AnnaMaria
For nearly five years, Anna woke every morning with severe abdominal pain. Her husband, a doctor, dismissed her complaints: “It’s just gastritis. Don’t make things up—take some pills.”
At first, she believed him. She tolerated the pain, thinking it would pass, taking the medication he handed her, and learning to live with discomfort like people live with constant noise or fatigue.
But over time, the pain changed. It wasn’t just burning or dull—it felt like something was moving inside her, pressing, shifting, rolling.
One night, around 3:30 a.m., the pain struck like a knife twisting under her ribs. She gasped and begged for help: “Call an ambulance… it’s moving in there.”
Her husband dismissed her, giving her pills and insisting she go back to sleep. By lunchtime, her abdomen had swollen so much that she looked as if she were in her last months of pregnancy. Trembling, she checked the mirror—and saw movement beneath her skin.
A neighbor, seeing her distress, called an ambulance. At the hospital, the doctor examined her and went silent. Surgery revealed the horrifying truth: a massive abscess had been growing inside her for years, pressing on her organs and causing the strange sensations she had felt.
The surgeon later said: “This couldn’t have developed in a month or even a year. It took several years. How did you even live to see this day?”
Anna survived. The doctors confirmed that a rupture was imminent, and she might not have lived much longer. Later, it came to light that her husband had known about the condition all along. He had seen the tests, the X-rays—but ignored them.
Even worse, he had been having an affair, and Anna’s worsening illness conveniently distracted from his infidelity.
After her recovery, Anna filed for divorce, finally breaking free from the silence that had nearly killed her.
