Well sort of.
But a more of that later.

It has been a little hectic – I have had to have my Buserelin delivery re-arranged to a couple of days earlier than was originally planned for. I have also had to have my previously booked IVF clinic appointment moved forward a couple of days as well. The appointment was to teach me how to inject Buserelin – which the clinic needed me to start injecting from day two of my next cycle.
This process was decided on as I was not down regulating as expected even though I had been on Synarel for 35 days.

So off I go on my merry way to the clinic. There was quite a bit of confusion – my call to rearrange my clinic visit was not straightforward. The nurse who took the call was wondering why I was asking to start my injections on day 2 instead of day 17 which is standard. I had to wait a few minutes on hold while she went and reviewed my file notes. She then came back and offered me a new appointment for the next day.

Well – I was late for the appointment by a full 3 minutes!
I know, I know – yes I will probably be late for my own funeral.
But then I rang ahead to let them know I was running late 🙂

On arrival, I had to wait for a about 25 minutes. I think they had to fit me because AF had arrived and that meant making time and space in the course of the day. I was grateful for that.

I was taught how to inject Buserelin, a scan was done and more blood was taken for the blood test – my fifth!

The surprise “down regulation” was when the scan revealed that my endometrium on my fifth attempt was just over 3mm thick and my estradiol level was 93pg/mL!

Yippee!! Finally below the desired 200!

The nurse said that was because I had had a bleed. I hold a different view – my body just has a mind of its own 🙂
But they were not sure whether I was to start the:

Buserelin injections (full down regulation dose) or
to start both the Buserelin (half down regulation dose) and the Gonal F injections.

The nurses decided that I should start the full Buserelin dose (as if I was still aiming to down regulate) while we waited on Oxford to make a call following their next review meeting.

I had a call the next day advising that Oxford had decided that I should start the Gonal F injections (the stimulation drug).
This means that we hopefully have made up some of the time. We are lucky so far that we did not have to wait another three months to start another cycle after the first one was abandoned.

So far I have had 10 half dose Buserelin injections plus 9 Gonal F injections.
I think the second Buserelin injection was the most painful of the lost. The Gonal F injection was not painful at all. All in all the injections are do not hurt and I am done with them in under a minute each time.

The Buserelin injections steps are:

select syringe, needles and alcohol swab
open syringe and needle and one needle and insert syringe into needle
draw the right amount of Buserelin into syringe, making sure there are no air bobbles.
remove needle used in drawing Buserelin, put in sharps box, insert syringe with Buserelin into new needle
open alcohol swab and clean an inch of pinched skin in abdomen below navel
inject self with needle at about 45 degrees and push Buserelin into body
remove needle and dispose of both needle and syringe in sharps box.

The Gonal F injections are slightly different. It comes in a pre-filled pen, a little like an EpiPen.
But one has the ability to prime the pen for the dose of Gonal F prescribed. Gonal F must also be stored in the fridge.

Remove cap and prime to dose required
insert/screw pen into needle cap
open alcohol swab and clean an inch of pinched skin in abdomen below navel
inject self with needle at about 45 degrees and push Gonal F primer pump into body, hold for five seconds or so as the pump continues to shoot Gonal F after the pump has finished its travel.
remove needle, dispose of needle in sharps box and put Gonal F pen back in Fridge until the next time

Thanks for reading.
xx