D&C

acadiababy · December 2010

May I ask - at what point do they decide on D&C? Is it based on how far along or just on how successfully the body takes care of it? I'm sorry if this question offends or hurts anyone.

carrieandtim · December 2010

In my case, it was a choice I needed to make the moment I found out about the miscarriages. For the first one, I found out on Friday afternoon and took the weekend to decide. Since my body didn't 'do' anything for almost 3 weeks, I scheduled my D&C for the following Wednesday. For my 2nd miscarriage, I knew I didn't need to think about it and we scheduled the D&C for the following day.

I'm sorry you have this decision to make.

acadiababy · December 2010

So ...essentially you decide based on how helpful your body is being with the process? And/or whether you want to deal with passing naturally? Thus far, I've been miscarrying naturally (though horribly, obviously) - so I just wasn't sure at what time one would begin considering a D &C

MommyKarla · December 2010

Hey. I was 10 weeks pregnant when I started to spot. My doctor scheduled an emergency ultrasound which showed that my baby had died at about six weeks. I guess because it had been a month, I was given the option of scheduling a d&c, using apo-misoprostol to speed up the process, or to wait and see if the miscarriage happened naturally.

As I was somewhat in denial and kept thinking "what if", I decided to wait and let things happen naturally. A few days later I started bleeding heavily and spent a night in the emergency room with doctors keeping an eye on me. By the morning, the bleeding slowed down so they let me go home. I thought the worst was over. Then 3 days later I woke up to severe menstrual cramps. I went to the bathroom and the bleeding was out of control. (sorry if TMI). I was told to go back to emergency if I was filling a pad an hour for 4 hours. I was filling a pad in 30 seconds!!! I couldn't stand up without getting blood all over the toilet and floor. It was honestly the scariest thing ever!

My husband woke up and upon entering the bathroom and seeing so much blood, he panicked. I told him to get me a pair of dark running pants and I used a heavy flow pad. He had the SUV ready and I stood up and rushed out the door. I knew I couldn't sit on the seat of the car because I had bled through the pad and my pants in the 2 minutes it took to get that far. I hovered for the 5 minute drive to the hospital. I was rushed into emergency and hooked up to an IV straight away. Over 4 hours I was examined internally 2 times, had 2 IV's and they were preparing me for a blood transfusion.

One nurse was actually changing all of the sheets and padding from underneath me (this was done multiple time as the bleeding was VERY bad) when she said "oh my God you poor thing. That is the biggest blood clot I have ever seen!". I assume this wasn't a good thing to hear coming from an ER nurse. (It was approx the size of an orange.) Within 10 minutes of this event, a surgeon was called in for an emergency D&C. 30 minutes later I was in recovery and quite dazed at what had happened. I'm still not sure I"m over it! I had hoped to avoid a d&c so that we could try to get pregnant again right away, but that didn't happen for us!

Sorry for the long winded story, but this is how my D&C was decided. Maybe my story will help you or someone else that reads it. We are still grieving for our lost little one, but each day is getting a little better.

WifeyWynn0626 · December 2010

With my D&C, the doctor gave me the option of doing the D&C the following day or waiting it out for a week. If within a week my body hadn't done anything, they would discuss my options. If my body HAD done something, they would check to see if everything was gone and if it wasn't they would probably do a D&C anyway to clear it out.

pennynjon · December 2010

I found out that my baby had stopped growing about 5 days before my ultrasound and there was no longer a heartbeat. My doctor really didn't give me an option. He told me it would be too painful to miscarry naturally because there was too much tissue and also told me I would be at risk for infection. I had a d&c the next day. I wasn't spotting or anything though, so he said he thought it would be weeks before I miscarried naturally.

carrieandtim · December 2010

acadiababy:
So ...essentially you decide based on how helpful your body is being with the process? And/or whether you want to deal with passing naturally? Thus far, I've been miscarrying naturally (though horribly, obviously) - so I just wasn't sure at what time one would begin considering a D &C

For the first one, it was based on a few things actually:

1) how my body didn't do anything after 3 weeks

2) how I couldn't imagine, first, the pain of doing it naturally, and second, seeing anything (I guess I'm not as strong as I hope I could be)

3) how I would start teaching just the week after - I didn't want to have that pain and sadness the first week of school

4) how much I needed to begin the healing process sooner than later.

5) how the doctor did mention that some women who do it naturally end up needing a D&C because their body didn't complete it

It's a great question that you asked - if you are beginning the process naturally, at what point would you choose to have a D&C. I honestly didn't know if it's possible to do it in the middle of a natural m/c. Again, good luck on your decision.

LDW80 · December 2010

With me my dr. gave my the option to either let nature take it course or go along with the proceedure. Since the baby was measuing at 11w1d and I was 13w3d it was inside me deceased for 2 weeks and I have had no bleeding or any cramping. She said it may take awhile to pass through but since I was further along it would be pretty painful as the "clot" or "tissue" would be pretty big. So I opted for the D&C, plus I wanted to get it out of me ASAP. The longer I wait the harder it will be for me. I have it tomorrow late morning so I hope everything goes ok.

ambs21 · December 2010

pennynjon:
My doctor really didn't give me an option. He told me it would be too painful to miscarry naturally because there was too much tissue and also told me I would be at risk for infection.

