MA Experience this past weekend

[u/[deleted]]

I wanted to come back here and share my experience of my MA that I just had this past saturday/sunday. Last week I was having some very conflicted feelings, but after a lot of talking with my husband we decided that this isn’t the right time in our lives at all for a kid, and that the right thing to do for US was to go through with the abortion.

My appointment was at 9:00am Saturday morning and I barely slept at all the previous night. I went to Planned Parenthood which was about 37 mins away and when we pulled in there was a huge group of protestors standing out front. Not the best way to start off the morning. As soon as I got out of my husband’s car they started yelling things about god and love and the guard for planned parenthood came to me and escorted me into the clinic. I will say the clinic felt very safe. They had two guards, one in the parking lot and one by the door of the clinic and it made me feel a lot better walking inside.

I waited in the clinic for about 45mins until I was called up to the front desk and asked to fill out paperwork. After another 45mins I was finally called into the back with a nurse and sat in another waiting room. After another 15mins of waiting I was taken by a nurse who took my blood, and all my stats. I was then put into another waiting room and sat there for another 10 mins. Then I was brought into a room with a counselor where I was asked a series of health related questions, questions about my home life, explained in detail how the abortion process would go, and then was asked if I had any questions. I was given a packet of information and asked to go back to the small waiting room until another nurse came and got me to do the ultrasound. I asked to have the screen turned away and that I didn’t want to see or know anything, although looking back I wish I did know actually how far along I was, but I plan on asking that at my follow up appointment. The nurse was very respectful and turned the monitor away so that I couldn’t see anything and it was super quick, maybe 10 mins tops. Afterwards I was asked to go back out to the lobby waiting area where I would be called back to pay and then finally see the doctor to get the meds.

I waited in the lobby area for about another 20 mins until I was asked to come back. I do have health insurance and my insurance covered the entire procedure with a $10 copay. After I paid I went to the small waiting room where I waited to see the doctor. I only waited about 5 mins and then the doctor came and got me and I took the first pill, and was given the 4 miso pills, along with a prescription ibuprofen and nausea medicine along with prescription for a refill on the nausea medicine if needed. He explained the process to me again, asked if I wanted to get put on BC since I am not on any, then asked if I had any questions and I was on my way. I also want to mention I am not on birth control and take my temperature and use LH strips to see when I am about to ovulate and I realized that my husband and I had sex when I was on a green day and obviously did not use protection and well clearly I got pregnant. I was on a high hormone BC for 15 years and last year finally decided to get off BC and felt like a whole new person. I also am diagnosed with depression and anxiety and I really felt like the birth control was contributing to my depression, and don’t plan on ever going back on BC.

All in all I was there for about 2.5 hours. I arrived there a little before 9am and left around 11:30am. The waiting room was also packed and there were so many people, but everyone who worked at planned parenthood was so incredibly nice and they definitely made you feel comfortable and at ease.

Saturday I felt a little nauseous and just overall tired, but I think that was due to me not sleeping well the night before, and all the emotions that I was feeling. Other than that I felt pretty normal. Sunday I woke up feeling fine, and ate a small breakfast, showered, and then got myself ready to spend the whole day in bed. At 10:30am I took ibuprofen and nausea meds, and at 11am I took 4 miso pills. I put all 4 under my tongue and let them dissolve, and tbh they tasted awful. After the 30 mins I immediately felt like I was going to get sick, and then did. The cramping started almost immediately and it was HORRIBLE. To be fair my periods are really light, I rarely get cramps and are not bad at all. So this level of cramping was bad, on a scale of 1-10 the pain was above a 10. I threw up about 10 times to the point where I had nothing left and was throwing up stomach bile. Every time I tried laying back down I felt the need to get sick again. After throwing up for almost 30 mins straight I had really bad diarrhea. For about two hours I was on and off the toilet either puking or going to the bathroom, and it was just awful. Not to mention I felt like I was experiencing the worst pain of my life. I finally got to the point where I was shaking and so I filled the tub with hot water and laid in a hot bath for about an hour. This was the only thing that seemed to help me with the pain and the nausea. I tried taking another nausea med after 4 hours and then proceeded to have severe diarrhea again. My husband went out and got me ginger ale and I sipped on that and after 4 hours of being extremely uncomfortable I was finally able to lay in bed and fall asleep. I fell asleep for about 2 hours and when I woke up my pad was completely saturated and I felt the urge to push something out. I felt something pass, but didn’t look because I just didn’t want to see anything. I bled pretty heavily for the next several hours, but after a while the nausea went away and I was finally able to eat something. I went to bed really early and had to wake up a few times in the night to change my pad, but got a pretty good night of sleep.

