Injections

     So as I mentioned in my first post I am doing a "combo cycle" which means that I take an oral medication for the first few days and then take a liquid drug in shot form.  Now every combo is different and tailored to the actual woman but they do follow the pattern previously mentioned. I am taking Femara 5mg from cycle day 5-9 and then Follistim 75iu 8-10 (so far). So first let me tell you about Femara. This drug is typically prescribed to post-menopausal women who have breast cancer. I know it is specifically used with tumors that are producing estrogen. Though it was created to treat cancer it works wonderfully to help women ovulate.  It awakens the ovaries and cause the follicles to grow (our eggs are housed within the follicles). So the Femara will start the process and the Follistim will finish it. Follistim is synthetic FSH (though it's identical in formulation). Think of it as "food" to nourish and grow that follicle. Now so far, I have been responding very well to the oral med alone but after four good ovulations I am still not pregnant so I chose to move on to something stronger (a combo cycle). Ok so how does it actually feel to take these meds, well like everything else there has been good and bad with taking them.  I love how many follicles I am getting and how lucky I am that I am responding to medication at all because many women do not respond and have to move straight to IVF. However, I get hot flashes, migraines, and of course injection site pain. I have done three shots so far and don't have too many complaints however it is no fun. The first shot was the hardest because I was completely freaked out about giving it to myself.  It is one thing to get a shot it is totally different to administer it yourself.  So I took a deep breathe and just did it. Surprisingly the needle didn't hurt one bit. The second shot didn't hurt either but the shot I did tonight was pretty horrible. The medicine stung like crazy and no matter how slowly I injected I could not make it any better.  I think I picked a bad spot. Hopefully tomorrow goes better.

     So the next step is an ultrasound to see how my ovaries are responding to this dose. I will be heading up to my RE tomorrow morning to see what is going on in there. Hopefully I will have a few follicles growing and be ready to trigger soon. Wish me good luck!