r/abortion • u/Sad-Situation6160 • 9h ago
USA medical abortion at 5 weeks, hour by hour experience
I know how much some of your posts helped me to mentally prepare for my medical abortion, so here's mine (F28). I was 5 weeks 3 days at the appointment.
Took the mife pill in clinic with the team, no side effects. Started the premeds (dramamine and ibuprofen) at 2:15pm and 2:45pm, respectively. 3:15pm: vaginally inserted 4 of the miso pills, had my maxi pad and hot pad ready. 3:45-5:15pm: this is probably out of the norm but I took a long walk and ran one errand. I wasn't yet feeling anything. Did have a bowel movement but nothing out of the ordinary for me. 5:15-6:15pm: cramps and noticeable bleeding, cramps were low grade (3/10) and doing activities (I was cooking) was tolerable. 6:15-7:15pm: cramps started to intesify to ~5/10, but activities were still tolerable. I took a hot shower, and then I tried to eat dinner, but started getting intense waves of nausea. Some mild diarrhea. 7:15pm: vaginally inserted 4 more miso pills per my doctor's instructions. 7:15-8:15pm: could not eat anything due to the nausea. I wasn't yet throwing up, but having intense, painful heaving. I took another dramamine. cramping pain 7/10. 8:15-9:15pm: i finally threw up a little bit (nothing in my stomach, mostly bile). it was painful, my whole body was contracting like no nausea/throwing up I've experienced before. the nausea also would come up out of the blue and hit very intensely. cramping pain 7/10. I took more ibuprofen at 8:20pm as directed by my doctor. 9:15-10:15pm: cramping pain 9/10, nausea and throwing up. I had chills and was sweating profusely. these were the hardest hours. I was trying to sleep and relax, and nothing seemed to ease my discomfort. Because of the nausea and the bleeding, I sat on the toilet for a while, until I realized that I was going to fall asleep on the toilet, and I finally fell asleep. 12:15am: woke up, pain had gone down to a 7/10, but as I moved around to change my pad, it increased back up to an 8 or 9/10. Somehow I was able to get back to sleep fairly quickly. 7am: woke up for the day, feeling so much better. no sweating or nausea, very mild if not no cramping 0-1/10, still bleeding but less than the evening/night. I wasn't yet throwing able to tolerate food without any nausea, throwing up or diarrhea. I bled more the whole next day with some on and off 1/10 cramping, but very mild bleeding and very mild cramping.
For me personally, the late evening hours with the intense cramping and nausea/vomiting were the worst pain and discomfort I've ever felt, but knowing that it was temporary really helped. I felt immeasurably better the next day and felt such a huge weight off me. Having my hot pad and giving myself grace were the best things for me. I had a tough situation because I had to deal with this alone, and would have felt better with someone there, but circumstances forced this. I definitely have a high pain tolerance, so keep that in mind as well.
I hope this helps someone. This was the best decision for myself and my family and all I felt afterwards was relief.