Was that my spleen?!

I would love to say that last nights stim injection went smoothly...unfortunately that is not the case. The night before I was due for my first stil injection I went through the whole process and wrote down any question I might have. Yesterday morning I emailed my coordinator the questions and she promptly responded. One of the questions I had was what gague needle should I use when injecting myself. I had several in my bag and did not write that down during the demo.

Side note** I am on Bravelle which means I have to mix and draw my meds from multiple vials and then change the needle. Follistim and Gonal-F come in cartridges where you just insert into the pen, attach needle, dial your dose and inject. I have been on Follistim and it is super easy. Bravelle not as easy, but since half of it was free...I was not complaining!

Ok, back to the story. The answer from my coordinator was a 27 gague needle. So last night I had everything laid out, alcohol swabbed everything including the dog, and ready to start drawing out the meds. It was kind of a pain getting the med from each vial, but I mustered through it. Time to attach injection needle. I got a 21 gague....22 gague....25 gague.....27?....27?....nope! Awesome!

Emptied all my bags of needles...no 27. My DH tells me to call the exchange. Now I have had injected my abdomen with several meds, including Follistim, Lovenox, and Lupron over the years. I am pretty immune to needles and administering them myself, at this point. However, NONE of these needles I have used in my abdomen were as long as the 21, 22, and 25. All three of them are 1 and a 1/2 inches long.

I dismiss my husbands suggestion and screw on the 25. I have to get my meds tonight and this is what I got to work with...so here goes nothing! The instructions say to insert the needle all the way in. I pierce the skin with the needle and typically it goes all the way and I inject. This time I look down and half of the needle is still sticking out of my skin. Anyone feel sick, yet? Cause I do, thinking about it again!

I took a deep breath and pushed it the rest of the way in. Shooting pain! I have hit something! I immediately pulled it out a bit, but not all the way because I did not want to pierce the skin again. There was about a half inch of the needle showing and I just decide to inject. When it was all in, I pulled it out, dropped it all in the sink and immediately felt lightheaded. I laid on the floor and was trying to take deep breaths. I was not in any pain at this point. Mostly just freaked out that I totally hit SOMETHING!

I was fine after about 5 minutes. Got up, cleaned everything up, and went to bed. Needless to say I contacted my coordinator this morning. She was not concerned that I had done any damage or that I should not have used those needles. However, she did say I should have been given 27 gague needles which are only a 1/2 inch long. So yeah...I went in a whole inch further than I needed to. I stopped by the office today and picked up several 27 gague needles.

Not completely accurate, but the needle I used was about as long as the ones on the left. The one I should and WILL be using is the one on the right.

Please pray that tonight goes better than last!