3dp3dt: First Self Administered PIO Shot!

Today is 3dp3dt, 3 days post 3 day transfer.  According to this link, my Three Amigos who should be blastocysts by now, begins to hatch out of its shells.  At NEDC, if you are transferring any embryos that are not blastocysts, the embryologist will perform assisted hatching, a process that pokes a tiny hole  to help the embryo hatch out of it's shell.  Well since we thawed 2PNs and grew them to multicells (day 3), we did assisted hatching.  Hopefully, this means that our embryos had no problems hatching out of their shells and will start attaching to my uterus.

Blastocyst (not mine) embryo hatching out of it's shell
Image from Advanced Fertility

I had an awesome FIRST today!  I administered my first PIO injection shot on myself!  Not once, but twice so far.

Babe has to do a bit of traveling for his work, which is very rare.  He was supposed to leave the week before our transfer but plans changed.  He will be gone for 2.5 days this week, so I need someone to do my shots.  Back in November, I had my brother-in-law and his wife (both nurses) do the shots for me when Babe was gone for a few days for hunting.  This time around, I am not so keen on getting then involved again as we have not told them we are having another transfer.

I'm not really sure why but I wanted to try doing the shot myself.  Maybe it was because I know of other women that do/have done their own shots, or because I this could possibly be our last transfer, and I want to experience all aspects of a transfer.  Or maybe I just wanted to know that I really could do it, that I had the GUTS to finally poke myself with the big bad scary needle.

So this morning, I gave myself the shot.  Babe of course supervised and actually was very helpful, but I had to tell him to stop counting while I psyched myself up to get enough courage to stick the needle in.  When I finally stuck the needle in, it really wasn't so bad.  The tough part was actually having to twist around and reach back so that I could get the angle right and I am NOT a flexible person.  I was also having a hard time figuring out the pressure needed to push the plunger without injecting too much at one time.  I did not take as much time to inject all the oil as when Babe does it as my body was starting to get sore from the twisting and I was afraid I would start cramping up.  But all in all, it wasn't too bad.  The hardest part is gathering enough courage to stick the needle in.

Tonight, I shot myself on the left side.  It was even harder because I am a right hander and could not twist myself far enough to give myself the shot on my left hip.  I ended up just using my left hand which wasn't so bad.  It is weird though having a needle stuck in your hip and the syringe moves up and down as you are trying to push the plunger in.  But in the end, it worked out fine too.  Again the hardest part was finding the right angle and gathering enough courage to stick the big ass needle in.  Babe took a few photos of me giving myself the shot tonight.  I seriously considered posting a photo here but decided that it is not a good idea to show you a picture of my ass!

Praying that the Three Amigos are growing and staying healthy.

8 more days to our first beta!