Open Sesame

Or should I say inject sesame since this is what Hubby and I have been doing nightly for nearly the past three weeks. Yes, I think I may have mentioned that we elected to do intramuscular progesterone this cycle as opposed to the crinone of the two previous cycles. It was a recommendation of the second opinion, and since we had never tried it, we were willing to give it a go. Hubby was amused and a little wary of the fact that the chosen oil was sesame oil. He and his best friend love to put hot sesame oil on their Asian food. He was worried it would be spicy and burn!

It's been going fairly well so far. We've been following a pretty strict process which I am going to tell you about in great detail in hopes that will help those of you who are lucky enough to follow behind me. First, I heat up the vial and my butt cheek with a heating pad (careful that the heating pad is only hitting my butt, and not my back, and is not overly warm since we don't want to cook the babies.) A nurse recommended sticking the vial in my bra, which worked for awhile, but was starting to take too long. We're also careful not to heat the oil up too much, because let's face it, injecting hot oil into your ass would not be very pleasant. But, warming the oil makes it much more viscous, and therefore it flows much more easily through the syringe, and through my muscles. The warm muscles also helps to keep the oil flowing so it doesn't pool up at the injection site.

Each night, we alternate sides from right to left. In addition to that, Hubby has sharpied out 4 dots on each side of my butt. If you imagine the upper outter quadrant of your butt as a clock, think of dots at 12, 3, 6, and 9. Each night, we go from left to right, and around the clock, so that I don't get an injection in the same place for 8 days. Hubby always puts on a fresh needle after drawing the oil into the syringe. It gets dulled when it goes through the rubber stopper in the vial, and dull syringe into ass equals pain! He then pulls the skin very taught before sticking the needle in. This has been very important as well. The few times he forgot....owwweeee!

After he withdraws the needle, he holds a gauze pad down on the area and massages with a lot of pressure for a good minute. This also helps the oil to disperse, and not form little knots under the skin.

Like I said, it's been going really well. No bruises, no knots, a little soreness now and then, But really, much better than I ever imagined. Until Tuesday, when the sides of my hips/butt like right along the leg of my underwear started to itch! There hasn't been a rash, just really itchy. Then, last night, I discovers a hive or two. Now, I've been an allergic person in the past, and usually when I get hives, there are many, not just one or too. So, I was really concerned. But, when we realized we were nearing the end of our needle supply and the bottom of our last vial of sesame oil was coming closer, I thought I'd better check with the nurse before spending money on the refill for the next 4 weeks.

Sure enough, she told me it sounded like an allergic reaction, and at this point, seeing as we made it the pregnancy, the would not recommend switching to a different type of oil. It's time to switch to crinone. I think I'm ok with that. I'm glad we glad we gave this a shot and got to do it for as long as we did. I think I mentioned that my RE thinks crinone is just as good as PIO—her studies have proven as much—but she did agree that sometimes doctors just have a feeling about something, so she was willing to let me try it. I'm a little paranoid, because I feel like we're giving up on the big guns, but since I finally felt what I consider real true border line nausea tonight after dinner, I'm maybe, just maybe starting to feel a glimmer of confidence. My stomach is also getting upset quite often these days, which hasn't been my norm of late, so it's a definite change. I'm wondering if that is one way morning sickness is taking a toll on me. I'd much rather sit on the toilet than hug it, so if that's the way it wants to continue, I'll take it! But man, was I excited to feel that little wave come over me tonight, even if it was brief, and immediately settled with a tums!

So, I guess that's the end of the injections for this cycle. I have a date with the gel in the morning.