'Agonising holiday from hell changed my life - I just wanted to go home'
While embarking on her dreamy Grecian holiday, Anna May couldn't have been more excited. But then, she woke up with a pain she has since likened to 'full-blown labour'
As she jetted off to Greece, Anna May was eagerly looking forward to a week of fun and sunshine with her family, little knowing that she was about to embark on a true holiday from hell.
The family checked into a gorgeous villa near the stunning city of Chania, complete with their own private pool. But their little slice of paradise quickly turned into a nightmare following a horror health scare.
For the first few days, the mum-of-two threw herself into holiday activities, enjoying plenty of dining out and making special memories with her husband and their two sons. A keen swimmer, she even made sure to swim 50 laps of the pool.
Before getting on the plane, Anna, from Wiltshire, had no inkling that anything was wrong whatsoever. The now 49-year-old had noticed she was struggling to lose weight around her stomach, despite leading an active lifestyle, but put this down to being a symptom of perimenopause.
Then, a couple of days into what should have been a dream trip, Anna woke up one morning in "the most horrific pain (she'd) ever experienced." Anna told the Mirror: "It was like full-blown labour. With no warning. So literally went from like zero to 100 in terms of pain."
Being in that amount of agony was terrifying enough, but being in a foreign country made things even more "scary". With Anna barely able to stand, it was clear that urgent treatment was needed, and so her panicked husband and sons contacted emergency services, while she managed to get to a bed on the ground floor of the villa.
The ambulance arrived, and Anna was "whizzed" through the mountains to the hospital, where the family were, of course, faced with "quite an extreme language barrier". By this point, Anna was "howling" and "wailing" in pain, but was thankfully well cared for by the medical team, who she remembers as being "incredibly kind and amazing".
At first, it was believed that Anna was suffering from appendicitis, a condition whereby a patient experiences painful swelling and infection in their appendix, an organ which forms part of your bowel. But then, scans showed something unexpected - a "huge cyst" on one of Anna's ovaries.
As per information given on the NHS website, an ovarian cyst refers to a fluid-filled sac that develops on a woman's ovary. A common occurrence, these usually don't cause any symptoms, and will go away within a few months without any treatment needed.
In Anna's case, however, the situation was much more serious. Surgery is sometimes required for larger cysts that exceed 10cm, particularly if these are causing discomforting symptoms.
As Anna explained, she had "no clue" that the cyst had been there. Medics began preparing her for surgery to have the cyst removed, but being in a country where she didn't speak the language naturally presented hurdles.
Anna recalled: "Before going into surgery. I had to sign a consent form, and they said to me, 'We're so sorry, Anna, but it's in Greek. So you just have to trust us.' I was like, I am in so much pain that you know what, I've just signed it. I've just got to be sorted because this is so horrific."
After waking up from surgery, there were, unfortunately, further shocks in store. Anna shared: "The next thing I knew, I woke up and they said, 'Sorry, when we removed the cyst, we also had to remove an ovary as well.'"
Looking back on her initial thoughts at this moment, Anna reflected: "I was just blown away, really. It almost felt like a bit of a dream, because I was like, 'I can just cannot believe this is happening, you know. Two days ago, I was lying on the beach, now I'm lying in a hospital bed in a foreign country with no ovary.' And I was obviously in absolute agony, you know it's major abdominal surgery."
By this point, Anna was " desperate to get home" and longed for her own bed. However, there was still a way to go, and doctors kept her in the hospital for a few days before allowing her to leave.
As they'd been due to fly home, the family also had to sort out extending their flights, with the hospital telling Anna that there was "no way" she was fit for travel after undergoing emergency surgery.
Thankfully, Anna says everybody she dealt with during this rebooking process was "phenomenal", during what was otherwise a "very horrific experience".
Anna considered: "Actually, I almost looked back on it with quite a lot of fondness because everybody was so kind and I was so well looked after, even down to the staff at the airport being incredible.
"You know, they met me with a wheelchair and they put me on the plane and then they met me in England with a wheelchair, and so you know they were I was very, very well looked after.
"It was just a very, very scary experience, and I think if it had happened and kind of been planned, it still would have been big and scary, but you know, to have been in a country and be completely unexpected was kind of another level, really."
Once back in the UK, Anna had to take six weeks off from work to recover, and this time gave her the time she needed to reevaluate her career and make some significant changes.
Despite the pain she endured, three years on and Anna is "grateful" for the perspective her nightmare ordeal brought.
Before her surgery, Anna had worked part-time in admin for a company where she says she was made to feel as though she wasn't "very capable", despite having run her own businesses for years.
Opening up about the bullying she says she and others experienced at the company, Anna said: "Everybody in the office felt like they were being undermined all the time, and it was really sad actually.
"There were some incredible people working there who all just felt very undervalued, undermined, and very patronised all the time. And I just got to the point that I thought, 'I'm just not prepared to put up with that anymore. You know, I know I'm capable, and I don't deserve to be treated like that.' And actually, nobody deserves to be treated like that."
A strong believer that everything happens for a reason, Anna used her time away from the office to take stock and ultimately decided to hand in her notice and begin a new path. But not before letting her old boss know exactly what she thought of them.
Nowadays, Anna works as a mindset and manifestation coach and runs an academy, "helping people shift their mindset". Many of those she works with are those in midlife who are struggling with "feeling stuck" or having low self-worth.
For Anna, helping her clients "shift their perspective on life" has proven deeply rewarding. She noted: "I think my story is a good example of that to be a positive spin on everything and take the goodness out of situations and use it to drive you forward rather than keeping you held back."
Although she now looks back on her personal Greek saga as an important turning point in her life, she and her family have yet to return to what she describes as a "beautiful" yet "bittersweet" place.
Anna explained: "At the moment, (my sons) aren't that keen on returning. I think for them it was really hard, obviously, to see their mum in so much pain. It was really frightening for them, and obviously, we're going away on a beautiful family holiday, and they end up spending their holiday in the ward, checking that I'm okay.
"We will return, we definitely will, but I think it almost needed a few years for us all to kind of get over the experience and connect with the happy memories of it rather than the traumatic event."
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