Hey, of course, really happy to share & hopefully it'll help you in some way. Glad you've had an initial appointment to get things moving & hope there's not too much waiting for you, no matter how confident you are of your decision it's a tough time so I really feel for you. I was in a similar situation with 2 young children & had 2 abortions 8 months apart (I still struggle to believe this even happened not once but twice)
The first was a medical abortion for a pregnancy which was just over 6 weeks at the time of taking the pills. The first pill, mifepristone, was fine, total non event & just waited for the 24 hours to be up before taking the next lot to actually start the bleeding. The second lot I took orally which in hindsight wasn't the best option for me as they made me feel really sick, I took myself off to bed for a couple of hours & woke up much better. I timed it for when my husband was around so I knew I didn't have to deal with the kids if I couldn't.
Bleeding started perhaps 3-4 hours after taking the second lot of tablets, I had the most minimal cramping & it was very short lived, totally manageable & didn't need pain relief or anything. The bleeding increased to a heavy period, some clots but by no means big. I didn't see the pregnancy pass but by the next morning the bleeding had tailed off & remained what I'd call a normal amount for my usual period for a few days, then tailed off again to nothing over the next few days. All done & dusted within a week. Aside from the couple of hours sickness with the second set of pills it was totally manageable, I could go about my daily life, look after the kids etc.. the pregnancy test they send you was negative at 3 weeks & period returned as usual pretty much exactly 4 weeks after I took the tablets.
The surgical one (which i chose because I felt that in slightly different circumstances with the next pregnancy the surgical option was better). I was with BPAS who were fab & although the default option is pills were totally happy to accommodate my preference of surgical. At the time of the consultation I was about 5 1/2 weeks, had a scan to check pregnancy location & then had a 2 week wait for my actual surgery - I'm not sure if it's the case in all areas but they only do surgery one day every 2 weeks in the local unit to me & i'd just missed the last one, I didn't expect quite such a long wait. The waiting was awful as by that point morning sickness had kicked in with a vengeance & I felt terrible, constant nausea & sick multiple times per day that I seriously questioned why on earth i'd opted for surgery. Eventually after nearly 2 weeks of suffering it was the day for surgery when I was almost 8 weeks. There was a lot of waiting around (totally get it can't be helped) so I arrived at about 1pm I think & saw a midwife who did some checks & consent. Gave me a misoprostol pill to keep in my gums for an hour to soften cervix & sent me back to the waiting room. I think I was last on the list as went through to get ready about 3:45pm, got changed & waited for them to be ready. Procedure took about 15 mins max from walking in. I went for local anaesthetic as it meant I could drive myself home & didn't need to get my husband involved. It was painful injecting it & had some very intense cramps for the first minute or 2 of the procedure. There was someone there to basically look after me & they were lovely, distracting me & making sure I was alright. I was scanned throughout the procedure to ensure it was all removed which meant my entire bottom half was totally exposed to everyone, not the end of the world but usually with a smear or with a vaginal scan you get a little bit of paper to cover you, feels like there's a bit more dignity!
After the procedure I sat in the recovery room for about 20 mins, had a cuppa & they checked bleeding. I felt a bit lightheaded afterwards & VERY emotional (I cried a lot!) but they looked after me well. Then I was discharged, given antibiotics & told what to look out for in terms of infection etc.. I was there for about 4 1/2 hours in total I think.
Bleeding wise it was very minimal, less than a normal period but needed a pad for a couple of days. I woke up the next day feeling amazing, no longer nauseous & I could finally eat & drink normally.
However the bleeding just didn't tail off, it just kept being there when I wiped & had occasional bleeds - nothing massive but always something. The aftercare booklet tells you to expect bleeding for up to 2 weeks so I ignored it initially, expecting it to settle. After nearly 3 weeks I called the aftercare line who said it was probably normal, that the surgeon was confident everything had been removed as it was done surgically with ultrasound but they sent me for a scan just to check. I then took a pregnancy test just to see & it was a blazing positive. When I went for the scan it Turned out I had retained products (left over pregnancy tissue but no ongoing pregnancy) so was given more misoprostol to try & get my body to expel it itself & had to go back just over a week later (their next surgery day) to have another scan & if the tablets hadn't shifted it they would do the surgical procedure again that same day. The tablets increased the bleeding & I passed a large black lump of something but scan showed it was still there so I ended up having a second surgical 4 weeks after the first. From finding out I was pregnant to things starting to get back to normal was just under 10 weeks.
So for me the surgical was good in the sense that bleeding was minimal bit aside from that everything about the pills was better for me personally. It was quicker, easier, done in the privacy of my own home & should I ever find myself in that position again (which I never intend to) i'd pick medical every time. It gave me closure much quicker & I was back to normal much sooner.
I realise I was unlucky needing the surgical repeating but even without that it was still long & drawn out, both in terms of waiting but also on the day. I also found it much more emotional as there was an exact moment where I knew the pregnancy was no longer, with the medical it just felt like a normal period.
I'm sorry that's so insanely long but hope it helps you in some way. We're all different & each pregnancy is different so you might have a totally different experience to me but I definitely found it helped to hear other people & what happened to them.
Sending you a big hug 😊