My treatment is now well and truly underway. I wanted to
post on the first day of my treatment about how I felt but unfortunately I also had a stinking cold so I didn’t feel I could
give an honest assessment of how the IVF was making me feel because I felt dreadful
from the cold.
First Day
My clinic recommends doing injections between 6pm and
8pm. This is a rather awkward time for
me as if I’m often at work or out at that time.
This means that I’ve done 5 injections so far but only last night’s one has been at home – the first
one was at a friend’s house, the second and forth in my boss’s office at work
and the third one was standing up in the toilets at Weatherspoon’s! So it
hasn’t been the most straightforward start!
I appreciate that as a nurse I have a bit of an advantage in
terms of knowing how to do the injections which took quite a bit of the stress
out of it for me. That said it’s a very
different experience injecting yourself and the first time I had to do it I
probably approached my stomach then chickened out about 5 times before I
actually did. My experience from the
first injection was that the injection itself wasn’t too bad but that the drug
really stung afterwards, it felt kind of like a bee sting (though I haven’t been
stung by a bee since I was a kid so I couldn’t say for sure) and went really
red and angry for about 5 minutes. Since
then however the stinging has been gradually less and less and last night I couldn’t
really feel it at all, I don’t know whether that’s because my technique has
improved or because my body has become used to the medication. So if your first injection is really sore don’t
panic that it’s going to be like that for the whole of your treatment, you
should find it will improve with time.
I’ve done a video and posted it on Youtube about giving
the Buserelin injection, it can be seen here:
I’ve done a lot of injections over the years and you kind of
get to know a good technique but of course normally you don’t inject the same
person over and over and ask them which was least painful, whereas with
injecting yourself you get an idea of what the best way to do it is. So my top tips would be:
- Faster isn’t necessarily better. Natural instinct says that you want to do the injection as quick as possible to get it over and done with sooner. I’ve found however that it is better to go slow and steady; Go in with the needle nice and steady rather than a quick stab seems to make it more comfortable.
- ·In terms of speed pushing the plunger down fairly slow and steady also seems to be less uncomfortable than pushing it quickly.
- Whether you need to go in at 45 degrees or straight with the needle slightly depends on the type of needle they give you so make sure you take advice from your clinic; mine told me it didn’t matter either way but I found 45 degrees was easier.
- If you pinch your skin with one hand and push the needle in with the other you find that you’ve run out of hands to push the plunger down and have to either reposition your hand on the needle which can make it wobble about a bit or let go of your skin. I've found the best way is to pinch the skin while you put the needle in with the other hand, then release the skin once the needle is in and use that hand to push down the plunger while keeping your other hand on the needle to stop it wiggling about. Of course if you've got somebody helping you that makes it easier because you can carry on pinching the skin while they do the rest.
Mood
So giving the injections hasn’t been too bad but the other
things I was worried about was how it would affect my mood.
As I said the first day after my injection I also had a
stinking cold and had to work a 12 ½ shift so I felt absolutely shocking, I did
feel very moody and emotional but it’s impossible to tell whether any of that
was due to starting the injections or whether it was all down to being so
tired and feeling so unwell. Now 4 more
days on I feel fine, I wouldn’t say that there’s been any negative change in my
mood so far and I haven’t really noticed any other ill effects. Whether over time this will change we’ll have
to wait and see…
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