Hi everyone, I'm almost 6 weeks pregnant, found out last week. Very unexpected and still in shock and a tad overwhelmed. However on Sunday I started to experience significant pain in my side , it started in my lower abdomen a crampy stitch feeling that went Right through to my back, then began to radiate up my back and settle around my ribs too.
I suffered through it on Sunday and on Monday it was there but bearable, along with it I was Experiencing chills, pressure like I needed to poo alot and just general discomfort.
I had a GP apt booked for Tues afo, woke on Monday with awful stomach pain, diarrhea and generally unwell so took a day off work and stayed in bed until my GP apt. Id been doing plenty of research and so was concerned about Ectopic pregnancy. My GP was fab, did a pelvic exam and altho she felt nothing she immediately referred me to A&E with a letter to get a scan. So after a tearful exchange at my mums, telling her I'm pregnant also suspected ectopic all in the space of 10mins, dropping our dogs off to them, off hubby and I trotted for a long sit at A&E where the nonsense began.
In triage, the nurse didn't read doctors referral correctly and though I'd just been referred for pain in shoulder, they took bloodwork and she asked the other nurse to put a pregnancy test in too, cue lots of joking about,,,"maybe you ll get a surprise"... bewildered I told them I am indeed pregnant and the referral is to rule out Ectopic. The nurse then quickly adjusted the notes in the system and I was moved to the minor Emergency Dept waiting area, not even allowed to open the door and tell my husband he wasnt allowed to come with me.
I waited 2 hours (not bad for a&e, but long enough for them to lose my urine sample and ask for another one) to then be called in by a male doctor who basically asked me the exact same questions my GP had asked, did the same pelvic exam and then proceeded to dismiss my pain as gut/bowel pain, he was also surprised that the GP had referred me as he seemed to think you needed to "experience pain for 7days before it could be ectopic". He then advised that I wouldn't get scanned tonight as it would be the EPU that would do it, he would organise a referral as soon as my bloodwork came back. So I returned to the waiting room. 45mins later I as called back in, my apt for scan is Friday morn at 9am, again he proceeded to put the pain down to being my bowels, at this stage I was p*ssed off at the waste of my evening, at how I was being 'managed' as if I was a silly woman and I just wanted to leave. To add insult to injury he commented on my lack of excitement at being pregnant... and encouraged me to take some laxatives (I'm not constipated), I asked about my bloodwork and he said "from what I can see your levels are normal for your time frame, they're sitting at 10,000, I think...although there's a decimal point there for some reason"
I was then sent on my way.
I walked out to my husband absolutely famished, drained and no closer to knowing if everything is OK or not.
My GP wanted me to let reception know today how things went (No doubt expecting a scan result) and yet I've to wait for Friday )
Please know that I've every respect for doctors and nurses, I know thr NHS Is under great pressure, and I appreciate the work they do, but this was such a mess, the whole thing from start to finish was unnecessary and the way he spoke to me was shocking, I'm not even a week into knowing I'm pregnant and I'm still in shock, to then have the worry of losing the baby thrown into the mix, how can he expect me to be bouncing with joy.
Im still unsure of how things will be and can only hope there will be more empathy from the Early pregnany Unit on Friday, I guess this is more a rant that anything else but it helps to get my concerns out there and see if anyone else has experienced similar