Another D&C question

zzyyxx

Thanks so much to all of you that have responded to my earlier posts. Is there anyone here that has had a Manual Vacuum Aspiration with only oral/local pain medication (i.e. without being knocked out via anesthesia)? Would you be willing to share your experience?  I know everyone is different, but I'm trying to decide between this method and the full D&C.  I'm leaning towards this method because of a lower chance of scarring, but I am nervous about being awake.

emjo03

I had this for my 1st miscarriage.  I was 10 weeks, baby stopped growing at 7.  I was bleeding and had labor like contractions the night before and a TON of bleeding with some large clots that morning and then it slowed.  My OB (solo practitioner) was on vacation so another OB was covering.  I was pretty sure I  hadn't passed the fetus.  I went to my appt that afternoon and he talked with me first and told me that if I needed a D&C he could do it in the office the next day and that he would give me something to take before hand (I'm thinking something like valium). 

 Then he examined me and I was already dilated so the process was easier.  He gave me the choice of waiting it out (but after the fact told me that I probably would have ended up in the ER if I'd waited it out), coming in the following day (with the drugs and all) or doing it immediately with just a local.  At that point I just wanted it over.  I said to just do it now.  The only bad thing about this was that DH was at work and I went to the appt alone so I was alone during it.  The nurse was very kind and held my hand and kind of stroked my head.  

 Anyway, he gave me a shot of something to numb my cervix.  (lidocaine maybe??  I can't recall.)  The worst part was that it also had epinepherine in it and made my heart race and I was shaking and just sort of felt out of control which was very upsetting.  It literally only took about 3 minutes.  I did have some pretty bad cramping while he was doing it but it only lasted a few minutes.  Afterward I felt so much better.  I didn't realize how much I had been cramping and not really realizing it.  I drove home and was perfectly fine.  I was very glad I did it and very glad it was over. 

I do not know if I'd do it again or not.  I probably would just because it was cheaper than doing it in the hospital and there wasn't any sort of anesthesia hang over.  I also had the added bonus of not knowing it was going to happen until a few minutes before.  That was quite helpful because I'm sure no matter which route I went I would have been stressed about it if I had to think on it for a few days.

 

I did have some scarring in my uterus.  I could have been from the D&C like thing that I described above or it could have been from having 2 kids.  

 

Not that you asked, but with my second it was natural and really almost painless.

 With my last miscarriage I did misoprostal.  I didn't want the risk of surgery and my RE wasn't really excited about doing surgery if it wasn't warranted.  He offered the miso and I took it because I had been waiting for almost 2 weeks to find out that I was definitely miscarrying (though we pretty well knew that anyway) but as my numbers were still, ever so slowly increasing, I didn't know how long it would be before it happened naturally and I just was not willing to wait another week or 2.  It sucked for a few hours but Ibuprofen plus vicodin took care of it.

 

I know that was probably far more than you were looking for.  Sorry for being so wordy.

I don't think there is a wrong answer.  Whatever you are most comfortable with is what is perfect for you.

 

I'm so sorry for your loss.