Injection Series #2

Today I began my second series of injections -- Estrogen. Patch and injection form. I was very excited to start today, because as always, that means transfer day is just one step closer!!

This morning started off with putting my patches on. Funny story about these patches -- my mother had a full hysterectomy when she was 27 after fighting cancer, so for as long as I can remember she wore these exact patches. She changes them every 3 weeks, and if she goes too long before changing them, we can tell. If you know what I mean ;) It's her version of pms-ing. Love you mom!! So when I told her that I would be wearing two, and changing them every other day, she immediately apologized to my husband. Hahaha. Like I said, I will be wearing these two at a time and changing them every other day until they tell me otherwise. No big deal :)

I am still on Lupron (from Injection Series #1), however the dosage has been cut in half. I administered my injection this morning as usual and will continue to do so until the week before the transfer.

This needle goes ALL the way in!! Ahh!!

This evening is when s*** got real. I started my Delestrogen (Estrogen). I found this great explanation for its use --"Estradiol/Delestrogen/Estrogen is a medication that is used to thicken the endometrial lining to prepare for the implantation process. This medication is administered twice weekly beginning approximately two to three weeks prior to embryo transfer and is continued for approximately 10 weeks after embryo transfer." Luckily my husband Tim doesn't get queasy from needles and has volunteered to administer my intramuscular injections. This means I receive the injections in my back side. Oh yeah, super fun!

All of my fellow surromamas have been amazing and gave me tips on how to make these injections as painless as possible. I first began by icing the injection site in order to numb it. I did this while I prepped the syringe so it was about 5 minutes. When administering Delestrogen, you retrieve it out of the vial with an 18gauge needle, but inject it into your body with a 22gauge needle (the higher the number, the smaller). This made me feel better since the 18gauge is scary, but soon realized that I would be using the 18gauge for my Injection Series #3. Ahhhh!! So now, the syringe is ready and my backside is numb. I, of course, begin to lose my nerves like usual. I bat Timothy off for a good 5 minutes flailing like a demon child. Finally, I bury my face in my pillow and begin shaking like crazy. I felt the tiniest little prick and like that he was slowly pushing the thick liquid in. It was nothing!! I psyched myself up for nothing, AGAIN!

So happy I listened to everyone and iced my behind beforehand :) I am not looking forward to the next part and you will see why when I write that post...