Semblence of Normalcy - Adventures in PIO

Since I don't have a guest post for today I had to dig in to remember some of my own experience with infertility. In this case I want to share some of our sillier adventures in infertility. If you are in treatment for long enough it puts a serious cramp in your social life. Not only do you not feel like hanging out with people but you are exhausted from the early morning monitoring at clinics which are not necessarily very close to home (may I never ever have to take the 5:15am train to NYC ever again). At the same time I was craving a normal life. This led to having to take my carefully timed injections in some interesting places which included public restrooms while out at dinner and once in a moving vehicle on the George Washington Bridge.

For the non-IFers out there, following an IVF cycle you need supplemental progesterone to support the pregnancy and it comes in a couple of forms but the type I was using involved a 1.5" long needle in the lower back/upper butt (progesterone in oil or PIO for short). There are women who can do this for themselves. I watched several you.tube videos. I am not one of them.

I want to share a couple of funny stories of injections on the go. When I was first pregnant with the princess we had a family trip planned to D.isney in FL. I was not worried about getting my needles through security since I had traveled with needles before and the TS.A was more concerned with my husband's laptop charger than my bag full of vials and pointy needles. I didn't want anyone other than my Mom to know about the pregnancy since we had experienced losses leading to this pregnancy. I also wanted to have a good time which didn't jive with my needing shots. The first adventure came when I needed to get my needles into the magic kingdom. My mom took the fall on this one. They search bags on the way in and I will never forget how nervous she was nor the look on the security guard's face while he was trying to decide to confront her about the needles. She was sweating bullets. Once in the park I had to find a good time and discreet place to get my shot. I chose the fireworks show to slip away and in a fairly gross family bathroom. This is far from ideal but the worst part came when we were leaving the bathroom and encoutered a woman with her child on the way into the bathrooms.... we look like we were caught redhanded but seriously folks. A nasty public restroom at a theme park is not so sexy! You would think we had enough with that but no... I timed our flight home badly since I purchased them months before and I had to get an injection on the flight. Again we tried to time it well for when no one was back there. I have to say two people DO NOT fit in an airplane bathroom and it is even less sexy and more stinky than a theme park restroom... We manage the manuerver all the while thankful that we are pretty small people and come out of the bathroom to a line stretching down the aisle... all staring at us. UG. So those were my two worst adventures in PIO. We scandalized people both at the happiest place on Earth and the flight home.