Can you tell the difference between your period and an early miscarriage?

I'm wondering if my last period was actually a miscarriage. I didn't test at all because I was waiting for it to be late to test and it came exactly on schedule. However the flow was unusual- (this description gets into TMI territory) it was heavy and bright red for 2 days, at the end of the heavy period I passed something that looked like a small bubble of lighter tissue that floated in the toilet. It was maybe the half to 1/3 the size of my littlest fingernail and was connected to heavier bloody tissue like a balloon. I was at work so I couldn't really investigate further. After that I had spotting on an off for about 5 days. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but I'm curious if that was a miscarriage or just AF doing her thing. Thanks!