The daily injections started Sunday night. Every night, at the same time, I need one dose of Follistim and one of Menopur. Both medicines are supposed to encourage as many follicles to grow so that we can harvest as many as possible. A greater harvest means more eggs to inseminate, and more eggs inseminated means more embryos.
Follistim is administered through a pen-like instrument. It’s easy, clean, and there’s no fuss. Of course there’s a pinch when the needle goes in, but after that, I really can’t feel anything at all.
Menopur is a different story. You have to draw up the saline solution into the syringe, release it into the medicine bottle to mix, draw everything back up the syringe again, switch out the needle, then administer the shot.
And it stings.
Not the kind of sting that makes you wince, but the kind that makes you grab for anything nearby to squeeze.
It’s not fun, but it’s definitely not as bad as I thought it would be. Jin took it upon himself to learn how to prepare the shots so that he can administer them each night. I could tell he was nervous preparing the medication on the first night, but by the second time around, he was definitely feeling a lot more confident. In a few days, we’ll be adding Ganirelix in the mornings, and we’ll be that much closer to the next step of this process.