Wearing My Big Girl Pants

Friday, April 22nd, Good Friday, was my 1st scheduled shot of Lupron.  I finally had the goods, I just had to use them now!  I was rather hesitant on giving myself a shot.  I had never done that before and just thinking about it made me squirm a little.  My friends kept telling me that I am a tough cookie and I could do it.  I didn't tell them, but they obviously had more faith in me than I did.  I really wasn't sure about this whole shot thing.

The directions from my Doc say that I have to take the medicine at a time each day that is consistent.  Also, I have to take it at a time when it will have been in my body for at least an hour before my earliest appointment with them, which is 8am.  It takes us a little more than an hour to get to my Doc's office, so we figured I should aim to set my alarm for 6:40 each morning. (If you've been following my blog, you know that at one point, I got up at 6:30am everyday to take my temp and was more than happy to not have to do that anymore.  Well, that joy is gone!   Now I have to get up that early and shoot myself up - something that I could screw up and it would really matter if I did.  I think I'd rather be taking my temp that early in the morning!  At least I wouldn't be hurting myself.)

On Good Friday, my alarm went off at 6:40am and for a minute I couldn't figure out why it was going off so early.  (You have to remember, I go to work sometime between 10am and 11am each day because I work later in the evening.  The 6:40am alarm is definitely going to become an intermission to my night.)  I got up and got Hubby up too.  He agreed to get up with me if I needed him since I'd never done the whole shot thing before.  If anything, I needed the moral support.  This was huge for Hubby - he's even less of a morning person than I am.  We both stumbled to the bathroom where we got out the syringe and Lupron.  I also got out the picture directions, and let me tell you, those are the only things that have gotten me through these early morning shots. Trying to discern written directions at that hour is just not happening.  I feel like a dummy, but the pics are so much more helpful at that hour of the day!

I swabbed the top of the Lupron bottle and drew out the 10 units.  I cleaned a spot near my belly button with an alcohol swab, took a deep breath, and looked at Hubby.  I must've looked pretty unsure of myself because he reassured me that I could do it.  He counted to 3 and I jabbed myself.

At that point, I had one of those, "Now what do I do?" moments.  I looked at Hubby and he said, "Go ahead."  I looked down and there was a needle in my belly.  Did I really do that?  I pushed the plunger down and it was done.  I did it?  I did it!  WHEW!  It stung just a tiny bit, but was not nearly as painful as I had expected.  As I was throwing away my trash, I realized that I was sweating from giving myself the shot.  Little did I know that this would soon become the norm - not from giving myself the shot, but from hot flashes from the Lupron.

So, there it was.  I could give myself a shot.  I was braver than I thought.  I knew what had to be done and put on (or should I say pulled down) my big girls pants, sucked it up, and dealt with it.  Good Friday was turning out to be a good one afterall!