Infections and Secondary Infertility-My Story!

Two and a half years ago I went to see my GP as I was suffering with very heavy and painful periods which would leave me housebound for almost the entire week and I had put on a lot of weight which I could'nt lose, I was sent for an internal scan at the local hospital which showed a very large 15cm ovarian cyst, I was sent home knowing very little other than I would need an operation to remove the cyst as it was far too large to go down on it's own.
A few weeks later I was sent an appointment to attend the local hospital to undergo a laparoscopy,I was petrified in the run up to the procedure because to me it was unknown, I'd never needed an operation before and I was very scared to say the least.

The morning of my operation I was'nt allowed to eat anything or have a drink,I was taken to the hospital by my husband who was constantly reasuring me that everything was going to be alright.I arrived in the day ward and was sat down with around 20 other ladies who were all waiting for different operations, I was called for a check up to go through allergies and to sign the constent form and was sat back in the waiting room ready to be called down to theatre.
A few hours later I was called to go down and that was when the nerves hit me again,I was so worried when I saw the theatre room I almost passed out but the lovely nurses saw how nervous I was and they managed to calm my nerves, The next thing I knew I has a tap put in the back of my hand and the anethetist was putting the needle into it, I slowly drifted off to sleep and that was the last I remember until I woke up in the recovery room totally unaware of what had just gone on and I was a little confussed but I was wheeled onto the ward and was very well looked after by some brilliant and very funny nurses.
The doctor eventually came round to the ward to discuss the procedures with us all and he got round to me and explained that they had manage to remove the large cyst I had but they had also found some evidence of a previous infection which had left a serious amount of damage to my tubes, They cleared the infection and did a dye test which showed very little movement, I was then sent home with my husband.

A few months later I had the crippling pains in my side again and I went back to see my GP who refered me back to the specialist who performed my operation, He explained that lower abdominal pain I was having was because of the damaged to my tubes which had been caused by the previous infection, He suggested another laparoscopy and remove the damaged part of my tube.
The day of my second operation came and I was a little nervous but not as much as the first time, The same procedure was followed and when I came back round I was taken to the ward and looked after for a little bit, I was kept in over night as my blood presure was a little lower than they would have liked. The following morning the specialist came round and explained that they had to remove the tube because of the state it was left in, I was also told that my other tube was very blocked and there was nothing they could do to repair either, he then went on to explain that It would be highly unlikely that I would ever conceive again naturally so self funded IVF was my only option.

All of the above left me in a very confussed state of mind, I was very upset to say the least and have struggled to cope with the diagnosis, since reading up on things i've come to understand it's not the end of the world, I still beat myself up for not being more aware and avoiding going to the doctors way before I did but there is some hope and miracles do happen!!

If you've managed to get to this point firstly well done and I hope that my situation can help some of you see how important it is too be aware.


Sarah.