During the stimulation phase, you inject yourself with hormones to make multiple follicles grow at the same time. I was nervous about this for several reasons: 1) I don’t like shots, let alone giving them to myself! 2) I was nervous about mixing up the medications wrong; it had all seemed very complicated during the injections class and I was not confident at all that I would avoid mistakes 3) I was concerned the hormones would turn me into a crazy, emotional mess. Overall, I was not looking forward to this part.
I was instructed to work on a clean surface, so I swabbed down a kitchen tray with rubbing alcohol, placed it on my desk, and started setting out the supplies I would need. I had two injections to do: Menopur and Follistim. Menopur is the more complicated one; I scarcely remembered anything from injection training class so I pulled out the step-by-step handout on how to administer Menopur. It turns out there are 18 steps. I also watched the injection training videos provided by Freedom Fertility Pharmacy but I had trouble remembering the steps even right after watching the video, so the handout was my best friend.
I mixed up the Menopur according to the instructions on the handout and loaded it into the syringe. I pulled up my shirt, pinched a chunk of flesh, and paused with the needle close to my belly. This was the moment of truth--would I actually be able to push in needle? It took me a minute to work up the courage, but eventually I poked the needle into my skin and depressed the plunger. It was no picnic, but it wasn’t that bad.
Now on to the Follistim. The Follistim does not require mixing; it comes in a vial which you put into a special Follistim Pen. I followed the instructions on the Follistim handout, attached the needle, and selected a new patch of skin to inject. This injection turned out to be easier than the first one. I thought the Pen seemed silly and gimmicky at first, but it really did make things easier. The only hitch was at the end, you are supposed to take off the needle and throw it in the sharps disposal container. There are instructions on how to do this on the instruction sheet. But despite following the instructions, I just could not get the needle off. I tried and tried and it just wouldn't become detached from the Pen. I was starting to panic when finally I managed to get it off.
It took me about 40 minutes to do that first set of injections, but I was sure I would speed up once I stopped having to watch the injection videos and read every word of the instructional handouts.
I expected my second day of injections to go more easily, but much to my surprise, it did not. I again started with the Menopur. This time when I injected the Menopur, I started to feel faint. I became sweaty all over. I walked my hands along the walls to support me as I moved from my desk to my bed to lie down. I lay curled up in the fetal position for about 20 minutes before finally getting up the courage to do my Follistim injection, which I brought into bed with me in case I started feeling faint again. Luckily the Follistim injection was much easier. I felt pretty discouraged--it was going to be a long 10 days of stimulation if this happened every night!
Fortunately the third day of injections went more smoothly. I decided to do the Follistim first, since it was easier and that way if I felt bad after the Menopur injection again, I wouldn't have to pull myself together for the second injection. Follistim went fine, though I still had trouble getting the needle off to dispose of it. I was of course terrified of the Menopur and had to really get up my courage to do that one. But it actually went ok. Immediately after giving myself the Menopur injection, I lay down as a precaution. But luckily I didn't feel dizzy. Things were looking up.
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