I promised myself I'd write up my experiene of medical abortion after reading so many on here when I was preparing for my own.
I was absolutely terrified of the process. I'm emetophobic so was particularly worried about being sick. But I'd also say I'm prone to panic and not great with pain. I was approx 6 weeks 3 days at the time of the medical abortion at home.
I hope I'm not getting ahead of myself here as I don't know how my recovery will be and hopefully it has all worked etc. But in case it's helpful to someone else desperately searching for positive experiences, mine today has been honestly absolutely fine and nowhere near what I was worried about.
I took the Mifepristone friday morning (48 hours before I planned to do the next stage), and had zero side effets from this tablet. Within about 24 hours had some very light spotting and perhaps the slightest twinge in my lower abdomen, more of a heaviness, like my period would come in a few days.
This morning I took two codeine tablets at 11am and then inserted the 4 tablets vaginally. I lay down for 45 minutes sipping lucozade, nibbling ginger biscuits and trying to keep my mind off things by watching Netflix. I didn't feel anything much but knew I had started to bleed after about an hour. I had bought massive maternity pads so the bleeding didn't look like much and I had no pain at all. I stayed in bed pretty much the entire time, with a hot water bottle on my tummy - I didn't need this, I just had one ready and it was nice and comforting. When I went to the loo (I made sure I drank lots of fluids) I felt a few clots slip out (not painful) and lots of bloody water in the toilet bowl but nothing dramatic. Slightly more blood than the heaviest day of my period.
I took all the painkillers I could take (within safe limits) - so paracetemol and ibuprofen 2 hours after the codeine - trying not to let it get painful. This worked for me. It never hurt. I had a few toilet trips where there were more clots, never anything particularly large and still no pain. I made sure I kept drinking throughout and ate 2 small bananas. I never felt at all sick or even nauseous.
Three hours after the first four tablets I inserted the remaining two. Again I lay down for anouther 45 minutes and towards the end of this time I could feel a slight sensation where I would typically get period pains, but it never turned into anything more than a feeling. I took another 2 codeine tablets 4 hours after the first two, so an hour after the second tablets were inserted. I got very slightly hot in the face about an hour after the second tablets were inserted and then felt a slightly larger clot come out when I went to the toilet. Nothing that I could see in the toilet to be alarmed by at any point.
After this everything immediately seemed to 'feel' over. I went back to a normal temperature (I don't think I'd have had a high temp on a thermometre, it was more of a feeling), and I felt like I wanted to get up and about and 5.5 hours after starting the process I am now typing this and eating some soup and bread.
Obviously, it's early days and I will have to see how things pan out from here - but I feel hopeful it has worked and I feel well in myself. If I could've known this is what it would be like I really wouldn't have worried. I feel a lot of relief and I'm just going to try and look after myself kindly for a while now. I'm sending a hug to anyone reading this preparing themselves, it's not a nice situation to be in and I hope reading another positive story is some help.
I am really glad I took lots of painkillers, and that I ate and drank even when I didn't feel like it. I think staying ahead of the pain and making sure I didn't have an empty stomach really helped me.
Happy to answer any questions if anyone would like to chat.