HELP

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

I started stimming tonight using Gonal-F I am so scared I did it wrong, I followed the instructions. Does it get easier as time goes on? Does anyone ever feel they messed up?  I am so worried I did it wrong and that it is going to mess everything up. GRRRR

Texas77again

ugh, i'm sorry.  that must be frustrating!  i'm sure it has to get a little bit easier with time, don't most things? 

what did you do that makes you think you messed it up? 

Count Choculitis

What a coincidence!  This was my first night doing Gonal-F by myself.  Last night my mom and I watched the videos about 5 times all the way through, and she insisted on wiping every tangible surface with an alcohol swab.  Then she puzzled for 15 minutes over where would be the best spot on my belly to inject.  True bonding.  Seriously.

What makes you think you did something wrong?  I just did mine about 20 minutes ago and although I was shaking a little bit, I'm pretty confident that I did it right.  Just remember that as long as you get the correct amount of medication in your body (and it doesn't get displaced by a huge air bubble) - then you should be fine.  

Can you think of anything you felt like you were doing wrong?  Not like I'm an expert... but I could try to help. 

girlofsummer78

Like others have said, what made you think you did it wrong?

I didn't have any problems with gonal F shots.  I had the vial I needed to mix.  It was super easy. I followed the instructions that the pharmacy sent me with the meds.  

bmxxtease

I had the gonal f pens and the first few I was freaking out about priming the pen because when my nurse showed me, she had used that same pen to demonstrate before therefore it was already primed and the medication shot out of the pen. When I did it, I would get a drop of medication at the end, so the first two I primed them twice and then I was freaking out about wasting it. It was just beginner nerves because when I actually gave myself the dose, I could see the gray plunger moving and I could hear the clicks. I am a worrier in general, but I was worried I was doing it wrong constantly. In the end, it was just me over exaggerating and over analyzing and everything was fine. No need to worry. I'm sure you did it perfectly, but it is completely natural to question it and I promise it gets easier.

ecleptic

Took me at least half an hour just to mix the meds the first time. I kept re-reading, listening to the voice mail, confirming my dose and generally freaking out- and I did a lot of mixing- my clinic recommends mixing the follistem and menopur into one syringe so it was something like 1 vial of saline (well not the whole vial), 2 vials of powder, dialing the pen and injecting the pen into a vial, then drawing all of that up into the syringe, checking a dozen times for air bubbles, wiping everything down with alcohol and hyperventilating for a good 5min before I could stab myself with the needle.

It gets easier as you get the hang of it and if you DO mess up early on (get less med than you need as an example) that can be fixed through minor adjustments in the protocol as you go to get the right response out of your body. Try not to stress yourself out.

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

my syringes come prefilled almost like an epi pen. I made sure the arrown was putting out the 225 mark and put in my skin and pressed the pen till it stop clicking does that sound right? I was  a little confused on the priming of the pen? Also tomorrow when I go to do my shot wouldnt the pen already be set on 225 since I set it there tonight when did the shot or does it reset once the pen is in and you click it? I think I should be ok because when I was getting ready to put it in me I saw a drop of meds on tip so as long as I clicked the pen and waited five seconds it should have gone in me right? Also my medicine came in a bag says keep refrigated but the instructions same room tempature?

bmxxtease

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09:

my syringes come prefilled almost like an epi pen. I made sure the arrown was putting out the 225 mark and put in my skin and pressed the pen till it stop clicking does that sound right? I was  a little confused on the priming of the pen? Also tomorrow when I go to do my shot wouldnt the pen already be set on 225 since I set it there tonight when did the shot or does it reset once the pen is in and you click it? I think I should be ok because when I was getting ready to put it in me I saw a drop of meds on tip so as long as I clicked the pen and waited five seconds it should have gone in me right? Also my medicine came in a bag says keep refrigated but the instructions same room tempature?

