Injection day 4: the headaches, not the needles.

By injection day four, the needles were no longer the hardest part. The headaches were.

Injection day 4, recorded on a laptop webcam — sped up and slowed down for pacing. Personal information, addresses, order numbers, and identifying audio have been removed. Content note: shows a self-administered injection with a needle.

I woke up this morning with another headache. I took two Extra Strength Tylenol, hoping it would knock it out, but it barely made a difference. Eventually I had to close my eyes and lie down for a couple of hours. When I woke up, I took one more. I took acetaminophen as directed throughout the day, but the repeated doses barely touched the pain.

I still had to get on with my day and get things done, but if I'd been working a full-time job right now, I probably would have only made it through half of it before needing to stop.

The practical reality: I had expected appointments to interfere with work. I had not planned for the possibility that the side effects themselves could make me unable to work.

I think part of what made it so difficult was that "headache" sounds manageable when it appears on a side-effect list. What I was experiencing did not feel manageable.

I've been drinking a lot of water and electrolytes throughout the day, so dehydration doesn't seem like enough to explain how persistent these headaches have become.

Each medication burns differently

The Menopur still burns the most while it's actually being injected. Once the injection is finished, that burning fades pretty quickly.

The Follistim is almost the opposite. It doesn't bother me much while I'm giving myself the shot, but over the last couple of days I've noticed that the injection site starts burning afterward. A few minutes later, once I've cleaned everything up and started moving around, it begins to sting. It's a completely different sensation than the Menopur.

Two Menopur vials, one injection

Today my sister-in-law helped me combine the same prescribed amount — two Menopur vials — into one syringe. The dose didn't change; it just reduced two Menopur injections to one. Up until now, I'd been giving myself three injections every night — one Follistim and two Menopur — but tonight I was down to two total. It was a small adjustment, but it made the process feel a little less intimidating and a little more manageable.

I've also been incredibly tired in the mornings. To be fair, I don't sleep well even under normal circumstances, so it's hard to know how much of that is the medications versus my normal baseline. It also could simply be because these headaches have been so exhausting. Either way, mornings have definitely felt harder than usual.

The bleeding stopped—and then returned

Questions for tomorrow's monitoring appointment

Tomorrow morning is my second monitoring appointment — bloodwork and an ultrasound to see how the follicles are responding. I'm curious to see how everything is progressing, whether the medications are working the way they're supposed to, and whether they'll adjust any of my doses.

10:15 p.m.: The headache gets worse

I thought I was just going to take it easy after dinner.
Instead, around 8:30 p.m., I became so exhausted — and my headache had gotten so intense — that I climbed into bed, turned off the lights, and closed my eyes. I ended up falling asleep for almost two hours.

When I woke up around 10:15 p.m., my head was absolutely throbbing.
I took another two Extra Strength Tylenol, but I barely felt like I had the energy to take my dog, Poe, outside. I just lay there in the dark, in complete silence, because that was the only thing that felt remotely tolerable.

The injections themselves are actually getting easier. I'm becoming more confident with the medications, the mixing, and the routine every night.

Ironically, the hardest part right now isn't giving myself the shots. It's everything that happens afterward.

Hopefully tomorrow's monitoring appointment gives me some answers — and hopefully some relief.