I'm gradually getting better at the injections. Yesterday, I still had to have my husband give me my injection, but this time I watched the needle go in. Surprisingly, I could barely even feel it when I watched. I guess because I know when to expect it. As far as side effects, I don't notice anything different either.

This morning, I had my first monitoring appointment. We had to find a local clinic convenient to my home/work since I obviously can't go all the way to Boston for such a simple blood draw. The one we found opens their doors at 7:30am and draw blood on a first-come first-serve basis. I was one of the first to sign in and out in 5 minutes and was barely a few minutes late to work (8am start). The purpose of this blood work is to check how I'm responding to the hormone injections. I decided for the first time to watch the nurse stick that thick needle in my arm to draw my blood. It was still discomforting to watch, but I wasn't as nauseous as I thought I'd be, and again I didn't notice the pain as much.

I received a call in the afternoon from Boston IVF to give me new injection instructions. They said that my hormone levels came back really high. The nurse even asked me if I was correctly taking my prescribed amount of 150cc of the Gonal-F pen (sounds like I must have been unusually high)? She then instructed me to lower it tonight to 75cc and that instead of waiting until the day after tomorrow for my next blood work, they want me to go back tomorrow morning so they can keep a closer eye on me.

After she told me this, I felt really nervous about it. Does this mean I'm not doing so well? Is this a bad thing? I started feeling anxiety and developed a headache from worrying. I knew it was normal for people to respond differently to the hormones, but the way the nurse made it sound, I felt like I needed to be concerned.

Thankfully, my case manager knows a bit about this from her own experience working in IVF clinics, and made me feel better by saying that my high hormone level reading is actually a positive sign that I'm fertile and responding easily to the treatment.

P.S. I gave myself my injection tonight! I was still a little nervous and didn't want to do it, but after my blood draw this morning, it couldn't be any worse. One trick I found that makes it really easy is to ice the spot, so then you don't even feel it at all.

A comment from my Case Manager, Helena:
Since you are first time donor, doctor always starts you on a standard donor dosage of the hormone injection based on your baseline hormone and ovarian antra-follicle counts. Everyone can respond differently to the medication, doctor monitors your response closely by blood hormone levels. They will make necessary adjustment by increase (when the level is low) or decrease (when the level is high) to get you the right place. For a donor with prior cycle experience, doctor will be able to make a treatment plan more suitable based on donor’s prior cycle response.