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This forum was what made me decide to go ahead with misoprostol for my miscarriage, so I wanted to share my experience as well.

On Oct. 24, at 11 weeks I went in for my first OB appointment (it was so late because I had to get a new OB and that was the soonest I could get in). This was my first pregnancy (I’m 23). I’d had all the symptoms of a normal pregnancy but the ultrasound showed no fetus, just an empty gestational sac. I should have been 11 weeks and the sac was measuring 9 weeks, so I came back four days later for another ultrasound and it was the same story—no sign of a fetus at all. My doctor was ready to schedule me for a D&C right then and there, but because of my mediocre insurance it would have run me well over $1000 dollars…which I wasn’t ready to plunk down when I knew there was another option. My doctor was really hesitant to let me do the misoprostol, saying that when she had done it herself she had just hugged her couch and cried for 12 hours and that it had “hurt like hell.”

I wasn’t about to pay $1000 when I could suffer for a few hours and only pay $5. Reading everyone’s experiences here sealed the deal for me. I had some Lortab leftover from an ER visit last year, which was a blessing because my doctor never suggested any narcotics—she just told me to take the maximum dose of ibuprofen and some Benadryl. I’m glad I had the Lortab on hand—I knew keeping it was a good idea!

Anyway, on Friday, Nov. 7 I took off work a little early and picked up my husband from school. Here’s how it went:

3:30 pm -- Inserted four 200 mcg tablets of misoprostol vaginally
I went to the store and bought some Depends because I was worried about bleeding all over (like I had read about here)…I ended up not needing them though.

5:30 pm – mild cramping started
6:00 pm – cramping became uncomfortable and I got the chills
6:30 pm – had a little bit of diarrhea
7:10 pm – took 500 mg of Lortab
8:30 pm – vomited a little, noticed some slight (brown) spotting. Was dizzy from the Lortab. Pacing felt good as my cramps were quite painful, even with the Lortab.

9:40 pm – Severe, very painful cramping. I had the sudden urge to vomit and beelined for the bathroom. Luckily the only thing I’d had since 3:30 was ½ liter of water, because I vomited it all up. While I was vomiting I felt a gush down under (must have been all the abdominal pressure). At first I thought it was blood but I realized shortly that it my water had broken. Then the serious bleeding started. A little later I started passing some clots or tissue or something, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

11:30 pm – I’d been bleeding heavily since my water broke but the cramps had subsided considerably. They were still painful enough to take a Lortab and I went to bed.

4:30 am – woke up to go to the bathroom, no cramping. Still bleeding heavily but not enough to warrant Depends!

~~~

That was a week ago, and since then I have been bleeding, about like a period, but with more clots. I had intermittent cramping for a few days after the miscarriage, but it wasn’t much worse than a period and I only took one naproxen.

Today (one week later) I went into the doctor and had another sonogram and physical exam. The sonogram showed no tissue but some “thick” areas—probably because I’m still bleeding? The OB pulled something off my cervix and said that everything looks good. She said the bleeding can continue for up to 4 weeks, but that I can try to get pregnant again as soon as I want.

As a side note, my doctor said I’m the first patient she’s had who didn’t go to the ER after taking misoprostol. That really surprised me, especially after what I had read here… I guess that’s why she discouraged it. I would do it again if I had to (knock on wood). It was very painful, even with the Lortab—I spent plenty of time shaking from the pain or curled up on the floor—but because I knew what was happening, why it was happening, and that it would eventually end, I knew I could wait it out. If the D&C had been free (or even affordable) I would have done that instead for convenience sake, but the misoprostol wasn’t the hell that I had braced myself for.

I know everyone’s different, but I hope that my experience might help someone make the decision that’s best for them. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences as it helped me make that very decision.

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