We are currently doing our first round of IVF and our clinic is a 2.5 hour drive away. That makes it close enough to drive back and forth between monitoring appointments, but far enough to make it more than a little inconvenient. Not to mention contending with highway conditions during a cold prairie winter.
We always head to the city the night before our appointment, which means we are on the road when it is Gonal F time. DH offered to pull the car over so I could give myself the injection, but the pen is just way too easy to use. I just get the meds from my “drug purse” (yes, I am currently carrying 2 purses with me on these trips), pull out my little sharps container and alcohol swabs, recline the seat, and we are in business!
The Cetrotide, now that is a different story. The timing of this one falls after our appointment on the drive home. Because of the mixing that is involved, I am not skilled enough to do this one in a moving vehicle (yet). For our first Cetrotide roadside injection, we pulled over into the classiest of small town locations – a gas station. We pulled around to the back where there weren’t any cars and prepared the injection. As I’m getting ready to inject, a large truck pulls up and a worker starts unloading supplies into the gas station. He walks right past me as I have my shirt rolled up, waistband rolled down, and ready to inject; he either couldn’t see me or chose to ignore me. I mean, I’m sure people have shot up with worse things behind a gas station.
For the next Cetrotide injection, we pulled over on a side road near a small town. I was so busy mixing up the injection that I didn’t even notice we were parked in front of a small cemetery. So yet again, we find ourselves in an interesting location to do the drugs.
We will be going for our retrieval early-mid next week, so I still have at least 2 more roadside injections to come (sketchy locations yet to be determined). The IVF journey can be so draining, both mentally and physically, but this is definitely one part of our journey that we can look back on and laugh!
Thank you Sharla for finding humour in infertility! Sending lots of positive vibes your way for the Christmas miracle you’ve always dreamed of. XO 🙂