Gemma Murray talks about how she underwent a tummy tuck - not knowing she was pregnant - and how she initially thought her “bloating" and "nausea" were related to the procedure.
00:00My name is Gemma Williams. It was the 15th of August 2024. I'd had three children, lost quite a bit of weight, but always had this kind of saggy pouch at the bottom of my stomach.
00:11I did my four-year nursing degree, got to the end, had a first class honors and just thought, do you know what, I'm going to treat myself and get the Sammy Tech done before I start my job as a registered nurse.
00:22So recovery-wise, like six weeks after the operation, I thought, God, I'm making really slow progress. I was still finding it hard to reach up into the cupboard and get things, and I was supposed to go back to work in a week's time.
00:36I said, there's no way I'm going to be able to go back to work. I was having this nausea as well, which I was putting down to having pain throughout the day, and then my body reacting by feeling sick and feeling nauseous through the day,
00:48so I didn't kind of suspect that was anything out of the norm. But, yeah, as things, as time went on, it kind of became apparent that, I don't know, I felt like something wasn't right.
01:00But anyway, after about eight to ten weeks, it did start to feel a bit better. I went back to work and kind of put it behind me.
01:07I was having this ongoing bloating, which is quite normal for after a tummy tuck. That can go on for up to anything, up to 12 to 18 months, I was told by the surgeon.
01:18So I was having this bloating. I said, oh, do you know, I'm really not happy. I said in the evenings, I get this terrible bloating in my stomach, and I actually pulled my top up and showed her it.
01:26And she looked at my belly button, and she said, are you sure you're not pregnant? I said, there's no way. I said, how could it happen? It couldn't happen.
01:34So she said, just because we were there in the hospital, shall I do a pregnancy test? I said, yeah, okay. I was on my lunch break, I gave her the urine, I walked away, and I went back onto my ward,
01:44and I worked about four or five hours before I messaged her. And then I wasn't in a rush, so I kind of messaged, yeah, did you do that test for me?
01:51And she said, I think you'd better come over here and see me. And I was in the middle of eating my porridge, I just dropped my spoon, and I ran down the corridor, because I knew that she would have just said, yes, fine, it's negative if it was.
02:02So I ran down the corridor, and she said, you are pregnant. The shock. I was just curled up in the corner in a ball, thinking, I can't believe this has happened, to be honest.
02:13I just couldn't believe it. And at the time, me and my partner were separated as well, so that made it a little bit more tricky.
02:19Obviously, I couldn't, it was hard to put a time frame on it, because I'd had the pregnancy test before the procedure, so I couldn't work out when this could have happened.
02:28And then I had the scan, and obviously they came back then and said I was 21 weeks pregnant.
02:32The initial shock was just like, oh my god, 21 weeks, it was two weeks before Christmas, and none of my family knew, and it was all that.
02:39But also then, when you're in the cold light of day, and you start to think about it, you think, oh my gosh, I've undergone such a big procedure while being pregnant.
02:48I've had anaesthetic, and then following, feeling better. We got on holidays to Turkey as well, so then I'd been drinking and all these things.
02:55So it was, yeah, it was a bit of a, you know, a scary time, and going through all the checks as well.
03:01I mean, because I was 21 weeks, I'd missed quite a lot of the screening programmes relating to pregnancy, because I was too far down the line.
03:06But what, obviously, what they could scan, and they could see then, all looked well.
03:11But there was that period of time of worry of, is everything going to be okay?
03:15And I did see the surgeon as well, just to discuss anaesthetic and the effects that could have had on the baby.
03:22He's beautiful, yeah, absolutely beautiful, yeah. He is just the apple of my eye, yeah, beautiful.
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