Shot class..

...and no, there was no alcohol involved. Although, after seeing some of the needles I was sure one of the girls in the class might need one lol! Anyway, I took a half day off work today to learn how to give myself an injection...or better yet, have someone else give it to me. Luckily, my mom was able to go with me and learn along side me, because I'm sure she'll be the one poking me! 

Basically, the nurse showed us how to give any kind of shot we possibly would need to give, and if we ever forget, we have a play by play informational sheet as a reminder. Since I live about 40 minutes away from the office, that would be a real hassle driving there every time I needed an HCG trigger shot or in the future, maybe IVF injections everyday. Hopefully, the IUI will work and we won't have to go "there."

I just want to rave about the nurse who taught the class today. Her name is Susan and she is the kind of nurse everyone going through infertility issues should have/meet. She consistently told us that no question was stupid and answered every question we had. She showed us how to administer every shot we may need at some point using an orange as her target! I don't know that I could give myself one, but I'm glad my mom was there to learn. She even asked the person over insurance and billing to call me soon so we could talk about all "that stuff" I really know nothing about. However, "that stuff" is super important because my insurance pays a $15,000 max lifetime for infertility issues. I wonder how much I've used...I have no clue : / Susan is awesome, and I'm so glad there are still people in the medical field who truly love their job and care about each and every one of us going through this.

I have my day 13 U/S on Sunday so they can look and see what's going on. They will check how many mature follicles I have and measure the sizes. I don't know much about the units of measure, but they like to see the follicles measure between 18-20. Last month, I had a follicle that was classified as a 21 and the IUI was done 2 days later (less than 24 hours after the trigger shot). I asked Susan why they didn't wait 36 hours to do the IUI after the trigger shot and she looked at my chart and said "because your follicle was a 21, we needed to go ahead and do it." In terms we all understand, since my follicle was getting larger AND older, it was getting more and more fragile. If it doesn't release the egg or releases it too late, it has a poor chance of attaching to the uterine lining. So in reality, the egg could be fertilized, but if it's old and fragile, it won't attach, thus causing your period to come.

So, hopefully I will have a good follicle (or good follicle(s)) to work with this month. I almost wonder if the reason it didn't take this last month is because it wasn't able to attach?? Guess I'll never know, but this whole process is very much trial and error and trying to figure out what to do based on how MY body reacts. NOTHING can be done by the book all the time because everyone is so different. Hopefully I'll have good news to report on Sunday after the U/S. Until then....