a dr. that has miss-stepped.

LiFe being life

I can replay what has happened hundreds of times in my head. Should of. Could of. What matters is I am here and moving forward. Today my health is stable, I am learning to trust my body again. I have an incisional hernia and what I hope is my final surgery on Dec. 10, 2018.

Our bodies, our spirits move towards healing and health. To anyone going thru or recovering from an illness, injury, broken heart, or any sort of set back: Never give up!