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Has anyone here tried pregmune?
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I made my husband give me the shots! Least he can do lol
🙋♀️🙌 totally!!! That’s the least he can do.
You are a smart and capable woman! You are a VP of marketing!! You are going to learn this new skill quickly and you will be a pro in no time!
There’s always a learning curve, so don’t beat yourself up. Be prepared with a paper towel and alcohol wipes and a bandaid, if you’re doing the progesterone in oil. It’s going to hurt a bit, but nothing you can’t handle! Eventually I was able to give myself injections mid-flight in the airplane bathroom (and restaurant bathrooms and so many other places). You can do this! And it will get better and easier, and it’s all in pursuit of a really special goal. You will be great!
Also PS I definitely didn’t let/make my husband give me any injections, because even though he’s a doctor and theoretically better trained at injections than I, a non-doctor, am, I liked to have the control over the needle and that helped me to feel more empowered and to experience less anxiety about the moments before the needle goes in
Love this! I’m on day 7 of Stims, strangely don’t feel any side effects except I feel very exhausted in the evenings. Left ovary responding better than right, trying to stay positive. I kept my husband in charge of injections/medication- can’t get over the fear of jabbing myself but also want him to be involved, I don’t think men ever get what we go through.
Follow the videos. You'll get way faster. If you struggle, ask a nurse to show you how to mix menopause at a monitoring appt.
I watched the videos again and again and again. And on slow motion step by step while I was injecting each day. I felt better after a couple days.
I just had my egg retrieval some days ago. And this is my experience.
I personally prefer doing the injection myself vs my husband doing it for me since I can control it better. Try to alternate the side of injections and ice the area after the injections.
Drink more water and move more (light exercises help).
First few days were ok for me until day 8 and after egg retrieval day, I experienced mild OHSS. So drinking water, eating healthy (like less oily food, more fiber) helps.
And this is my mantra ‘I’m strong, I’m resilient and I have what it takes within me to get through this’. I keep repeating it to myself.
More importantly, communicate your needs to your partner. The stress and all the hormones mean you are more emotional. If you need anything, want your partner to behave in certain ways or support you in certain manners, say it out loud. This is a joint journey. Don’t take it all on yourself.
Wishing you all the best 🙏
It’s a roller coaster of emotions. Go easy on yourself. The range of normal is SO broad. WFH if you want. Eat healthy. Rest. Laugh. Cry. Talk to your eggos. You got this 💗 Also the first needle is the scariest!
One day at a time
Ice the injection site before to help reduce pain of the injection.
Don’t be afraid to inject slowly - we’re not professional nurses and this isn’t a timed event.
Take plenty of time on the first few days to watch the videos as you do it. It took be about an hour the first day (LOTS of replays and rewinding!), then 30 minutes second day, and eventually I got it down to about a 10-15 minute process.
If you’re using Folistim, take it out of the fridge and let it warm up. Won’t hurt the medication and will make it less painful for you. Also, you can go to the end of the vial and refill to finish your dose. They overfill the vial a bit, so this can help save on med costs if you need to go beyond the 10 days. So say your injection is 150 units, and you have a 300 unit vial. It probably has 375-400 units actually in it. Because of the way the dosing pen works, you do 2 days normal, then on day 3, you click to your regular dose, inject until the vial is empty, replace the vial with new vial and new needle, then finish the injection for your day 3 dose.
Towards the end I got a “full” feeling from all the eggs. It’s kind of like the bladder feeling of really having to pee, only in a different spot. My poor tummy was also a bit bruised from some of the injections. Plan on wearing loose clothing to help minimize squeezing.
We went through it 3 times. You must be/get emotional support, it can be an austere process. Our two are 34 and thriving
ICE!
get your refrigerated meds to room temp first, and use an ice pack to ice your belly up before you inject. I was also terrified and thought I wouldn’t be able to do it myself, but you really just need to get past that first one. I promise you, once the injection spot is iced up and feeling numb, you’ll barely feel it - if at all
Yes, limit exercising especially abs since the follicles are growing and you can rupture them since this is not natural. The meds cause multiple follicles to grow and hence the advise
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Thank you! Makes sense
Hopefully you don’t have too terrible of symptoms! Mine were awful - woke up crying for no reason, bloated, restless nights etc. Things that were or would have been nice to know:
1) get a friend or spouse to do the injections for you; idgaf if a spouse is “afraid of needles” or “doesn’t like blood” (there is no blood), make them do it bc that effort doesn’t even scratch what you’re about to put your body through
2) Freeze the h*ll out of your injection site before the injection. Pretty sure my skin turned to leather doing this, but it helped with the burning injection (think 50% of people feel a burn)
3) be patient with yourself and the emotional rollercoaster. Remind yourself that it’s your hormones wrecking havoc and that it’s ok to not know why you’re feeling a certain way — thats the mood swings gettin ya. Find a good binge series and just cry it out if you have to
4) (optional) I was transparent with my work and team about what was going on and found that empowering; a lot of team members turned out to be very curious and wanted to learn more, for their spouses or themselves. Personal opinion, I think this stuff should be taught about in school so people aren’t as clueless about what women endure and sacrifice during IVF. Forget “having b*lls”; a person needs v*gina vibes to be strong enough to endure IVF
Agreed one day at a time, and keep your mind on the ultimate goal.
Just do it quickly. It’s a lot of med of course and overwhelming, but just don’t think too much about it and yes one day at a time!
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One question that has come up- most of the meds say limit exercising during stimulation. Is this true? What does “limiting” it mean. I do 20 min workouts with weights and biking… do I need to stop that?
I only did walks during. You also get uncomfortable during the end where you likely wouldn’t want to bike or lift weights anyway
For your first day of injections, give yourself more time so you don’t feel rushed when preparing your the shots. My husband did all my shots and it definitely helped not having to inject myself
I had heard this idea of making it like an advent calendar where you have one treat after every shot regimen that I thought was cool. Heard about it too late but might be something you wanna try! Good luck!