It sounds like you did it perfectly. To prime the pen, set it to the lowest dose(37.5) and make sure it clicks (should be only 1 click) and you see the plunger move. Priming the pen is to make sure it works and to get any air out of the top of the pen. I saw a drop of medication at the tip after priming. Tomorrow it will still be set to 225 and all you have to do is pull the back out again. Make sure either the arrow after you pull out the back is pointing to 225 or make sure you are keeping track of how much medication is left by subtracting your doses from the total number of iu's in the pen. As far as refrigerating, my nurse said to keep all injectables in the fridge. Sounds like you did the injection just the way you are supposed to. No need to worry.

ecleptic

The clicking is the sound of the medication being pushed in as the button you push is dialing back the numbers. If you look now it should be back to 0. Tomorrow you will need to dial to 225 again.

This is useful because if you run out of medication in the middle of the dose- the pen will STOP clicking, stop dialing down and the number remaining on your pen is the number you will start from with a second injection from a fresh vial. So say I'm doing 225 follistem. I'm giving the shot and the clicking stops and the plunger won't go any farther. Withdraw the needle, cap it, toss it in sharps, and look at the dial portion. Lets say it says 150. Write down 150. Remove the current vial from the pen (Save it! It has less than 25units of medication but if you give your leftovers to your clinic they can pull enough out of a small group of them to help someone who may be out of medication unexpectedly) and replace with a new vial out of your fridge and a new needle. Look at your note- and dial the remaining dose- in that case 150. Inject the rest of the dose as normal.

Not all pens need to be primed, if there's medication at the tip, it's fine for use.

Regarding refrigeration- Unopened vials of Follistem/Gonal-F should be refrigerated. Refrigeration extends their expiration date by several months. Opened vials will expire in 30 days from first use regardless of refrigeration and refrigeration is unnecessary once the vial has been punctured.

Vials of menopur don't need to be refrigerated.

Ganirelix, if you use it, does not need to be refrigerated.

Progesterone in Oil (if you use it) should never be refrigerated- it will make your rear end extremely unhappy if the medication is refrigerator cold.

Check all your medications however- my Ovidrel needed to be refrigerated.

Read all the papers that came with your medications, anything that needs refrigeration should be marked. Anything you need specific clarification for you can ask your nurse, pharmacist or us

It sounds like you're doing fine. Stop second guessing yourself

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

I looked now and it did not go back to zero so should I just rotate it back around back to 225 so that I make sure it is set than pull the stopper out? Last night when I injected and hit the button it clicked once is that all it is supose to click?? I tried push it again and it wouldnt do anything. My syringes come pre filled so no use of swapping bottles when one runs out. If the syringe stays at 225 after injection than when I get down to the end than where ever the pen stops should be subtracted from 225 and the new one should just be injected with what ever the remainer is to make up the 225 correct?

you ladies have been wonderful and set my mind at ease ( a little) so here is hoping to all this hard work pays off and we get a BFP soon (this goes for all of us)

bmxxtease

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09:

I looked now and it did not go back to zero so should I just rotate it back around back to 225 so that I make sure it is set than pull the stopper out? Last night when I injected and hit the button it clicked once is that all it is supose to click?? I tried push it again and it wouldnt do anything. My syringes come pre filled so no use of swapping bottles when one runs out. If the syringe stays at 225 after injection than when I get down to the end than where ever the pen stops should be subtracted from 225 and the new one should just be injected with what ever the remainer is to make up the 225 correct?

you ladies have been wonderful and set my mind at ease ( a little) so here is hoping to all this hard work pays off and we get a BFP soon (this goes for all of us)

You don't need to rotate it back, just pull out the back and you should be fine. Just make sure you are keeping track of how much is still in the pen. So if it is a 900 iu pen, keep subtracting each dose because the arrows after you pull out the back are a little tricky to read. I had some left in each pen and my nurse gave me extra syringes to draw out the extra medication so that none of it was wasted. I think the pp was talking about follistim which is the same medication but a different kind of pen. Let me know if you have any other questions. I will be on all day.

