Pregnancy Tests

Looking back at this makes me laugh, because I could have been one of those women on that show ‘I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant’. It wasn’t as if I had none of the symptoms of pregnancy; I had none of the proof. It started with the nausea and vomiting, then the flatulence and excessive use of the bathroom. You could say I was a textbook pregnant woman.

I had my period on time until my fifth month of pregnancy so that was not an indicator in any way. Feeling the way I felt I took a pregnancy test. My heart was thumping and my mind was racing. Two minutes felt like two hours all for a negative test. Negative. Ok, so I must be having a stomach bug or something.

 

Weeks went on and the symptoms seemed to worsen. I felt awful and decided to take another test, this one was inconclusive. Mr and I decided to see a doctor who took a blood sample, which was negative so he chalked my illness up to a severe case of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. I decided to go for a second and third opinion and the same came up – Negative urine and blood tests.

 

My health got worse and worse until I was admitted to hospital, convinced that I had colon cancer. The nurse drew multiple vials of blood and took another urine sample. “Do you think you could be pregnant?” she asked “I don’t know” I replied. I was exhausted and trying to mentally prepare myself for the worst. I remember crying in that hospital bed, because I had no idea what was wrong and how to fix it.

 

The next morning they did further pregnancy tests (still negative), but I was put on an IV which made me feel much better (I hadn’t eaten a full meal in weeks). The doctor came in and told me that they were going to wheel me down to have an ultrasound and I was booked for a scope at 3pm. I remember thinking ‘this is really happening; I have cancer’.

 

The woman was quite accommodating as she took the ultrasound. She hesitated, running the transducer probe over my stomach again and again. Then she stopped “Do you know you are pregnant?”

 

Let’s be honest – I wouldn’t have been there if I knew I was pregnant. So why weren’t all those pregnancy tests positive? I had low Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) levels, which is also known as the ‘pregnancy hormone’, hence the negative pregnancy tests. So it wasn’t cancer, it was a baby.

Did you have negative pregnancy tests, but you were pregnant? Do you have an interesting pregnancy test story to tell? Let me know! I’d love to hear from you.

 

Love and Blessings,