Worst day of my life.

It started August 13th, 2021, although I wasn’t aware of what was to come at this stage.

I went to a Pilates class specifically for pregnancy, I was 19 weeks at this stage and an hour or so later I felt my abdomen hurting and remember thinking “wow”, that must have been an intense workout. I was feeling very pleased with myself and went home to shower as I had a lunch at the casino to attend with my mother and sisters. I had a surprising win on the 2c pokies and won just under 1k from a few cents, my day was really going well. We sat for lunch to which I realised I hadn’t eaten or drank anything all day, so I ordered a water and a carrot cake, I felt so ill after the cake; serves me right for eating cake on an empty stomach. That evening we went to friends for a BBQ which I was feeling very tired, and my stomach was hurting a bit more now, but I knew they had a spa and I was keen to sit in it to have some pressure taken of my body. My husband and I went home around 11pm and I got into bed with Panadol and heat pack to sleep it off.

The next day August 14th I spent most of it in bed, my abdomen was very sore now and the pain had started to become a bit more targeted onto my left side, so I spent the day with a heat pack, Panadol and again complimenting Pilates how much of a crazy after burning it had given me.

That night we had a dinner date with friends and although it sounds like we have a very busy social life this was an unusual weekend for it, so I really didn’t want to cancel on friends we hadn’t seen for a while so off we went. I ordered my meal but didn’t eat very much of it although I had a lovely evening, I was glad we went.

On August the 15th we had planned to take our eldest child to bells rapids, little did we know that the Avon decent was on and parking would add an extra 30-minute walk onto our trip as we couldn’t get a park close to the entrance.

I woke in the morning and said to my husband that if we don’t go now, I wouldn’t be up for it in the afternoon as my stomach was quite sore and I really wasn’t feeling very well. Without wanting to disappoint our eldest, we set off. The whole drive I had the mind set of “just get it done”. When we arrived, I wasn’t happy, but I told myself “Just do it for the child”.

We went for a long walk up and down hills and then sat to watch the kayaks coming in through the rapids, this was fun, and I would love to say I enjoyed it although I was just not feeling well at all. I will have to go again next time it’s on.

It was time to go, and I had gone quiet by this stage, I was struggling.

We drove home and I fell asleep in the car, when we got home, I asked Elliot to get me his heat pack for my stomach and a glass of water which he did, hubby was mowing the lawn and doing all the fun outdoor duties. The rest of the day passed and during the night I took a real turn, I started noticing how difficult it was for me to roll onto my side and reposition, I should have told my husband by this stage although I truly thought it was the Pilates class.

My husband woke up for work on the 16th and wished me a good day as he normally does, not long after he had left for work, I felt I was going to be sick and realized I couldn’t move at all now as the pain was unbearable. I tried a few times, but I just succumbed to the fact I couldn’t, and I will just clean my bed later, I lay back down and wait to be sick “No get up” I told myself, I do not want to wash bed linen today. I absolutely tried my hardest and what felt forever through so many tears I got up to get a Panadol, I got to the end of my bed and looked in the mirror, I was horrified. I looked so sick, my skin was grey and the pain in my abdomen was off the charts, I couldn’t reach my phone as I was paralyzed with pain. I heard my daughter in the kitchen so I used all the energy I had to call out to her and she came in after a while and asked me if I had said something. I told her to get me a towel and put it over my back as I wasn’t wearing anything and then to get my father and call an ambulance, thankfully my dad was living with me at the time.

The ambulance came really fast, they asked me to sit in the chair although I couldn’t move, it felt like a sharp knife had been pushed slowly into my right lumbar and the surroundings. The ambulance gave me the green whistle which made me cough and then cry from the pain of coughing. The green whistle worked wonders. I managed to get onto the chair and then into the ambulance. During the drive to the hospital the paramedic that was sitting with me suggested it may have been my appendix and a bit of antibiotics and I should be good. OK, great and easy fix.

Once at the hospital I was placed in the waiting room with a blanket (I was freezing and partially naked), the green whistle and my dad who had called my husband by this stage and was on the way to the hospital.

Husband arrived in his work car as he was to drive to Albany for work that morning. I was taken though, and the investigating began to happen although it was more of sitting in the bed for 6 hours awaiting any kind of test. There is a que of people needing MRI’s, Ultrasounds, and x-rays so I just had to wait my turn although being pregnant an Xray was out of the question.

During this time I wasn’t really able to move or walk although the pain was still there it was being managed by the pain medications, thankfully. Hubby and I kept discussing what he should do, call his boss and not attend work or go to work. This decision wasn’t an easy one as the consequences for not attending work on this particular day is too difficult to go into although it comes down to bad timing.

We had been sitting for so long and pain was being managed so we decided that at 3pm we would make the decision if he were to go or not, 3pm came around and so did my turn to have an ultrasound.

