Intro & request for info about experience w/misoprostol

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

Hi, I'm coming here after finding out last week that our baby no longer had a heartbeat and had stopped growing at 6 weeks (should have been 8 weeks). This was after a year and a half of trying to get pregnant and four IUIs. I decided yesterday to go with misoprostol to start the miscarriage. Based on how it's been going, I'm pretty sure I will need another dose. MY QUESTION is: of those of you who have taken this vaginally, have your doctors "allowed" you to put it in yourself? Mine insisted that they do it for me. Isn't that weird? In the descriptions and discussions I've read about this med, I've not heard of this from anyone else. This will be difficult for me, because my appt. is at 8am before work and I'm planning to go to work after that (and I already missed work on Fri. and many other times w/all the IF treatments). And it's a fertility center with horrible hours, so I can't make it back in time after work. I'd really appreciate any experiences with this, because I think I'm going to really firmly ask if I can do it myself, especially if this is not standard practice.

mylittlegemini · November 2014

Hi there,

I used this medication last week and I highly suggest you don't go to work after using it. It says it takes a couple of hours to settle in and my doctor suggested not to take it at night so that I could have a good nights sleep and to wait until the morning but I wanted to start the process asap. I inserted them myself (which is a horrible thing to have to do after coming home from the hospital and knowing you are miscarrying). Anyways I took them at about 10:30pm...around 1am I woke up with the most excruciating cramps I have ever felt in my entire life. They lasted a couple of hours and that's even after taking Tylenol AND advil (my husband is a physician so he told me how much of each to take). I don't meant to frighten you, but I just want to forewarn you that the cramps can be really bad. Mine were...to the point where I was howling in pain for about two hours before they started to subside. I finally was able to fall asleep couple hours later but there was no comfortable position for me to be in while the cramps were happening. I tried everything...rocking back and forth, fetal position...everything. What an awful awful experience. The experience may be different for you but mine was very very painful.
So to answer your question...yes I inserted them myself. It's not hard at all. Ask your doctor. Should be fine.

mylittlegemini · November 2014

Also, I am so sorry for your loss. I MC last week and have been devastated ever since. Sending hugs your way XOXO

flyoffeve · November 2014

I am so sorry for your loss. (Hugs) In addition to PP telling her experience, check out the sticky at the top of this board "Advice and Experience" for stories other women have shared using this option. And, to add for cramping relief, a heating pad is very helpful.

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

Thanks for the responses. Sorry, I was trying to make my original post as short as possible, but in doing so, maybe my question wasn't clear. I was just asking if others had experienced that their dr. had insisted that these meds be put in in the dr. office. I have a feeling this is not standard practice, and I wanted to get a better idea of this, so I could be more confident in asking that I be allowed to do it myself. If I need another dose or two, this will make the difference in my missing work another day or two (because if I do it at the dr. it has to be in the morning, based on my schedule and their limited hours) which as I described, I need to try and avoid, and I feel I could have maybe had my dr. just given me a back up dose to take this weekend, as I've seen some women mention. I did read a lot of posts on misoprostol experiences before asking this question (30-40) in addition to doing a lot of googling it and reading the mentioned sticky.

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

Thanks for the additional responses. I also didn't mention it in my original post, but I did experience the really intense cramping the meds can cause the first dose I took. So I knew I didn't want to be at work while taking them. Got up the nerve to call the dr. on call over the weekend, and got another dose myself yesterday. Hardly had any effect the second time. Weird thing is today the u/s showed no baby or sac. I wasn't too far along (baby stopped growing at 6 wks), but still didn't think that was possible to happen without me noticing and with so little bleeding. The lining was still there though, so my dr. recommended just waiting it out for now.

mylittlegemini · November 2014

@brightyellowdaffodil...how come you needed two doses if you don't mind me asking?

