Just Shoot Me

Wednesday, 7-15-09 (Day 15)

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill): Despite the Zucchini bread episode yesterday, I'm still down a pound. Hopefully the Follistim holds off on bloating me until I can get rid of the other three.

Lupron (5units, subQ injection): I'm so used to this shot by now I could give it in my sleep.

Follistim (300units, subQ injection): After work today I had my first bad headache, so I laid down to take a nap until my 6:30pm Follistim time rolled around. I was impressed-again-when my husband came in at 6:25 with an ice pack and a fully loaded Follistim pen. He let me numb the area for a minute, then gave me the shot on my left side, and put me back to bed.

Amazing.

So far I only have one complaint about Follistim, and I seem to be the only one. Everyone is just raving about how easy and pain free it is. Well, that sucker hurts me. Not the shot itself-that part isn't bad at all-but after waiting the ten seconds and then pulling out the shot and applying light pressure to stop the bleeding hurts, like an aching sensation. And then the area is tender and bruises afterwards.

But I'll take that over the crazy emotions and bloated, full feeling that I've happily avoided so far.

Thursday, 7-16-09 (Day 16)

Dexamethasone (.75mg, oral pill): Despite this tiny pill's ability to seemingly control my appetite, I refused to give in all day long. Until I had a brownie and ice cream for desert.

Dang it.

Lupron (5units, subQ injection): I love Lupron, it's been good to me. Easy to inject, doesn't leave a mark, and gives me some long, strong nails without any emotional delusions thus far.

Follistim (225units, subQ injection): Today's injection was given while at our friends Christopher and Debi's house where we stopped for dinner on our way out of town. So my husband showed off his mad shooting skills in front of an audience tonight, and as usual, he did an amazing job. It wasn't until a few minutes later that we realized we made a slight mistake; instead of dropping the Follistim dose down to 225units like we should have, we accidentally left it at 300units.

Christopher assured us that it wasn't that big of a deal, we'll just have a thousand eggs on Monday instead of a handful. The more the merrier, right?

We shall see.

Luveris (1/2ml, subQ injection): Luveris is a powder and solvent solution made of pure recombinant luteinizing hormone (LH) that is used to improve egg quality. So it's worth the trouble of mixing powder and liquid with a ginormous needle, switching to a smaller one, and receiving a third injection tonight; this one given by Christopher, who finally broke down and chose to contribute to his future niece or nephews life after much encouragement from us. I'll admit I was a tiny bit worried at first because he's known for his unnaturally shaky hands, but he proved to hold steady under pressure did a great job.

It's not every day you find a friend who'll shoot you.

Seriously though, to be able to experience this with our friends and family is amazing, and it's so incredibly special to let them (or force them, in Christopher's case) have a part in this process. I can't wait to share with our children all the many loved ones that helped bring them into existence with their unconditional love, prayers, support...

And shots.

"True friends stab you in the front."
-Oscar Wilde