Off I went to get my scan, while on the bed the sonographer made me scream in pain multiple times while he was pressing around on my abdomen. He wanted to find the spot of pain to know where to look and scan as by this stage I couldn’t even figure out where it hurt anymore. He noticed my bowels looked a bit off, although he couldn’t see anything that stood out to him. He has a nice look at baby who was very active and bouncing around. We could breathe!

I told hubby that the paramedic was probably right and the Dr will come and give me some antibiotics, baby is fine, and he should go. After a lot of hesitating, he left. Keep in mind that for 6 hours we had sat in a hospital bed, bored and nothing to discuss other than what it could be and what the outcomes are. Google helped a lot, Appendicitis it was, and antibiotics was the cure.

5pm and it’s my turn for an MRI the nurse told me it was the last of the day, how lucky did I feel. I had enough by this time, I just wanted to go home, see my kids and curl up (not that I could) with a heat pack but it was my turn and I had waited this long, just get it done.

I am being wheeled to the MRI and I start messaging my husband who is now on the road to Albany and in and out of reception “I’m scared” “I will feel claustrophobic” “will the baby be ok?” anyways I got into the machine and the test started and my gosh did baby move!! I was shocked and the whole time I didn’t feel it was normal, baby moved so much with such forceful movement, I’m worried!

I hear the sonographers voice in the headphones “almost done Brooke, the Dr just wants me to look over a spot one more time” the next time I hear her voice she tells me that its finished and the surgeon is with her, they are getting me out and I need to get up quickly but slowly and a theatre is being prepped for surgery. Before I know it, I’m a wheelchair being pushed back to my bed and being told what is going to happen, I told her I needed to call my husband but “no time” as I was told. A quick text “I need surgery, no time to call” was sent and phone placed in the plastic bag with the rest of my personal belonging. I am now on the hospital bed in a theatre gown being wheeled to the theatre room with several nurses around me and the anesthetist reading out papers and consent forms, I didnt know who was what or what I was being read. What I do remember was that I signed a waver to give control the surgeon which said he would start with keyhole and open if he needed to, I also signed a waver to state I was ware i had a 20% chance of losing my baby during the surgery. This absolutely crushed me.

I Remember seeing the anesthetist put something in my cannular and through tears I said” I’m not ready yet” to which she replied, “it’s just something to help calm you down”.

The next thing I remember was waking up.

There were no choices or decisions to be made, my husband was away at work, I was septic, and my baby was too young to survive outside the womb.

I woke up 2 hours later, to find out my appendix had burst and I had peritonitis. I asked if my baby was ok and they said they didn’t know. For 3 days I had my bloods drawn twice a day to see if the antibiotics and my body was fighting the infection. For 3 days it wasn’t. at the end of the third day, 6 blood tests later my white blood cells had begun to drop (my arm was a mess by this stage). When you have a canular in place, the nurse won’t use that arm/vein to draw blood so I had one vein they were taking blood from, ouch!

I believe this is the cause of my sons hearing loss, specifically the MRI although no medical professional that I have spoken to believe this so it's just my opinion with apparently no evidence to support it. I can't find any either.

This doesn’t matter though, it would be nice to know so I have a reason although hearing loss for my life and my sons is nothing, it doesn’t even fit into the phrase “it’s a small price to pay”. I laid in that hospital bed watching my white blood cells increase every 12 hours and every time the results came back it was a step closer to having to use a stronger antibiotic that was deemed unsafe for pregnancy. This just broke me, I cried and felt helpless, I was in pain and there was nothing I could do; I had no control over it. I did have control over the pain medication though so I decided I wouldn’t use it unless I absolutely had to. I was off the tramadol within 12 hours and then the Panadol within 30. This helped me feel I was helping my baby although in reality it probably didn’t and my gosh did I need it.

No one was able to answer if my baby was ok as no one knew, baby wasn’t harmed during the operation which isn’t an answer given to me in the hospital it came when I asked at my follow up several weeks later, I guess this could be sue to the body’s response in healing…. I’m not sure although no one would answer my question in the hospital. I had ignored my symptoms for so long, we don’t actually know when my appendix erupted and how long the infection was attacking my internal organs, the womb is also an organ.

The rest of my pregnancy I was desperate to get baby out and, in my arms, I hoped he would come early although he didn’t. I had many scans as I was now “high risk”, and babies heart rate was often quiet high so off to the hospital for monitoring and more stress that I couldn’t shake.

At exactly 40 weeks, on my due date contracts began and baby was born on the 12 of January.

Beautiful Boy

Did you know that It is the most common non-obstetric surgical emergency during pregnancy? Emergency general surgery in pregnancy - PMC (nih.gov)