This has possibly been the worst weekend of my life, but also the weekend that saved my life and ended my misery of bleeding out and almost bleeding to death. My life was saved on Saturday following a month's battle with abnormal heavy uterine bleeding and being sent backwards and forwards between clinicians who have all told me to 'bear with it', 'manage it at home' and 'monitor it'. Following a failed medical abortion, I also had a failed surgical abortion it seems with 4cm of RPOC left in my uterus. Following a heavy period of bleeding of bright fresh blood, the tissue went down to 2.5cm but the bleeding continued and it was not going away. Despite coming back to A&E and my GP making it clear that the bleeding is not subsiding, I have been fed tranexamic acid to leave the office as soon as possible. I was also fitted with the coil at the same time as my surgical abortion which I had taken out at the start of this month as it aggravated the bleeding.
It was not subsiding and I felt getting weaker and paler. I have been asking for blood tests which have all been rejected due to me having a blood test exactly a year ago. I had some bloodwork done at the hospital when I went to A&E for the first time but I was not given iron supplements or anything to help me with my already settled anaemia - which was not reflected to me. I was sent home once more. The bleeding was not settling, I was soaking through pads insanely quick and the clots were insane. Nothing was helping.
This Saturday I lost so much blood in the morning that I began to see in tunnel vision and had to be taken to A&E urgently and got to A&E at 10. I was only seen by someone 7 hours after waiting and bleeding out, only to be told that gynaecology had been waiting for me since 2pm. I got there at 5.37pm despite my bed being ready for me. Bloodwork revealed my haemoglobin levels were 52 - a woman my age, 24 years old should have 120. My HB level during the time I went for a scan for the first time was 92 which was already below and borderline anaemic yet nothing was said to me. All the Drs were surprised I was still alive and standing upstraight.
I was admitted immediately and underwent an emergency D&C under general anaesthetic as well as being transfused four units of blood. I feel a million times better today and have the energy to share my experience with you as it has been the worst experience of my life with everything that could have gone wrong, going wrong. The blood transfusion saved my life and I left the hospital with very minor bleeding post op, tranexamic acid, antibiotics and iron supplements.
The moral of the story I guess is do not let your Drs fob you off and tell you to 'get on with it' or 'let your hormones settle' and if you have the choice of D&C - go for it because it can save your life. Do not let your Drs fob you off. My mental health has reached a breaking point because of all this but I am so thankful to be alive and well.
I just wanted to share my experience and hopefully help other women who went through a similar thing. xx