Houston, we have injections - September 10th, 2011

So today I gave myself my first injection of many to come.  I think I did pretty darn well.  The injections of this medication are to be given in the mornings for the next 4 weeks.  So I had the option of getting up at 5:15 to have my husband give them to me, or I could suck it up and give them to myself later in the morning.  Since they are subcutaneous injections, they are much easier than the hCG injections that we've had to do for the IUIs (and that we will have to do for the IVF too).  Those are intramuscular (IM), so they have a different target area for the injection and they hurt more.  In any case, today's medication is called Lupron.  It is used to make sure that my body doesn't ovulate before my doctors want me to.  That's why I will be on it for the next 4 weeks - that is how long I have until they are ready to retrieve the eggs.  *sigh*  That is such a long way away!  In the meantime, I continue taking birth control pills for one more week while doing the Lupron injections.  Then, the week after next, I will be giving myself the Lupron injections without the BCPs.  After that, it's stim time!  I will be taking 2 vials of stims, twice a day.  Luckily, we can mix the stim medication, which is in powder form, with just one vial of sterile liquid, meaning that I only have to give myself 1 shot of it twice per day, plus the Lupron.  That means that I will be giving myself a total of 3 shots per day starting 2 weeks from now.  Fun.  Thankfully, they are all subcutaneous.  The injections that are IM are the hCG shot, which hubby will give to me 36 hours before the time my egg retrieval is scheduled for.  Then the progesterone in oil shots (POI) which from what I understand, suck quite a lot, are IM as well.  I will be on them for 2 weeks for certain, and if I am pregnant, for 6 - 8 weeks after that for a total of 8 - 10 weeks.  Joy.  But, we have a lot of sub-Q shots to get through first.  And today was the first.  One down, approximately 66 to go.