Four days before I was due to get my period, I knew I was pregnant and I knew something was wrong. I was having cramps on one side of my abdomen, and when I googled "early pregnancy cramps one side," the words "ectopic pregnancy" appeared. I only had a vague and ominous idea of what that meant, but quickly learned it happens when a fertilized egg implants and grows outside the main cavity of the uterus, usually in the fallopian tube. If the fallopian tube ruptures, it can almost immediately cause life-threatening bleeding. By definition, ectopic pregnancies are never viable and never result in a baby.
On the day of my missed period, I took a pregnancy test that came back faintly positive. Unlike the positive pregnancy test that had resulted in my son, who was now a vibrant three-and-a-half-year-old well into his "why?" phase, this one didn't spark excitement and iPhone photos of the test on my bathroom counter. I had badly wanted to be pregnant — my husband and I had always planned to have two kids — but I felt only dread, knowing something was off inside my body. In the middle of the night, I woke up to shoulder pain, one of the hallmarks of ectopic pregnancy. In a panic that I could be in imminent danger, I roused my husband and had him drive me to the emergency room.
