Injection Rejection

Yesterday, C's college friend M and her DH came by our place for brunch and drugs. M is starting to do an IUI cycle and both her and her husband are freelancers so of course they don't have great insurance - they pay for it themselves - and since their state doesn't have a mandate, there is basically no IF coverage available to them. So since I get a kick-ass discount through both my insurance and the benefit of working in a hospital, I gave her three boxes of my .02 cents G.onal-F. It obviously thrilled them, but made me feel really great that I could help out a fellow IFer. Before we got on this insurance plan, we were paying everything out of pocket, so I know how that feels.

So since yesterday was my first day with injections, I prepared the G.onalF while M was here so she could see how it works. (she is using the pen right now, so didn't know how to mix it) It was fairly easy to put the water in the powder, swirl it around and voila, drugs. They thought it was easy enough and after awhile, they headed out, with drugs in hand.

Yesterday after they left, I was in a weird mood. AF showed - as expected - but I felt kind of bummed. I'm not sure if it was some form of PMS or if I got to really thinking about what we are doing. I spent the afternoon reading a book outside, trying to keep my mind off of what we were going to start that evening.

Well 7:30 rolls around and we just started to watch a movie. I realized that the time could get away from us, so we paused it and moved into the kitchen where I keep my stash. Since the G.onalF was already mixed, I thought "hey, half way done." I pulled out my dose, 225 and added it to the M.enopur vial. Simple. I get out a new syringe and pull 1/2cc of the saline to put into the vial. Easy. And then it goes fuzzy. C is videotaping this - to get all the memories down - and telling me to switch the needle to the injection needle to pull out the meds. I don't remember Nurse S telling us to do that, but again, I may have been overwhelmed with the process during our orientation so maybe I wasn't paying so close attention. I mean C was writing EVERYTHING down - or so I thought. Anyhow, I switch to a 27g and pull out all the contents of the vial, except I can't get it all out. So I puncture again with the 27g and try to get it. Finally after a little panic, I said that I thought it would be fine. I asked C to do the honors, since I'm still not 100% comfortable with stabbing myself with a sharp object. I start to get a little nervous and giggly. Then he goes for it - EXCEPT it doesn't go in my belly. It bounces off of it. And it hurt. I look at him and it was like a lightbulb went off in his head ... "Oh, Nurse S said that the needle dulls the first time you use it. I guess you aren't suppose to use the injection needle when pulling out the meds." Wonderful. Thanks!

After that little mishap, we got a new 27g and he gave the injection. It burned a little going in, but all in all, it was fine. However, now I have one good puncture mark and another bruised(!) area where my body rejected the needle. I think tonight will go a lot better!