This is an intramuscular injection, which means it needs to be injected into your muscles. Yep, crazy, right?! We were instructed to have Adam give me the injection in the upper, outer quadrant of the gluteal muscle (aka my butt). It wasn't as terrible as it sounds, but it's definately not pleasant.
The first step in administering it is to draw it out of the vial. Since it is in oil, it is very thick. You have to use a wider needle to draw it up. When Adam and I were first going through all the supplies, we saw these drawing needles and I about had a meltdown because not only were they long, but they were wide! I thought to myself, Adam's going to have to use a hammer in order to get that through my skin! But upon closer inspection of the directions, we realized after you draw out the PIO, then you switch out the wide needle for one much thinner. It's still just as long, though.
Adam prepared the shots so I wouldn't have to look at those long needles any more than I had to! I know it was no picnic for Adam either. I know I would have had a hard time ramming needles into Adam if the roles were reversed.
We eventually got into a groove and found some things that helped make them not so painful. First, I always iced where the needle was going for about 5-10 minutes prior. There were a few times when I didn't ice the right spot or for as long as I should have and I could tell a HUGE difference and it was much more painful. Secondly, I leaned against our kitchen counter with the top of my foot on the side Adam was injecting into against the ground. That way you don't have all your weight on your leg and your gluteal muscle is relaxed. Thirdly, Adam stuck that needle in hard and fast. The faster it went in, the less painful. Fourthly, we had gauze and a band-aid ready to go as soon as Adam took the needle out. It was important to keep the medicine from coming out of the hole and to put pressure on the area to help with bruising.
It got worse, the longer they went on. I was so sore and bruised.
But I was happy to endure them because they served a very important purpose. Progesterone is necessary for implantation of the embryo(s) into the uterus and and to maintain pregnancy. Most women produce enough of this hormone on their own. But with IVF, you want to give a pregnancy every possible chance, so it's pretty common to do progesterone shots as a part of IVF.
We ended up doing the shots until I was 10 weeks along. We were both very happy when that day came! Here we are celebrating our final shot!
While it wasn't fun, it was totally worth it. We have two healthy babies on the way and I would do the shots every day if that's what it took!
No comments:
Post a Comment
I welcome your thoughts!