I'm 24 years old and had a surgical termination
By anonymous on 10/10/2012
I wanted to share my story as the previous one I had read on this site made the whole experience sound terrifying and distressing, which in my situation wasn't the case at all. I'm 24 years old and had a surgical termination only yesterday. I found out I was pregnant about a month ago, I live with my partner who is 4 years younger than me and we're both very happy together. We've been together nearly a year. When I told him I was pregnant, he was absolutely fantastic. He told me that he would support me what ever decision I made, but that ultimately it was up to me as it is my body and emotions that take the largest hit. After lots of discussions about the pros and cons we decided that we were not ready to bring a baby into this world so went to the doctors to get a referral to the hospital.
It took a couple of weeks before I got my appointment for my initial assessment at the hospital, during which time I was experiencing extreme sickness, no appetite and various other comfortable changes to my body! By the time I went to the hospital, as awful as this may sound, I just couldn't wait for it to all be over as, if I'm being honest, I just felt ill rather than pregnant.
When my partner and I went for my initial assessment at the hospital the consultant examined me and decided not to do a scan as he could tell I was not any further along than eight weeks. My hospital does not offer the medical abortion, only the surgical so they booked me in there and then for the surgery to take place the following week.
I had to have a couple of blood tests just to check my blood group and iron levels etc, I had never even had a blood test before so was quite scared about this but it was a breeze and over in a few seconds!
On the day of the op my partner and I arrived at the hospital and I was immediately taken through to the ward for my pre assessment, my partner had to wait in the waiting area for me though as the ward was quite busy. I was petrified of the procedure as I had never been in hospital for anything before, am not too keen on needles and the thought of the general anaesthetic was worrying me. I spoke to my nurse about my concerns and she assured me that there was nothing to worry about and that I would probably be quite pleasantly surprised afterwards.
After the nurse checked all my notes I was taken through to the changing rooms where I put on a gown,some rather unattractive paper knickers, my dressing gown and slippers and then taken to a cubicle on the ward. The doctor then came round to check I was ok and still wanted to go through with it and then got me to lie down on the bed so he could insert some tablets into my vagina to soften my cervix so it is easier for then to perform the operation. He told me that I may experience some stomach cramps from this but I didn't have any pain whatsoever. I had to stay lying on the bed until they were ready to take me into the anaesthetic room where they put a blood pressure collar onto my arm, stuck various sticky pads on my chest and ribs and put a heart rate monitor onto my finger. At this point I was getting very nervous about what was to come. They then put the needle in the back of my hand to put the drugs into, this hurt a bit but not too bad and once it was in it was fine.
The anaesthetist then told me she was putting some fluid into me which would make me feel like I'd had a triple gin and tonic and would make me feel quite woozy. I didn't find it made me feel too weird, just a tiny bit light headed. She then put an oxygen mask on me and said to take some deep breaths and that she was then going to put in the anaesthetic. She said that I would feel a cold tingling in my arm and then start feeling sleepy. Well, I was lying there trying to feel this tingling she was talking about and the next thing I know I was waking up back on the ward!!!
I hadn't even felt myself fall asleep, I just came round completely unaware of what had just happened and within a couple of minutes I felt absolutely fine! The nurses got me some water and some toast and after about half an hour I was allowed to go to the toilet and get dressed. I had the pad on me that the doctors had put on, which was full of blood but none of it had leaked anywhere and when I went to the toilet I tried to clean myself up as best I could and put my own fresh knickers and sanitary towel on. Once I was dressed I went back through to the ward where the nurse took the cannula out of my hand, made sure I was ok and then discharged me.
I was told that I would experience some period like cramps and heavy bleeding for the next couple of weeks but since having the operation I have experienced hardly any pain at all and today already the bleeding has begun to slow down quite a lot.
All in all, the experience was a lot better than I had expected and would definitely recommend this method if you are having an abortion as you barely know a thing about it. On the emotional side of things, I feel absolutely fine, I didn't want to have a baby and I didn't feel any emotional attachment to what was inside me, as cold as that may sound but I just didn't. My partner has been excellent through the whole thing as well which I really think help as well. So a happy ending in my case! Hopefully it will be the same for other women who go through this too.
