Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #whattoexpectwhenyoureexpectingtoabort more → 
A Girl's Guide To Treating Symptoms Of Unwanted Pregnancies
New York, 10:23 PM
Thu Nov 12
73 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Jenna Sauers
Email
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
| posts about #whattoexpectwhenyoureexpectingtoabort more → |
A Girl's Guide To Treating Symptoms Of Unwanted Pregnancies |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
01/01/09
I heart you Tracie! I wish I could say things like get some weed or "if you know who the father is and he's still around" without being considered an embarrasemnt to the Black community or fodder for anti-Black racists. Le sigh.
12/31/08
I wish you were my best friend.
12/30/08
cramps: vicodin, muscle relaxers (excedrin back and body ache is perfect)
nausea: dramamine!!!
mood swings: They tell you not to, because they don't want you to fuck up the "baby". but if you're planning to abort there's not point in worrying about that. xanax - low dose of course- in the daytime, if you don't work with machinery. and on days off a glass or two of good red wine.
and the big boobs, I wore a sports bra. nice and firm and supportive. nothing else really helped.
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
Lrn th dffrc y whny whrs. Shouldn't that be whny kllrs?
12/30/08
Thank you, powers that be!
12/30/08
I'd like to buy a vowel, Pat.
12/31/08
12/30/08
In itself, that shouldn't have been too scary, but the guy I was with was one of those "salad bar" Catholics (you know, religious enough to be freaked out about abortion, but not religious enough to have any qualms about all that premarital sex stuff) who had no idea how the female reproductive system actually works. He did read all the directions from the Plan B pack, and then he finally understood that Plan B =! abortion, but we still had the most awkward "so what are we going to do if the pills don't work" conversation ever.
Actually, he asked how involved he would be in the child's life and I was like "um, there's not gonna be a child" and he didn't say anything for a while and then finally he was all "well, as long as you don't think you'll be a good mother, then I guess it's OK. But really - do you not think you'll be a good mother?"
I didn't even know what to say at the time - in retrospect I should have said "look, you don't get to decide what grounds I use to make this decision" or something like that, but at the time I was so shocked, and already upset, I didn't really know how to articulate what was going through my mind at the time. It was almost like he was offended I didn't want to have his baby, even though we had only been dating for a month or so at the time. Weird.
12/30/08
12/30/08
It makes me think about the "not rape" thread from earlier: I have been assaulted, and def. pressured into doing things I didn't really want to do, but agreeing with him what the grounds for my decision would be made me feel just as icky as a not rape.
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/31/08
12/30/08
Nonetheless in my dream, I was in this strange doctor's office-type place, except really it looked like a hairdresser/boutique shop with open bay windows facing the street. So there were these stirrup chairs where you would sit to be examined, except they were right in the window, in full view of the public.
I was pregnant and there to get an abortion, but I was so panicky and scared I thought I was going to pass out. I felt like I NEEDED to get an abortion, but COULDN'T do it and was sick to my stomach.
Eventually, I knew I just had to do it and asked the doctor for the procedure, except I wanted to do it in back, somewhere private. The doctor responded that I had to have it done, right there in the window, where everyone could see. I wanted to die.
I ended up having the abortion, but for some reason (in the dream) it had to be done in stages, so at one point I was walking around in a hospital gown stained from the waist down because I was bleeding all over the place.
It was terrible. And for some reason I've never been able to have a lucid dream, so while I'm dreaming, no matter the scenarion, I'm convinced it's real. Suffice to say I woke up sweaty and terror-stricken. Yeah, I don't know if I could have an abortion.
12/31/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
What does this even have to do with anything?
12/30/08
12/30/08
Tracie wrote an article about abortion = Tracie is pregnant.
Tracie is getting married = she "likes" the "guy she is with" and "probably wants a family" ('cuz all women do, especially if they get married, don't cha know)
"You can write flippant and crude material and be a mother. So have the baby." ('cuz not being able to be a flippant perv is the only reason not to have the baby you are so obviously secretly pregnant with and so clearly long to nurture and raise, dear Tracie!)
/headdesk.
12/31/08
12/30/08
Which is all to say, in apparently the most long-winded and rambly way possible, that dammit, judgmental L.A. Times bitch, you can pry my cramps-alleviating Vicoprofen from my cold, dead hands. (Which, hmm, perhaps you will after my accidental overdose. Because, as Dr. Drew might say, my story is opiates.)
Oh, but slightly more relevantly, when I had a surgical abortion almost five years ago (at about eight weeks, I think; maybe slightly less), they gave me Alleve afterward. I did not find that very amusing, particularly because I was in a lot of pain for days; I took I believe three sick days from work.
(I feel guilty for such a long and perhaps addict-crazed sounding comment because I've never been able to keep up enough to comment regularly, and haven't done so at all in months, but I do consistently admire the contributions from all of you who are such great, regular commenters! Now please do not send what I have just written to the producers of "Intervention.")
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/30/08
Since I had more vicodin than required for the dry-socket, I got to use it for menstrual cramps - I wish I could use it all the time for them! Midol/tylenol/et al just don't quite cut it after that. The vicodin was also really useful for the horrible sore throat I got at the onset of acute mono.
My college rugby coach used to tell us, when we got prescription pain killers, keep as many on hand as you can to share after games.
12/30/08
to clarify: I'm not being glib: vicodin helped the dry-sockets a LOT, and it definitely helped make the mono experience more pleasant. And, in my own individual case, it did work on the cramps. But that's just me.
Also - my rugby coach did tell us not to be stingy with our painkillers. But playing rugby can put you in all sorts of pain. I tore my hamstring playing, and rode a van from phoenix to LA sitting on a bag of ice from 7-eleven. So I guess I can suck it up when I have to.
12/30/08
12/30/08
That RU 486 is PAINFUL omg. There are natural alternatives. Not sure if any of you ladies were aware
12/30/08
12/30/08
12/31/08
12/30/08
As for the actual procedure, it wasn't so bad -- I didn't even have any sedation (just local anethestic). Lots of cramping, a bit of crying and a few days of staying in bed made it easy for me. I know everyone has a different experience.
Now I do wish there was an easy answer as to how to get rid of the 3" I added to my hips and the shift in shape of my tits since the UP (unplanned pregnancy)