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

@mylittlegemini‌ I asked for a second dose because I knew I had not bled enough for it to have been fully effective (it was less than a regular period). The u/s today showed that I was partially right- the lining is still very thick, but I never would have guessed that there was no more sac. After the results of the u/s today, the dr. gave me the option to take a third dose or get a d&c, but recommended to just wait it out. So that's what I'm doing while they also monitor my hcg levels weekly.

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

@mylittlegemini‌ Are you just curious, or are you questioning whether you need another dose? I'm new to this, but from the experiences I've read, it sounds like for some women one is enough. Have you had an u/s to check? Not sure if that's standard practice or just my dr. over-monitoring everything, but maybe if you're really unsure you could ask about that if you haven't had one?

mylittlegemini · November 2014

@brightyellowdaffodil I was just asking because I had one dose and know it was enough. I bled quite a bit and I'm sure I passed everything I needed to (sorry to be graphic). None of my doctors were interested to do a follow up ultrasound. I stopped bleeding after about 10 days..which I believe is average.

So is it possible you have already passed the sac? For me..my u/s had shown no fetus so the sac was what I had to pass. Will you choose a 3rd dose or D&C?

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

@mylittlegemini‌ Oh ok, glad it worked for you the first time, though I am of course so sorry that you had to go through losing your baby. I know for my husband and I it's been a really sad and discouraging time. But I think I haven't really had a chance to be sad or grieve since I had the u/s showing no heart beat last week, because I've been so worried about everything with the miscarriage going ok. I don't know how, but the the dr. said the u/s showed the sac was gone. I'm hoping to not have to do either more meds or a D&C (with that there's a small risk that it may result in scaring I think in the uterus, which can cause fertility problems - which I don't need any more of!). I've been actually bleeding quite a lot the past few days, so either the 2nd dose got that started or it happened on its own. Hopefully that will be enough to complete the process.

mylittlegemini · November 2014

@brightyellowdaffodil....Awww I'm so sorry you are going through this as well. It's a very frustrating time. The thing I have a hard time dealing with is the "why me?" and the "it's not fair". :-( It's an awful feeling and I truly feel for every woman who has to go through this. In regards to the sac not being there, I heard that sometimes the fetus/sac can be reabsorbed in the body. When I went for my u/s, they couldn't see a fetus. I was like "well where did it go?". I was so upset that it wasn't there and couldn't wrap my head around it. Unless I had passed it at some point but I never really spotted until the day before I miscarried. If I did spot, it was usually very very little and brownish.

ashleyann62215 · November 2014

I don't have any experience just wanted to say I'm sorry for your loss.

Brightyellowdaffodil · November 2014

@MrsRed09‌ No, my dr. didn't, but probably because it was already clear from the u/s that the lining was still fully intact. As I mentioned, since that appt. I've bled a fair amount, so hopefully it will finish naturally, but I will keep that in mind for my next appt. I am getting my hcg levels checked weekly. On Mon. it was at 4,500.

mrsmustard12 · November 2014

This is likely going to be TMI but I figured you would want to whole story. I used this almost a month ago now. I guess I fell into the small percentage of women that it didn't really work for. I inserted it vaginally at around 8:30am. NOTHING happened until almost 3-4pm and even then it was just extremely mild cramping and very light spotting. This continued until the next day. The cramping got a teeny bit worse and the bleeding a little heavier but not clots. By day 3, everything had stopped completely. Since this was my 2nd miscarriage, I knew it wasn't over. I went in for an ultrasound where I found out it hadn't worked. I had to decide between trying the medication again or going for a D&C. 2 days later, the cramping became unbearable and bleeding/clots/etc. Mid afternoon, a very large clot passed after which the cramping went away and the bleeding subsided the next day. Almost a week later, light spotting with tiny clots again which is almost gone. My next step is to go in for a blood test to make sure my levels are dropping.

Overall, though, the pain was never horrible enough to where it couldn't be almost entirely managed by large doses of Advil.

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