The Moral of the Story

The progesterone shot is definitely big. And scary looking. It took me three hours and a small crying fit to drum up the courage to do it by myself. Let’s be clear here: I’m not afraid of any needle, when someone else is wielding it. And I’m not afraid of small insulin-type syringes. But Hubs was at work and Pooka IS afraid of needles, so I had to give my first shot without assistance.

I was able to draw the shot with little trepidation – and holy crepe, is it thick! Lupron is a liquid, so pulling back the plunger on the syringe is easy. Progesterone in oil is just that – oil. It has to be drawn back very slowly to get the full CC into the chamber of the syringe, and tapped to get the air bubbles out. Anyway, I drew up the shot and panicked. Sat down on my bed and cried for about ten minutes.

I had read numerous articles and blog posts online, where surrogates and moms-by-IVF alike said that the progesterone shots hurt like hell once the oil was in their muscles. I’ve got a pretty significant tolerance level for pain, so I didn’t think much of it, as I had read that the Lupron shots hurt too. Burning, soreness, et cetera were the common complaints. Then I read an article that suggested that exercising immediately after the shot was given, would get the oil absorbed more quickly and relieve the soreness generally associated with pumping a bunch of fluid into a localized hunk of muscle.

I started my regularly-scheduled HIIT body-weight workout, thinking that perhaps if I got some endorphins flowing it might help me dredge up the nerve to do the shot. It worked. After my first round of Betty Rocker’s MakeFatCry Week One workout, I paused my timer, took a breath and did the injection. I barely felt the needle at all. It did get sore for a second, but I started right back into the workout and by the end of it, I felt no difference at the injection site than I ever did before the shots.

The moral of the story is, ladies and gents: Workouts are always good for you! And so is a healthy, clean diet. Since the beginning of October, this Preggosaurus has lost nine inches off her waist thanks to the aforementioned Betty Rocker and her various and incredibly helpful programs. (Shush. I can plug whomever I want. It’s my blog. Haha!)