LJ user thrilled to see dead embryo in the toilet after chemical abortion

HT: Dawn Eden

Fun with Science:

I'm breaking up this post into two cuts--one for what happened at my appointment and afterward yesterday, and one for a very special round of "Meet The Interloper." Yes indeed, there was an intact embryo to be seen. Yes, I took pictures. ....

I would say the really bad cramping had been going on for something like an hour, no bleeding whatsoever, when I went to sit on the toilet again. I had been rocking back and forth for a few minutes when I felt this bizarre kind of schlorrp inside, and then a few seconds later, something quite large fell out of me and into the toilet. ....

When I turned around, there wasn't a lot of blood in the toilet--just one roughly lemon-sized clot, and next to it, something that was most definitely not clot-colored. I leaned over and squinted at it, and holy shit, there was a freaking embryo in my toilet! They had told me that I probably wouldn't be able to see anything--that anything recognizable probably wouldn't show up unless I was more than eight weeks along, and I was only seven. ....

I wonder if they showed her pictures of what she might see. Not all women are as comfortable as this one with the idea of killing something, and might be disturbed at the surprise.

So I found a brush, scooted the embryo up and out of the water, and put it on a square of toilet paper so I could look at it .... I didn't know what to think about it at first, but the more and closer I looked at it, the more I thought it had to be the single neatest thing I had ever seen. .... But I was looking at it and seeing the teeny face (it was at the point where it has the huge flat nose and looks kind of like a puppy) and the little webbed flipper feet and the huge black eyes, going "HOLY CRAP THIS THING IS FREAKING AWESOME." I called Austin up to see it, and he wasn't quite as giddy about it but he still wanted to see it. Apparently he didn't realize it would have fingers and toes and all of that so soon.

I can't see fingers, toes, or even limbs in the pictures. I posted a question as to whether I was misunderstanding her or whether the pictures were just of low quality. I wonder how poor Austin felt, not being as giddy and all. Prayers for him.

I knew I couldn't keep it in the freezer indefinitely or anything like that, so I took a few pictures of it and gave it a burial at sea. I kind of wanted to actually bury it, like all my fish and hamsters, but it would amount to the same thing eventually, so I decided there was no real reason.

I knew a woman in a now-defunct chat room who did a home herbal abortion and buried her embryo in the garden because the only other option was flushing it. This woman chose to flush hers, giving her embryo less dignity than her fish and hamsters.

I feel fabulous. I've been giddy and smiling all day, and I'm just having the occasional dull cramp every now and again. Also, I have six extra Tylenol 3, so I'm sitting pretty should that get any worse.

So some of her giddiness may be attributable to Tylenol 3. I took this stuff when I had my wisdom teeth out. I was in just as much pain, but I didn't care. So the giddiness may not be due to joy at seeing a dead embryo. It may be an effect of all the codeine. At any rate, here's the clearest of her pictures:

~~taken down at the request of Melissa's friend~~

Instead, I will provide this photo of an embryo from an ectopic pregnancy, the same age as Melissa's embryo, or perhaps just a bit younger:

The size and anatomic features suggest development equivalent to a nine-week pregnancy (or seven weeks post ovulation). In obstetrics, pregnancy is dated from the first day of the last menstrual period, which is about two weeks prior to the ovulation that resulted in the pregnancy.

At any rate, keep in mind that this woman's just been through a major life stressor, and was on narcotics when she posted. Her friends, on the other hand...

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