i had to do my shot at work today

it felt very awkward. i brought my meds and syringes in an insulated lunch box thing with a cold pack, and did my shots in the bathroom a few minutes ago. it felt kinda naughty to be giving myself injections in a bathroom. its not the most sanitary place. 

I sanitized a surface with alcohol and lay down a couple paper towels, and prepped my needles on that. 

i'm finally getting the hang of it i think. i'm getting the hang of using the Q-cap to get the liquid to the menopur powder vial. and i'm now a master bubble flicker. no bubbles survive in my syringes. i flick 'em out like a pro.

the injections themselves were easy, mostly painless (except for the lupron - i wiggled the needle a little on that one on accident while it was in the skin), and bloodless. so overall i think i did good. the agency gave me bandages to use, but i dont really need them. except i needed them for the shots the other day... was that yesterday? yeah.

the follistim pen functioned smoothly also. you dont even have to press that hard, i dont know why i couldn't get it to work before. i think i was just terrified to press at all.

side effects report: i feel bloated. and things keep happening in my ovarian area. its like a party down there. theres movement that sometimes feels like cramping without the pain. just like i said yesterday - awareness of something happening down there. crazy. the doctor said that each follicle would swell with fluid about the size of a grape. so if all 17 of my follicles are working, then i'll have 2 small bunches on each side of my uterus. 2 bunches with 8 or 9 grapes on each side filling up space. that would explain the bloating. 

have you ever cut open a frog in biology class and seen the fatty deposits on either side of the stomach? thats how i think i'm going to feel by next week.

i feel good and energetic. i'm not emotional or depressed or any of that. i feel emotionally totally normal. maybe even more energetic than normal? 

i'm not allowed to exercise too much. so i walk up hills instead of the usual biking them.

i talked to my case coordinator, she said if my ultrasounds on monday and wednesday look normal, then my expected extraction date would be the following friday, saturday, or sunday. i'll know for sure when they see my ultrasounds and check my blood. but thats less than a week from now, so i'm excited and kinda surprised this is coming up so fast.

that would mean i'd have to give myself the 'trigger shot' on thursday or around there. the trigger shot is a hormone that tells my body to ovulate at a specific time. i'd have to give myself the shot exactly within a certain time away from the extraction procedure. that needle is bigger. and somebody else has to give it to me, and its in my butt, if i remember correctly. so, to recap, 

"somebody else has to give it to me in my butt". yeah. THATS what i meant to say.