The Knife and the Needle

The Knife

Last Tuesday night, I rolled over in bed and felt a weird pain down by my left ovary. I continued to feel it throughout the night; it would wake me up any time I used my lower abdominal muscles. I woke up a little worried that I couldn't tell the difference between wonky ovaries and pulling a muscle in that area.

The next night I felt it again but to a much lesser degree, and I slept through the night.

Thursday night I let the dog up on the bed, and as I shifted my weight next to him I got knifed in the right side of my groin. That's what it felt like, anyway. I yelped and ordered the dog off the bed, and stood up and leaned over the bed. C was so worried about me going into the IVF process with a problem that he told me he would stop talking to me if I didn't call the doctor the next morning.

On Friday morning the pain had diminished but I could still feel like something was a little off. As I was getting ready to go, I talked to C about why I didn't want to call the doctor. He'd either say it was nothing, or that I'd have to put off the IVF for another month. And that was about the last thing I wanted to do. I went without my breakfast and coffee, I was so upset.

And then, as I was putting on my shoes, I sneezed. Oh, man. Again, the knife. It was enough for me to decide to call and leave a message for the nurse when the RE clinic opened.

I got a phone call back pretty quickly, which was surprising considering how long it took last time. It was the nurse who had taught C and I how to administer my shots. After sharing a few details about what I was doing when it happened and how it felt the next morning, she concluded that it was most likely a muscular thing and that I should just wait and see if it went away on its own. And it largely has. After the first day of avoiding sneezes (at one point I drew in my breath to let one fly and at the top of the breath I remembered the knife - and that urge to sneeze disappeared quick!) it hurt less and less, and now it's just a dull, slight pain that I catch when I sneeze or throw my leg over my bike or something like that. What a fun little scare to start off my active IVF cycle!

The Needle

Saturday was our first Lupron injection! I thought about it all day and got more and more nervous as the afternoon wore on, mostly because I knew C was nervous too. (I don't really have a complex about needles; but being at the receiving end of one who's powered by a nervous first-timer was nerve-wracking.) I even bought myself a bottle of Beringer Cabernet Sauvignon just in case. I'd read the Stirrup Queens' Guide to Sub-Cue Injections a couple of times, and while C was drawing up the Lupron I started painting a spot next to my belly button with an ice cube. He went through two needles and several minutes, trying to get all the air bubbles out of the syringe, and once we were both satisfied I leaned back on a chair and he went to it. And it was fine, he did great! I felt a little poke (the same as when nurses do it) and the site was a little uncomfortable immediately afterwards (I think because of the medication) but it was fine! And then we were both so happy that we did it afterwards that we hugged and kissed and all my nervous energy let itself go and I felt really weird. I think I was just proud of us and all the day's nervousness was evaporating through my head or something.

So we did it once, and tonight we did it again, and it was fine! I was still nervous though, and C has learned to loosen his grip on my belly as he injects the Lupron and pull the needle out a little bit slower because when he kept squeezing me and he popped the needle out some of the Lupron beaded on my skin. Oops. I also made a pretty little rice pack for the stimulating injections that will happen in a few weeks. Never hurts to be prepared.

I'm still nervous about the intramuscular progesterone-in-oil, but that is fodder for another day, when it's actually staring me in the face.