the big pink ones

Mon 22 March - IVF Appointment, injection training for Menopur (stimulating drug)

I didnt have to have another scan today - Yippee, but she took blood instead - Groan!

Im not sure what I prefer really, taking blood hurts and throbs for a while but you can keep your knickers on where as an internal scan is kind of pleasant but invasive.

Anyway, today was my second lot of injection training, this time its for the Menopur which is the stimulating drug.

Firstly they took some blood, this is to check my hormones are suppressed enough so I can start the stimulating stuff (and I dont mean vodka)
I have to ring the results hotline (I cant believe they still use the term hotline - so 80's) on Wednesday to get the results. If they are happy then I will start Menopur on Wednesday night, if their not happy then I go back and give more blood on Friday and try again. Hopefully though it will all be fine.

Ive worked out that if all goes to their schedule then I may be ready for egg recovery on Easter Monday which is great because we will both be off work anyway plus Ive already taken that week off work so I can recover at home without arousing suspicion. I would then get the egg implanted that Thurs/Friday, which again I will be off work for so no-one needs to know what Im up to, only that Im on holiday over Easter..... hmmm, me and plans dont always work out well though, lets wait and see what my unreliable reproductive system has to say about it.

Sorry, went off on a tangent there. Right then, Menopur is the drug I will be taking to stimulate my ovaries. It comes in boxes containing tiny jars with white powder in and lots of glass liquid phials. This is also where those huge pink needles come into play. I was told I will probably need to use 4 jars of powder each night, diluted into one phial of water so I will only be injecting 1ml of stuff each night but it will have 4 parts of powder in each. This is where it gets fiddly.

So you take a glass phial of water, cover the top with a bit of plastic and snap the top off. If your lucky it will be a clean break, if your unlucky it will shatter, possibly into your thumb or into the water so be careful (whos taking bets on me cutting my thumb open first time?) you then take a large syringe, attach the big pink needle and suck up the water from the phial. you then inject the water into the powder, wait for it dissolve then suck it back up again, inject the solution into the next powder, etc etc until 4 lots of powder are diluted and sucked into the syringe. Then you change needles to the tiny yellow one and inject it into your thigh.

Easy huh?

That was the end of the training, luckily you get a sheet of instructions to take home in case you forget and the nurse wished me luck. I headed home, too late to go back to work and theres a bag of minstrels waiting for me at home (on offer at Tesco's right now - only £1 a bag so I got 4)