ecleptic

Your pen is different than mine was (I thought they were the same) Here's a youtube video from Village Pharmacy- just give it a look and see if what happened is what's on the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxB8CIhAJx4

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

so all I should have to do is pull the stopper out to set the medicine and inject? No more rotating since the pen stayed on 225. My pen is a 900iu pen so I should just keep tract till I hit the 900 mark. So tonight shot will make 500 so I have 400 iu left in this pen and than which is only an injection and a half so when I get down to the last injection and there is not enough to complete my 225 how will i know how much is left and how much to do the next pen for?

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HELP

bmxxtease

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09:

so all I should have to do is pull the stopper out to set the medicine and inject? No more rotating since the pen stayed on 225. My pen is a 900iu pen so I should just keep tract till I hit the 900 mark. So tonight shot will make 500 so I have 400 iu left in this pen and than which is only an injection and a half so when I get down to the last injection and there is not enough to complete my 225 how will i know how much is left and how much to do the next pen for?

THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL YOUR HELP

yep just pull and inject. There is overfill so you might be ok to have 2 more injections, but when I would calculate it down to where I didn't have enough in the pen then I would save it and use a syringe my nurse gave me without the same iu measurements to extract out the rest of the meds, but that's because I know I would worry. You can try to dial that last dose, pull out the stopper and check the arrows. When looking at the arrows, it's not the one that sits flush with the pen, but the next arrow should be pointing at 225 if there is enough left. If it points to 187.5 or 150 then you could inject that amount and then inject whatever amount you need to get to your 225 dose from the next pen. It is up to you. Hope this helps and good luck!

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

I am sorry I am a little confused with what happens when I dont have 225 left in my syringe. Will it not let me inject if there is not that much in there? How will I know how much is left?

bmxxtease

It should let you inject. When you dial your dose to 225 and pull out the stopper, there are the red arrows just under the stopper pointing to the dosage amounts. Whatever dosage amount it is pointing to is what is left in the pen. If it is not your full 225 then you can dial up the amount you still have to inject on a new pen.

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

O i my pen has two different numbers. It has the  big black numbers with the arrow pointing to them that tells you your dosage amount and then on the end on clicker button there is little red numbers what is the difference?

nino770

I felt the same way when I started Gonal-f with my IUI. I felt like I wasnt getting the medication in, but as long as you prepped it correctly you should be fine. Also what I always to is press it a tiny bit to make sure the medication is really coming out and no air bubbles.

bmxxtease

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09:

O i my pen has two different numbers. It has the  big black numbers with the arrow pointing to them that tells you your dosage amount and then on the end on clicker button there is little red numbers what is the difference?

The red number is what is loaded to be injected. Your next dose should have the arrow with 225 as the highest number showing. The dose after that (tomorrow mornings dose?) even though you set it to 225, the highest red number and arrow showing might be 150 or 187.5 and that means that that is all that is left in the pen so inject the amount with the arrow that is showing and then use the next pen to inject the rest of the dose.

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

thank you. you have been so  helpful today. The hubby looked over it and there wont be any shortage until I get to the last pen and than it wil just be extra and I will turn into clinic for someone else.

my pens are 900iu and I take 225iu a night so that is EXACTLTY 4 shots

they gave me 3 of the 900iu pens and 1 of the 300iu pen so i willl only have left overs in the last pen I use and that will go back to clinic for someone else to use.  so thats good no math for me.

bmxxtease

So glad I could help and I'm glad that 4 shots works perfectly. GL with your cycle. I wish you all the best!

Proud adoptive mom 6.11.09

yes you all have helped keep my sanity. I just gave myself the shot tonight and the red numbers on the stopper once I pulled it out said 225 as well as the big black number on the syring itself, So we are good...thanks again