There's a First Time for Everything...

This morning at 8:00am I had another doctor appointment with Dr. Hickey for an ultrasound and blood work. If you remember, I was also toting my bag of questionable syringes. When I arrived I heaved the bag on the counter asking the nurse what she thought and just like I had suspected, I was right...well...kinda. I was right in thinking that they were not the ones that would be used to inject the med into my body...but...they would be used. HUH???

Let me just start off by saying that the prescription company/plan that my school district and insurance company uses has not impressed me so far. But, what can you do? Thank goodness for the stocked up pantry at doctor's offices! Sue, one of my nurses, made sure that I would not run out of needles - ever.

My ultrasound went fine. Dr. Hickey said that we aren't worried about what the ovaries are doing because the Lupron (my current daily injection) is shutting down the part of my endocrine system that controls my ovaries. Right now it all looks good. But, I will be going in every Monday morning for the next 3 weeks in order for Dr. Hickey to keep an eye on things.

Tonight Brian had to administer our first IM injection (intramuscular). Really this just means that it is the first time that he has to inject a med into my butt. I was freaking out all day. For some reason I didn't feel prepared for this injection. I was second guessing everything about it. My friend, Katie agreed that I should just call the doctor and run through it one more time. I think her favorite line was: "So, then he injects it into the meaty part of my butt?!"

When Brian got home it was go time. I first gave myself the Lupron injection. Then it came time for the big dog. First we had to draw the needle up to 0.2cc, then push it into the Delestrogen bottle and push out the air. Then bring the bottle upright and pull out 0.2cc of the med. THEN, unscrew the huge needle and replace it with the "butt friendly" needle. Yes, those are the words they use! Let me tell you it was definitely more butt friendly than the first one! The needle is all set to go so, I wipe the "meaty" area (which was not hard to find!) with the alcohol pad and Brian begins to get ready to stab it in and then all of a sudden I just freak out. I start yelling at him to not just stab me with it and to go slow. Then, of course, the flood gates open and I start to cry. Can I be any more sensitive! He hadn't even done anything yet! Brian, the best husband there is, calms me down and then we get ready to try it again. This time I'm fine and he slowly injects the Delestrogen into my butt - sorry to be so forward! It didn't hurt at all - which then made me even more embarrassed that I cried. I'm such a baby! I'm sure I'll be much better on Thursday for Round #2. We'll continue to do the Monday/Thursday thing for the next couple of weeks.

Check out my pictures of the event: ***disclaimer...if you get squirmy by the sight of needles (Brad) you may not want to look at some of these...

Here are the meds and the suspicious bag of needles I was sent from my prescription company.

Here are all of the needles my nurse, Sue, hooked me up with.
I'm not sure the picture does it justice, what do you think Tricia and Katie?

Here's my "stash"!

Needle #1 - this is my Lupron needle...it is hard to tell but it is small

Injection #1 - Lupron

See the difference?? Here is the big dog...this is the Delestrogen injection needle...wowza!

My amazing husband and main injecter, Dr. Brian Witkowski

Tough angle, but here is Brian administering injection #2,
I obviously stopped crying long enough to take this picture!