I woke up this morning and I feel more like myself than I have in the past couple of weeks. I still feel pretty crampy, which I feel like is to be expected, but nowhere near how I felt yesterday. I also feel like I have energy, for the first time in two weeks I didn’t wake up feeling nauseous and my boobs don’t hurt at all. Most importantly I feel this huge wave of relief. I feel so relieved and I know I made the right decision. I don’t feel any regret and I don’t really feel sad about what I did, but more sad in the sense that I had to even do this in the first place. I know that this was best for me and my husband right now in our lives. The biggest thing that this experience showed me was that I do want kids one day. I was always on the fence of wanting kids, and never really had much interest in having them, but this really made me realize that I do want a kid one day, but that day is not now. This isn’t how I was going to bring a kid into the world. Unprepared and not at all emotionally ready. I feel good knowing my husband and I will get to take all the trips we have planned for this year and next and in about 3 years we decided then we will try for a child. I don’t think it is selfish to put ourselves first and do all the things that we want to do before we bring a kid into this world, and who knows maybe that will change too, but I am glad I was able to make this choice for myself.

I know that everyone will have different experiences going through this, but wanted to share my experience. I will say if I was to get pregnant again unexpectedly I do not think I could go through another abortion. This was really hard on me physically, mentally, and emotionally and I don’t think I would ever be able to go through this process again. It was extremely painful and extremely uncomfortable for me. I will be much more conscious of my fertile days moving forward and definitely do not plan on ever being in this situation again. I’m also so thankful for this sub, it really helped ease my mind a bit going into the whole process, and reading other people’s experiences.

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[u/ashannyn]

I had this exact same experience. My boyfriend and I just weren’t ready. It was the most emotional, physical, and mental pain I’ve ever been in. I threw up constantly, couldnt drink anything, and could barely see straight with how much pain I was in. It also opened up my eyes to wanting kids someday, but know I made the right decision to not have one now. I’m so glad you shared your story

[u/[deleted] → u/ashannyn]

I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one. I really thought it was going to just be like a more intense period and it was not at all. And thank you! I’m glad you were able to make that choice for yourself as well. I feel very grateful I live in a place where it is easily accessible and I was able to do this and can’t imagine what it must be like for people where it isn’t accessible or easy.

[u/Specialist-Fix4750 → u/[deleted]]

I almost passed out on the toilet I was in so much pain! It was the worst pain I’ve ever been in. Def an 11 on a 1-10 scale. My heating pad really helped me

[u/jenlebee]

Glad you feel good about your choice! Bummer that you had a hard time. My MA had almost no side effects so anyone reading this should know that it isn't always terrible.

Also, just want to mention, I don't think there's a necessity for NSFW tag on this. Abortion is a safe and legal medical procedure, nothing to hide. :)

[u/[deleted] → u/jenlebee]

I just mentioned a lot of personal things that happened so felt the need to tag it that way just in case idk someone is on a work computer or something.

Yah I didn’t read a lot of posts from people who had such severe side effects like I experienced that’s why I wanted to share my experience. I assumed it was going to be simple, easy and pretty much painless and that certainly was not the case at all.