I Was In So Much Pain I Couldn't Stand Upright. It Took 17 Years For A Doctor To Listen.

"Then the doctor smiled and said something I’ll never forget. I burst into tears in my hospital bed."

At 8 p.m., a sold-out crowd was waiting for me to walk onstage.

At 8:05 p.m., I had to stab a needle into my stomach.

I was backstage, doubled over in pain, a heating pad taped to my lower back, trying to steady my hand long enough to inject an IVF trigger shot into a stomach already bruised from weeks of hormones.

The audience was laughing, sipping drinks and waiting for a comedy show to start. I was trying to jab a needle into myself while silently praying the pain ripping across my hips and spine would ease enough for me to stand upright under the stage lights.

When I asked the stage manager if we could hold the house for five minutes, he rolled his eyes, assuming, I’m sure, that I needed extra time for mascara. When he saw the needle, his jaw dropped. He probably thought I was doing drugs. In a way, I was. Just not the fun kind.