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I found out yesterday at 8.5 weeks that my baby no longer had a heartbeat. Exactly a week ago, it did have one and it looked healthy, so we think I lost it just within the last day or two... so it was too soon for my body to realize that the baby was gone. My Dr. gave me the choice to wait it out or to have a D&C... I chose the D&C so that everything could be done and I didnt have to go through the agony of waiting it out. She prescribed me to take 2 cytotec tabs vaginally at 6 am this morning. My procedure was scheduled for 2:45. I had actually read all of your posts before I took the cytotec and was extremely nervous and scared to take it. At 6 am I put the tabs in, put on a pad, climbed back into bed next to my daughter and tried to force myself to sleep. By 9:30 am I woke up with cramps in my back that were beyond belief. My husband was at work and it was just me with my daughter who thankfully was still asleep. My mom luckily called me right after I woke up and because I was crying and in so much pain she came over to stay with me until my appointment. I literally ended up having labor pains in my back and abdomen just like I was going through full blown labor... my dr had instructed me not to eat or drink anything, so I couldn't take anything for pain, and after reading this site I knew this was what pretty much everyone else experienced, therefore I didn't call the dr because what i was going through was obviously not uncommon, so i thought... I walked and cried and just suffered until noon when I had my mom take me to the hospital. On the way into the hospital from the car I started bleeding... a lot. I soaked right through my pad and my clothes. To do a D&C at the hospital some cruel jack a$$ decided it would be nice to put me on the maternity floor. It was a nice experience to be going through what I was going through while the proud parents of a bouncing baby boy were across the hall getting visitors. Anyways, I begged for pain medication, they wouldn't give me anything at all because they said my dr hadn't ordered any. So when they finally wheeled me down to surgery at 3pm, all I wanted was for them to knock me out and do what they need to do. I found out later, that no one had bothered to let my Dr. know what kind of pain I was in. Since she had prescribed me what would be considered a low dose of the cytotec, she didn't expect me to be in pain or to have any problems. I was just overly sensitive to it and it hit me faster and harder than she expected it would. Since I thought everything was normal due to my "research" on cytotec, I hadn't called her either... if I HAD, she would have had me go to the hospital sooner and I could have gotten IV pain meds. So ALWAYS let your Dr. know when and if you have pain with this stuff, because it's not necessarily ok and you DONT have to go through it. I thought it was cruel to make me go through all of that pain just to go in and do the D&C... if that was the case I could have just waited and had the miscarriage on my own. But as it turns out, it was my own fault for assuming that the Dr. wouldn't do anything for me. Not to mention that by the time I went into the hospital (since I waited until my appointment) I had a fever and I was dehydrated. After the D&C which took about a half hour from what I understand I felt completely fine. I had no cramping and it was a great relief. I requested that they not send me back to the maternity floor for recovery so they didn't. I am having some bleeding now, but it's just like a period... they gave me tylenol 3 for pain, but I don't really need it. I have been taking it because my throat hurts very bad from them intubating me while I was under anesthesia, but not because of any cramping. My advice to anyone that has to go through any of this is to know that you are more than likely going to have a lot of pain, so make sure you talk to your doctor ahead of time and find out what your options are. If you are not having the D&C it is probably different, but if you ARE having one, you have other options rather than going through all of the pain. In my case, the Dr. had no idea the ammount of pain I was in and no one at the hospital had informed her, so basically they refused to give me anything without talking to her. She felt really bad and apologized profusely for the way things went for me.Also, don't be stupid like me and assume that because you read peoples posts on message boards and searched 234 websites that all said "this is what you should expect" that everything you are going through is normal, because chances are you'll do more harm than good. I got lucky and it only took being on the IV for a few hours and starting an IV antibiotic to knock my fever out, but that was me. You could be different. I'd also try to find out where they put you in the hospital for recovery and while you wait to go to surgery, because if they try to put you on the maternity floor, I'd ask to be somewhere else. It's hard enough losing your own child and knowing that your going home empty handed but being wheeled past the nursery and the people walking in with balloons and gift bags makes it almost torturous. Most importantly though, don't try to go through it alone. Wait until your husband/boyfriend is home or ask them to take the day off work, or a parent or a friend... I would have someone sit with you because it's an ordeal that takes a toll on you emotionally and physically. If my mom had not been there with me all day I don't know what I would have done.

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