The Day My Mom Saved My Life…

By Joyce Davis

I had a boyfriend once that used to beat me. One day I finally got the nerve to leave him and got my own apartment down the street from my sister’s house. My daughter was a baby and she stayed with his mother. I was by myself, young, and scared.

I thought that I was pregnant because I missed my cycle and I told some friends how terrified I was about it. I was poor and had no money. I could not afford to go to the doctor. They did not have pregnancy tests at stores then. My friends gave me all kinds of advice to get rid of the baby myself. The one I remember is jumping down the stairs because I did that. Then I thought how stupid I was for doing it.

A month later I had forgotten about the whole thing when I was in my apartment alone and had a sharp pain in my stomach. I went to the bathroom and I was spotting with even more sharp pains. I got in my car to drive myself to the hospital but then thought I better go to my sister’s house and get one of them to drive me. When I arrived, she had people over as well as my oldest sister.

I lay on the floor in pain and I told them I needed to go to the hospital. They thought I was just on my cycle. Since I was fifteen I had very painful cycles so they’ve seen me in pain before. My oldest sister thought I was being dramatic and offered me some liquor to take away the pain.

As I lay there, I started having chills. I could feel the blood draining from my body and I was getting colder. I started telling them goodbye and that I loved them.

My mom came over to the house and saw me lying on the floor and asked me why I was on the floor. I told her I was dying and I needed to go to the hospital. Being a mom, she said get up let’s go to the hospital.

I woke up to her slapping me in the face asking me what her name was. My sister and I just talked about the story and she told me the moment I stood up I threw up and passed out and went into convulsions. All these years and I never knew I fell down flat on my face in my own vomit. I do remember waking up to my mom slapping me in the face and asking me what her name was. I said “Ma?” She told me I passed out. I remember all the way to the hospital I kept telling myself “Don’t pass out, don’t pass out”.

By the time I got to the hospital the pain was unbearable. It felt like my entire body was on fire. I had to get a blood transfusion because I was bleeding internally and had lost a lot of blood. I still remember the doctor telling me that we have no way of checking if the person that donated this blood had aids or not. If you accept this blood the hospital is not responsible if you contract AIDS.

I was shaking when I signed that form.

After it was all done the doctor told me I would have died had I gotten there thirty minutes later. If my mom had not shown up no one would know me on twitter. It was 1992 and Twitter did not exist.

I think about this when I think about them making abortions illegal. Desperate people do desperate things. I can’t say if my actions caused the ectopic pregnancy but I can say that young people give other young people dumb advice.

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