You'd Think I Could Do This by Now ...

It would be nice if medical labeling could be consistent. The first time I had to give Evelin an hCG trigger shot (about a year ago, our first cycle with the fertility clinic), it was a total mess. We'd taken the injections class at the doctor's office, but neither of us took notes and the nurse ran through a few crucial steps, such as tightening the needle to the syringe. Also, none of our info said how much of the water to use to dissolve the medicine and then how much to inject. We muddled through it that time. The second hCG trigger (in late November last year) went much more smoothly, but we'd asked a lot of questions and the info was fresh in our minds.

This time ... well this time things weren't so fresh. The Gonal-f shots were easy. I'd had to do a whole series of them on the last cycle and I had the methodology down. When we restarted those the other week, it was no problem. This shot, however, is different. It's the same sort of kit (same size needles), but the ampoules are different. Plus we were injecting 5,000 IU of the 10,000 IU in the ampoule. That I could handle: draw up 1 cc of the sterile water inject it into the ampoule containing the freeze dried medicine, roll gently to mix, and then draw back up 0.5 cc of the solution.

Now this is where it started to get tricky. Evelin remembered that the injection was like the others, subcutaneous, so we could give it in the back of the arm. (Evelin likes the shots there because she doesn't have to see the needle coming.) But the packing and inserts all say to give the injection intramuscularly. But the kit included the long mixing needle and a short subcutaneous needle. So we tried to call the doctor, mind you this is a little past 10:00 p.m. I got the kit prepared and we waited for the call back. Eventually, I decided that Evelin was right, I couldn't remember ever giving her an intramuscular shot, and the kit had the small needle, so we must need to give it subcutaneously. We called back the answering service to say never mind, but they said the message had already been relayed, so we waited a bit longer. At 10:30 p.m. we went ahead and did the shot. An hour later and still no call back. Hopefully the "never mind" message got to the doctor and we weren't just blown off ...

Getting away from needles, for dinner last night we got our first taste of our garden: a crook-neck squash, a zucchini, and a cucumber. Evelin sautéed the squash and zucchini with some onion and olive oil and it turned out great alongside the portabellas I'd marinated and grilled. It's amazing how well a simple mix of olive oil, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, honey, and garlic can cook up with the mushrooms.