A Cyst Assist

It's been a while since my last IVF post, and a lot has happened... or not happened. I was a little over a week away from my suppression check, and the potential start of my meds. Well. Not so much, apparently.
I dutifully take my BCP, go in all excited for my suppression check (3/16)... and see a big black blot. I could tell immediately that something was not right. I've had cysts (from the Clo.mid) and seen follicles and all that jazz before, and this was the largest black blot I've ever seen. 28mmx28mm. A big whopper of a cyst. They tell me that it may be nothing, blah blah blah, but we'll do an estrogen check to see if it's active or whatever. So keep taking the BCP. Next day's lab results: high estrogen. Continue on the BCP and come back next week. Joy.
So I go back in for another U/S and bloodwork (3/23)... still there. Slightly larger (31mmx25mm.) And my estrogen is still high. Come back next week.
3/31 - still there. But slightly smaller this time. 25mmx25mm. I ask more questions this time, since I'm still not sure what this all means. The estrogen interferes with the stimulation meds, so there's no point in starting until the cyst stops interfering. And they aren't concerned about a cyst unless it's there "for too long." 12 weeks, apparently. *sigh*
But this time... the estrogen levels are down. We're a go! They were going to have me start stim meds on Sunday 4/3, but then one of my appointments would conflict when I'd committed to babysit my nieces. So we moved it to Tuesday 4/6. And I moronically remembered to stop taking my BCP Saturday night, as if we'd be starting Sunday, even though I knew we were moving it to Tuesday. Doh! Luckily I remembered for Sunday night.
 4/6 - Meds Day 1: I got to start my shots at my sister's house. Glee. I forgot how hard it was to remember all the little steps they don't tell you at the injection training class. I forgot to pull 1cc of air into the Meno.pur syringe before attaching it to the vial of saline. If you push the air in first, you don't get the suction trying to push the water back out of the syringe once you've drawn it (basically, you negate the pressure you've created by trading 1cc of air for 1cc of water.) If you just draw the water out of the vial, you create pressure where the syringe wants to push the water back out. All while you're trying to pop the lid off the powder vial (because you forgot to open all your stuff before starting.) Then you push the water into the powder vial, but you;re just moving the pressure from the syringe to the vial, and when you draw the medication back out, you have the same issue, with the syringe trying to push the liquid back out. And now you're trying to tear open the needle wrapper and put the tip on without letting the liquid push out.
4/7 - Meds Day 2: I got to do these ones at home. This time I remembered to open all the wrappers, but still hadn't thought to push the air in first.
4/8 - Meds Day 3: We were out to dinner with DH's family, so I got to do my shots in a restroom stall. And just as I unwrap everything, 5 ladies come in. Someone had just stared using the only other stall right before they arrived, and I knew I'd still be several minutes. So I opted to put everything away again and letting them all go first. Like there wasn't already enough pressure in handling needles and not messing up doses, I needed to feel rushed?
4/9 - Meds Day 4: Got to do shots at home. Invited Little Z to come and watch. She was to sit on her stepstool and not move. So naturally, just as I'm about to pull out the needle from my second shot, she stands up, trips and crashes into me. Joy.
4/10 - Meds Day 5: Had my Day 5 bloodwork and U/S. The technician couldn't tell which of two large black blots was the cyst, and which was a follicle. I forget the numbers, but I think they were both around 18mm across. She wasn't measuring too many follicles, but I assumed she was just going for the largest ones, or that they were blocked by the cyst. They also had my start the antagonist shot that morning, rather than the next day, which is what my calendar had said.
4/11 - Meds Day 6: Back at my sister's house, to babysit for the next morning. Only this time she was out of town, and after about 15 fruitless minutes of trying to kick various toddlers and preschoolers out of the bathroom (Really? You have to pee right now? You too? And you? You never use the potty when *I* ask you to! YARGH!) So I retreat to my sister's bedroom, and my poor BIL comes in just as I'm doing my first shot. I was cool, since I'd heard his footsteps and guessed that he was headed there. But he was mortified to be barging in. But I'd had a feeling he was going to come in, so I just folded down my waistband (I have plenty of fat to pooch out without having to take my pants off!) I even made sure my panties weren't peeking out the top.
4/12 - Meds Day 7: After a fun-filled day trying to find an urgent care out in an area where there's only one or two McDonalds per city, then waiting at the pharmacy for my daughter's ear infection meds to be filled, we got to the ferry in time to miss it and instead arrive to meet DH an hour later than planned. Then we all went out to dinner at The Melting Pot, where I got to do my shots in a restroom stall again, only without any pressure or interruptions this time!
4/13 - Meds Day 8: Time for Day 8 labs and U/S. I scheduled it in the Seattle office, so I could drop my husband off at work and leave Z with him for my appointment. But apparently he had an "all-hands"meeting at work for several hours, and it would have been difficult to leave to bring her out for me. So we gave her the choice, and she opted to come with me to my appointment. I felt bad about bringing her, for everyone else's sakes, but there were 3 or 4 other families with kids there too, so it wasn't so bad. And she did fantastic. Other than asking every 10 seconds whether they were going to put the wand in my "ba-dye-nah" yet. She stayed out of the nurse's way for the blood draw, and held my hand to "help me be brave."
She was fascinated by the U/S wand and was sad that she didn't get to see it "going in."
They decided to have me continue meds for another day, and come back the next morning for another U/S to see if the large follicle and cyst changed any.
4/14 - Meds Day 9: My husband had yet another crucial meeting, and had lunch plans with a friend, so drove himself to work, so I took Z with me again. This time we were in a different U/S room and she got to see the whole process from a better angle, in her point of view. But we were a go for the HCG shot that night!


So, some basic injection tips they generally don't tell you:
Open all the wrappers for each step before starting that shot. It's much harder when your hands are full of syringe.
If you'll be drawing water out of one vial to mix with the medication powder, pull that much air into the syringe first, then push the air into the water vial before drawing out the liquid. You don't need to do this when adding the liquid to the powder, since you aren't starting with a pressure imbalance. The unpressurized water going into the powder vial does what the air did for the water vial.