Guest Author - Tammy Blough

Note from Krissi: This is a story that was emailed to me by Tammy Blough, who asked me to share it.

I feel it is very important to share my story so that what happened to me won't happen to other women. When I was 24 I went to my gynecologist for a regular checkup. While I was there the doctor informed me that I had a bad bacterial infection and sent me to have an ultrasound.

When they did the ultrasound, they found a small cyst on my left ovary. The doctors told me the cyst was the size of a nickel and it was nothing to worry about but they wanted to keep an eye on it. After countless ultrasounds they told me that the cyst was not growing and I should have no problems with it. I asked if I should have the cyst removed and I was told there was no need.

Two years later, my husband and I decide to start a family, never thinking this cyst could cause any problems. I found out I was pregnant at the end of January, two days later I had started cramping and then I started to bleed. My husband rushed me to the hospital, and after hours of waiting, they decided to do an internal ultrasound. The baby didn't show on the ultrasound but they said I was only about two weeks pregnant and that the baby was probably to small to see yet. They told me I had a cyst and that I would need to see the OBGYN the next day.

The next day when I went to the new doctor he told me that the cyst had grown from my pregnancy hormones and was now the same size as my uterus. Three weeks after the pain started I found out that I had lost the baby because of the cyst. No one told me that this was a possibility. If they would have told me I would have insisted that it was removed before trying to get pregnant.

I insisted on having surgery right after I found out I lost the baby. I had the surgery two months later to have the cyst removed. Because of the size of the cyst I almost lost my ovary on my left side. My new doctor was wonderful and saved the ovary.

I have been trying to get pregnant since I was released from my new doctor to do so. It has been almost a year since I lost that baby and there are still days that I don't want to get up. I try every month to get pregnant with no luck yet. I know that getting pregnant will not ease my loss of the first baby, but it will give me something to look forward to.

The important thing to me right now is to let other women with ovarian cysts know that these cysts are not "nothing to worry about." There is a chance that pregnancy hormones will make them grow. If only someone would have told me, I could have avoided a lot of pain and misery. No one could possibly imagine what I went through those three weeks when I didn't know if I lost the baby or not. Even those who miscarry further along in their pregnancy do not know what three weeks of not knowing can do to you. I have heard it all from "if it happens then it is for the best" to "how bad can it be you only knew that you were pregnant for sure for two days." And the worst comment of all time is, "It will happen again when it is time." I feel like telling these people that if you never lost a child you will never know.