I was catching up with a friend recently and learned that she had, in the years since we’d last spoken, nearly died from an ectopic pregnancy. Hearing that felt sad and spooky.

Ectopic pregnancies, for those of you who don’t know, occur when the fertilized egg implants outside of the main chamber of the uterus. Generally this means the fertilized egg is stuck in the fallopian tube, but they can be in more exciting places. This fertilized egg cannot be brought to term—the fetus can’t develop and survive anywhere but the uterus, because the rest of the abdomen (including the fallopian tube) lacks the blood flow and nutrients and the ability to stretch and encompass a growing fetus. If the fetus grows enough while not in the uterus, it will kill the parent.

My friend didn’t recognize her condition before she was already in trouble. She spent a good while close to death in the hospital as a result. All I could think as she shared this was, “the bad old days are closer than they appear.”