This is pretty much what my Dr. said too. Since it was twins at 11 weeks (though they'd stopped growing at 7.5 weeks or so), there was a lot of tissue, and the concerns were those listed above as well as losing too much blood.

Mine was a missed MC, and my body never seemed to know anything was wrong. I don't know how long it would've taken to even start happening naturally. This is obviously very different from your situation.

Hope you get the answers you need, and I am so sorry for your loss.

acadiababy · December 2010

LDW80:
With me my dr. gave my the option to either let nature take it course or go along with the proceedure. Since the baby was measuing at 11w1d and I was 13w3d it was inside me deceased for 2 weeks and I have had no bleeding or any cramping. She said it may take awhile to pass through but since I was further along it would be pretty painful as the "clot" or "tissue" would be pretty big. So I opted for the D&C, plus I wanted to get it out of me ASAP. The longer I wait the harder it will be for me. I have it tomorrow late morning so I hope everything goes ok.

GL to you, we will be thinking of you.

acadiababy · December 2010

I have greatly appreciated everyone's advice. (And FYI - I've been hitting "reply" to post a response on here - I hope that is correct -this reply is meant to be to all and not only one post..?).

So the deal is I began naturally miscarrying on xmas eve/5 weeks.( I haven't even mentioned that much yet because I feel incredibly selfish and rude given how much longer some of the women here have had to carry and then found out they were having a miscarriage). We had no idea what this meant - we were still in la la land and were terrified - so we went to the ER right away (I later regretted this - they were upsetting and frightening and not very consoling or helpful with questions) - but they did do an abdominal and vaginal u/s to rule out tubal or ectopic pg, they did blood work to look at the HCG levels, and they did a pelvic. It was incredibly painful and upsetting - we had been trying and were very excited and this just left us stunned, not to mention that when you DO miscarry this early on, no one prepares you for the downside - that they can't always diagnose with ultrasounds, etc, and so you go through a waiting period during which they see if your HCG drops or not and test again 48 hours later - and that, excuse me, is absolute HELL.

From the evening to tonight, I went from minor spotting to incredibly severe cramping and bleeding the next night and am now more comfortable but continually bleeding, mostly older blood. They haven't yet mentioned a D&C, but we go in to see my OB tomorrow for f/u- she wasn't incredibly worried and actually said it was healthy that my body was doing this naturally, but that she would need to examine me and make sure everything was cleared out, but that the body tends to handle things itself more easily the earlier on one miscarries...so based on the *VERY HELPFUL* info you ladies have shared with me and what the OB has shared with me, I am assuming any further questions and information will be handled during my appointment tomorrow and she will go from there. In the meantime I was told, essentially, that the birth canal should be a one way street for at least 14 days - no sex, no anything really, showers instead of baths, etc, to resume medication i had stopped when I got my BFP (most importantly, a low dose anti-depressant I was on, as it may help during this time) and to keep track of any bleeding or cramping that became what I felt to be excessive...

It's just a horrid situation, and having it happen on Xmas really sent me over the edge for a couple days here. I apologize for beginning to post on here before the miscarriage was "confirmed", but after the type of cramps I had and the bleeding, I knew...I just knew.

K.Walker · December 2010

I was just over 10 weeks when I had minor spotting, then Dec 13th I woke up and there was major bleeding. I went to the hospital, and within 3 1/2 hours of being there I was given an ultrasound and they realized I still had a lot of "stuff" inside me, so my body wasn't getting rid of it naturally. So they did a d&c right away.

My friend, on the other hand, was about 6 1/2 weeks along, had some bleeding, called her doctor and he said that it was probably a miscarriage, she didn't go to the hospital or anything and was apparently alright.

So yes, I think it's more if your body gets rid of everything. The farther along you are, the more "stuff" there is inside.

Manderlin923 · December 2010

Last Monday I was diagnosed with a missed miscarriage. I was 12 weeks but baby had stopped growing at 6 weeks 1 day. Because it had been 6 weeks and my body hadn't "gotten the memo" I was no longer carrying a live baby, I was told it was unlikely my body would miscarry naturally.

I began bleeding and cramping this weekend. It has continued to get worse today and am passing small bits of tissue (sorry if tmi) and feeling crampy enough to have a heating pad on my belly.

I had a follow-up ultrasound today to confirm the miscarriage and now that I'm bleeding, was told I have until Friday to pass the baby/bigger tissue (which is still in there visable through ultrasound) in which case, if I haven't, we will schedule either a D&C or medication to induce miscarriage. I am not crazy about either option and would much prefer to miscarry naturally (I did with my first loss). I know the risk of scarring isn't super high with a D&C but I'd really rather not go through worrying about it. And the medicine side effects sound awful.

With my first m/c, I passed everything naturally and had only minimal cramping/bleeding. It wasn't bad physically, at all.

GL. Sorry for your loss

Pachita · December 2010

Because I had a missed miscarriage, my body did not miscarry naturally, so I needed the D&C. I did wait a good 2 + weeks between finding out about the baby having no hb and getting the surgery. So I was hoping to miscarry naturally, but I def. needed the D&C.

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