Lupron day 1: the money shot

Finally I get to post that ritual picture in every IVFers's blog, The Money Shot. Here are my drugs. I rearrange them gleefully. Not pictured: four boxes of Menopur, tucked behind the Lupron and syringes; two bottles, one of antibiotics and one of steroids, in the front gold bowl. Three vials of progesterone in ethyl oleate, on their way from a pharmacy in Colorado, because I am a pushy patient and refused the progesterone in sesame oil thankyouverymuch. I muttered something about food allergies, but really I just generally try and avoid painful experiences, and the PiO shots are supposed to hurt like a mofo. The ethyl oleate preparation is supposed to be much much easier, and can be given with a much smaller needle.

The peacock fan I carried as maid of honor in my best friend's wedding. The sheela na gig also comes from her. Since she got knocked up one month after the wedding, I have great faith in both of these talismans.

Ganesha is the solver of problems and remover of obstacles. Qwan Yin guards the souls of children and is a goddess of mercy, compassion, fertility, and childbirth. And Juno is the Roman goddess of fertility and childbirth.

I know it's not an exhaustive pantheon, but it's a decent start, don't you think?

First Lupron shot this morning went swimmingly. My girl has deft hands, and is used to giving injections since in her lab she has to inject various substances into mice. Apparently I'm easier to handle than a mouse, probably because I neither tried to bite her nor climb over her head. She did one clever trick which I'd recommend: she asked me to count to five very loudly. I was focused on filling my lungs for that and barely noticed the needle going in.

In other news, the receipts attached to my big bag o' meds added up to over $7000. My copay was around $140. I priced the same meds out at around $3300 over the interwebs. People, our medical system is broken.