I slept ok the entire night on Thursday. I didn’t feel anything strange after taking Mifepristone the first day. I also had to take doxycycline with food twice a day. I felt sad. I felt angry. But I didn’t feel anything yet physically. I was just exhausted. I took Thursday and Friday off from work. Everything I read on recovery indicated that I could return to my normal routine after a few days (yeah right), except for having sex and strenuous exercise.
I woke up Friday morning and saw that I had a little bit of blood on the pad. The spotting must have meant the first pill was working. Whew. The Dr. at Planned Parenthood told me I could take the second pills (Misoprostol) up to 48 hours later. The paperwork and a few nurses said 24 hours later. Hmmm. I wondered why I was getting different information. I thought the Dr. misspoke and blew it off.
The first pill, Mifespristone, was the pill that would kill the connection between me and the baby – the progesterone would be cut off and therefore deprive my uterus of what it needed to let the baby continue to thrive. I had my doubts about the 24 hr waiting period in between pills and thought to wait longer, for more blood to show on my pad and to make sure the progesterone had completely been cut off but decided to take it after 24 hours as my documentation said. What if I waited longer and that screwed things up? I was confused. I was on hold for 20 minutes with Planned Parenthood and just wanted to get it over with already. I don’t know if this 24 -48 or even 72 hour wait time makes a difference on whether the pill is successful at emptying your uterus or not. I’ve read different recommendations. But I started the second pills exactly after 24 hours. It was noon. I was told to take anti-nausea/diarrhea medication 30 minutes before (Promethazine) and so I did.
I put the Misoprostol pills in between my cheek and gums in my lower jaw, two on each side. I waited 30 minutes for them to dissolve, which they didn’t and was expected. I was supposed to swallow the rest of the undissolved pills with a glass of water after 30 minutes. The pills weren’t bitter, just chalky. It was around 12:45 pm. I waited for something to start happening.
Friday 2pm (one hour after Misoprostol): I had already started to feel a slight tug in my uterus, like gravity was doing something to it. It was a stretchy feeling down there and discomfort that made me want to lie down. But what happened first was feeling an immense urge to poop. I thought it was gas at first but what came on was the worst diarrhea ever. I felt like my body was trying to push everything out. I didn’t feel nauseated, I just had to keep going to poo like 3 times before I got a sign that I was expelling blood.
At about 2:45pm (one hour 45 minutes after Misoprostol): I was making tea –felt no cramps yet just diarrhea- when I felt something wet in my pad. I thought this must be it. I rushed to the bathroom and it was a clot about the size of a quarter on one end but long and stringy and uneven throughout, about 4 inches long. It wasn’t white as some people described the gestational sac. It was dark red. I examined it. It didn’t look like anything. It didn’t look like a normal menstrual clot, which I usually get during my periods. It was much bigger with different types of tissue attached but it was the same color as a menstrual clot. Remember, I was 5 weeks and 2 days pregnant. Maybe this is why the gestational sac wasn’t so obvious to me.
Every hour and a half I had to go to the restroom to poo and along with the diarrhea I would push out a clot. I expelled about 4 smaller clots until about 9pm that night. I had a pad on but didn’t wait to soak it. My bleeding wasn’t liquid it was mainly clotting so I would go to the bathroom instead and the blood or clot would come out there. You may be told not to do this so you can measure the amount of blood you are expelling but I had a pretty good idea of what heavy bleeding looked like and it looked this wasn’t it.
I was given Tylenol #3 for pain. They told me to take it only if I needed it. I thought Extra Strength Tylenol would be enough for pain and Tylenol #3 would be a back up…but boy was I wrong!
The strange part is that I didn’t get my extreme cramps until days later. I was able to sleep Friday night after taking my Tylenol #3. Maybe it was because I was so tired. I felt dull throbbing pain down there but nothing extreme Friday night. I slept and waited to begin another day Saturday with less clots and waiting to go back to my “normal routine”.
Not the easy way out. 