Holy Meds Batman!!

ChristieH917

I received my meds yesterday.  That is a lot of meds and I feeling very overwhelmed about it now.  I did not have my meds in time for my teaching appointment.  I thought I soaked in everything that she told me, but clearly I didn't.  I now wrote down the way that I think she explained it to me and I will ask a nurse when I go in for day 3 blood work.  This is my first IVF cycle and it is getting real. 

sweetpotato123

Good luck! I felt pretty overwhelmed when I took everything out of the box, too. What I found that helped me was to organize all the meds, syringes and prescription bottles. It made it easier come stim time and helped me compartmentalize.

Take notes when you go back and speak with the nurse. It was 5 weeks from my session to when we started and I didn't remember anything without the notes. Plus I always want to double check every step.

Erma81

It is overwhelming at first! But after a few times you will do it like a pro B-) My DH finds it quite impressive to see me stick needles in my body as if it was the most normal thing for me to do GL! Hope you're lucky on the first try!

ChristieH917

@sweetpotato123  Thank you! I have about 2 weeks until I start.  The nurse gave me notes but everything is abbreviated and arrows.  I can't follow that.  I have translated it into my own notes and will verify my notes with them the next time that I am there. 

missmarypoppins

It also really helped me to watch YouTube videos on how to mix and inject the medications.

JuneBug629

It is ver overwhelming; I felt the same way. I took everything out and organized it with what I would need first. (dont worry about learning the others until you need them, its info overload.) Check your invoice to make sure you got everything first. Then, only worry about what you need leading up to ER. That is what I did. Then I watched videos from village pharmacy's website, (the best videos I found online) and my meds were from there. https://www.villagefertilitypharmacy.com/ Go on their site, find medicine videos or something like that, click on your medicine, and watch the video. After like two days you will be a pro. Also, each night after my shot, I would take everything out for the am shot. I helped me feel organized and it's so early anyways, I was half asleep. Good luck!

Justone13

@ChristieH917‌ Yes girl it is crazy to see all those meds!! Refresh my memory what are you using this cycle? Also I took little snack bags put one syringe, one alcohol wipe, needle, and q cap. I made like 20 bags. It was easy for me at night just to grab the needed meds and a bag of my supplies. The first shot is the hardest. By the third day you feel like a pro mixing meds and shooting up. Lol.

ChristieH917

@Justone13 I have Follistism, Ganirelix, Prometrium, Medrol, Doxycycline, Crinone and Pregnyl. The Doxycycline is an antibiotic and my hubby gets a round of those too.  We start those on Saturday.  I know that I start the Follistism first on CD3, then add the Ganirelix when instructed. 

@junebug629 I got my meds from village pharmacy and it came with a packet of instructions and the website. 

jaztastic

I remember getting my first carton of IVF meds, and called because I was worried that I got a clinics package.

Justone13

@ChristieH917‌ hmmm only one I've taken was the ganirelix. Trust me it will become so easy after the first few days. I hate the ganirelix its the only one that bothers me. The needle seems dull to me and the injection site itches like crazy for about 20 minutes after. I am the biggest baby when it comes to pain so if I can handle it I'm sure you will be A-ok!!! Good luck sweets!

isano

Put your meds and corresponding syringes in color coded bags or boxes with big labels. This way you can color code your calendar.

Make it a little less serious and stressful by drawing a happy sun and a moon on meds that are used am/pm.

For me, I took lupron in the morning which I was so nervous about on the first day, but then it didn't hurt. Belly hurt less than outer thigh for me.

Once I started the stims, the lupron routine was already perfected.... so the night time meds were super easy. Instead of Gonal F, I had something called Follistim which came in a handy pen for injection.

The other PM med for me was called Menopur. It burned like nobody's business on the first night but I did an earlier post on how I reduced the stinging (ice for 10-15 min before and recline and relax during the injection which worked best for me at a 90 degree angle at the injection site.

Pintobean39

Just on my normal cycles (not IVF) I used Gonal, Ganirelix, novarel (generic for Pregnyl) and Endometrin (same kind of meds at Crinone)

I'm guessing the medrol is just a pill you will take. I also take a ton of vitamins and other meds and I've found a big pill separator works wonders for am and pm meds. I fill it up ahead of time and I can keep track of what I've taken. For my injections I keep a printed out calendar of my dosages with my needles and alcohol wipes since my meds are in the fridge. I bought a cute zipper bag just for this reason ( why not have it look cute since it's been part of my household decor since January). It's very intimidating at first but in a few days it will be second nature. I've found writing it all down every day has helped.


I'm starting my IVF cycle tomorrow and I've already organized my bag for tomorrow with all my meds until my monitoring on Monday. I'm taking Menopur along with Gonal, ganarelix, zpac, pregnal. I keep a box put away full of all my extra meds and when my dr changes my dosage, which he always did every monitoring appt I will make notes on my calendar and readjust my bag to what I need until the next monitoring appt ... And so on. The pregnal, prometrium, and Crinone you can put away for now. Just take out what you need. I'm sure your nurse will be good at telling you what you need to do. I also have a spiral notebook that I wrote down all instructions I was given. It's hard to lose the pages from a spiral notebook, I also like to go back and look at my dosages and my responses.

Yes I'm a nerd and I need to be medicated for my organization issues but I get anxiety looking at the box full of meds. So I have to do it this way.

Good Luck!

pblge

My clinic sent me this website with tutorial videos about how to do all the different injections. It's really helpful!
https://www.freedommedteach.com/eng/

Sha259

Ahh, welcome to the club! I remember having almost word for word the same thoughts when I got my delivery. I opened the box (I was home alone), and literally said out loud, "Sh!t just got real!!!" And I never curse. "> I even took a picture of it all.

I had been taking FSH and Ovidrel subq during my IUIs, so the needles and injections didn't bother me as much. I'm a pharmaceutical drug developer too, so in all honesty I have been having a bit of fun giving myself injections (is that weird?) I'm like, so THIS is what being a patient feels like!

It was just seeing all those meds! I also recommend making dosing kits for the days that you know your dose. It made it so easy to just grab a kit after my evening shower and shoot up!!

Good luck!

ChristieH917

Sha259 said:

Ahh, welcome to the club! I remember having almost word for word the same thoughts when I got my delivery. I opened the box (I was home alone), and literally said out loud, "Sh!t just got real!!!" And I never curse. "> I even took a picture of it all.

@Sha259  I took a picture also!!  I had to send it to my best girlfriend.  She was amazed how much there was. 

mrs.willie

I remember looking at my box of meds when it arrived and saying whaaat? Then I opened it and saw them all and said holy sh*t!! Like PPs suggested, watch the videos online. They were extremely helpful and eased my mind that I was doing it right. Good luck finding a spot to store it all! :-*

ChristieH917

I will have to pack the in kits as suggested.  We are in the process of buying a house so I am hoping that we don't end up moving during this cycle.  I wouldn't want all of that to get lost in the move or not being able to find them when I need them  LOL

Carol77B

Yesterday, when I had to leave super early for my monitoring appointment, I actually mixed the Cetrotide in my car in the parking lot before going into Starbucks to grab a coffee before work so it would have time to "set" and not sting so much when I injected myself in the ladies room when I got to work (so I was doing it in the same window). I could never imagine doing any of that when I started out, so while it is overwhelming in the beginning, it really is very manageable and I agree with the PPs that organizing and preping the night before is very helpful.