I recently found out I was pregnant three weeks ago at a hospital because my gallbladder was acting up and had to get a CT scan. I couldn’t get it done because my pregnancy test came up negative. I was just in so much shock — How could I tell my parents, my boyfriend, ANYBODY! One thing that made me angry the most was I couldn’t get the scan done so I had to wait to find out what is really wrong with my gallbladder.
Weird thing is, I took an x-ray 4 days before this CT scan and they told me I was negative.
But anyways, I told my mom, she was devastated. I said “abortion right away, no doubt about it” and she literally ignored me for days …
But then I called around Planned Parenthood and asked about their abortion clinic. Only one here in town and is rated pretty well. I was hesitant a little bit about having that as my final decision. But I called the clinic, they asked when I had my last period and I told them April 10, 2008 and they said I have to wait three weeks so I can be at least six weeks pregnant.
During those weeks, they were hell. I was stupid and looked up everything imaginable online but that only made the situation worse, since most of the information was pro-life related.
Then the day finally came — this morning. I woke up at 6 am, dressed, showered, couldn’t eat (too nervous) then my friend came and picked me up. It was silent in the car but then I broke the ice by asking what good movies are playing this weekend.
We arrive at the clinic around 8am and it was already filled with girls and their drivers. When we drove in the clinic which might I add is a private setting because of picketers, there still was quite a few outside holding pictures of what looked like newborn babies killed. I thought to myself, I highly doubt anyone’s abortion looks like this, because it looks like a newborn.
I signed my name in, filled out paperwork. The waiting room was very quiet and some annoying TV show was playing in the background. I got in very fast though but that was just to pay for the procedure and sit in more waiting rooms. I then paid the 385 dollars that was required, and sat in a waiting room full of women aged 20-39. It was very quiet. A few were even crying. Everyone had a look to their eyes that they didn’t want to be there. I got my name called then and had to have a sonogram. Well, since I was only 6 weeks they couldn’t find anything so they thought I wasn’t pregnant — ha-ha right. So they did a vaginal sonogram and found a little egg sack and nothing more. Afterwards had to go back to the waiting room again, then my name got called to go and get my finger pricked for blood to see if I’m RH negative or positive. Thank God I was positive, no more shots for me. Then back to the waiting room. After 10 minutes of everyone going in and out the counselor called me and went to her office. Talked about if this is the right thing for me to do, if I want to take birth control and what is going to happen during the procedure. So then she gave me some Advil to take and a gown and told me to wait in the surgery waiting room with the other girls. Thank God this time everybody was talking. Kinda broke the ice so it wouldn’t be any more stressful. Everybody started talking about how they got pregnant, what their lifestyle was and if they had any children. Bad thing was talking about food cause it made everyone hungry ha-ha.
Then people were called 2 at a time in a 20 minute time frame. Of course I was in the last 10 people to get called.
So I went back to the procedure room which looked like an ordinary gyno exam room and had to lay down with my feet on those metal things. The nurse who looked like she was fresh out of nursing school couldn’t find my vein in my arm so she pricked both of my arms like 10 times. (Honestly I think that was the worst pain of the whole procedure!) Then she had to call the head nurse in who was much older and of course much more experienced then she found it within 10 seconds. Then they gave me the local anesthesia, which made me loopy, and the doctor came in and inserted instruments. I then heard a sucking sound and felt pressure and a little bit of cramping. Don’t remember much because of the sedation. Then after it was done like in 2 minutes the nurse took me back to the recovery room.
In all honesty, the procedure did not hurt like what I’ve read online. I think I read too deep into everything and that worried me too much for my own good.
Then I was in the recovery room sitting on a lazy boy chair eating gourmet crackers and sierra mist. It was enjoyable and the staff made me feel like at home.
Overall this experience was not what I thought it would be. Yeah it has cramping but I’m barely even bleeding. The worst painful experience was probably the finger pricking ha-ha. But other than that the waiting was terrible because it took so long but the procedure itself was not bad at all. I guess I read too much into the “bad things” when overall it wasn’t what everyone portrayed it to me.
Good thing is they gave me a pack of ibuprofen and 3 months supply of birth control pills. And I’m not sorry.
