One down, seventeen or so to go

Last night I introduced my virgin stomach to Mr. Needle. I decided early that I was going to make the introductions at 21.30 and all day was a count down even though I tried hard not to think about it. I did a bunch of things to distract myself and to try to make time go a little faster. I cleaned out my closet. Replaced cute summer skirts and cotton flowery tops with wooly sweaters and more fleece pants. I started a magazine project that isn't due in another few weeks. Walked the Dogster twice as far as I normally would. Made an elaborate dinner for D. Did research on images and ideas for the childrens book I'm working on. And I watched too much TV. In spite of all this when evening finally rolled around I had just finished reading the how-to-shoot-yourself-with-Gonal-F instructions for the eleventh time. I opened the fridge at exactly 20.30 to take out the meds and bring them to room temperature (thanks for that advise dear internet peeps). Then I watched Project Runway for half an hour and when that was over we started watching House. At 21.25 we paused dr. House mid sentence spewing rudeness and went to prep the injection pen. 

INSTRUCTIONS (now known by heart from excessive reading)

• Remove cover and place a new needle on pen - clicking sound ensures it's in place

• Set the dose dial at the 37.5 IE mark. Pull out the injection button - you will hear a click

• Remove outer and inner needle cover and point pen up in the air

• Press injection button all the way in and make sure a drop of fluid exits the needle point

• Exchange nervous glance with Hubster

• Set the dose dial at the 225 IE mark. Double check. Triple Check

• Pull out injection button to load the pen and check again that you have the correct dose set

• Go sit down in comfy chair

• Select previously circled right area of stomach (right seemed easier to start with than left...)

• Have Hubster count to three

• Introduce Mr. Needle (ie. stab yourself) and press down the injection button all the way to experience weird tingling sensation when meds enter your body

• Count to ten before removing needle from stomach and then safely dispose of needle

• Exhale and give Hubster high-five

All in all the whole ordeal took less than 2 minutes and was virtually painless. The rest of the night I kept trying to feel if anything was different, if there were any side effects. Did I have some tingling in the right side of my body? Did I suddenly have some more cramps? Nah, nothing really. Was that the beginning of a headache? No, just needed to let hair down from ponytail. Cotton mouth? Went away when I had a drink of water. Dizziness? I'm sure it had nothing to do with nerves or anticipation.

So yeah, taking that first shot was a piece of cake and I can easily do that for another ten days or so. Bring it on!

I guess this also qualifies as todays "show & tell" so check out what others are showing here.