Drink Night

03 April 2011

A new friend invited me over to her place last night for a girl's drink night with a few other women. I'm really enjoying this new friendship. She's a couple of years younger than me and not at all in baby making phase of life yet. This is so refreshing because most of my 32-33 year old age mates already have kids or are pregnant. I haven't told her about the IVF stuff, not because I'm embarrassed about it or don't trust her, but because it kind of gives me a break and lets me forget about it while I'm spending time with her.

So, I accepted the drink night invite. Then I started thinking about the logistics. I'll have to turn down the alcoholic drinks in a way that doesn't draw attention and bring up the "are you pregnant?" types of questions. Also, I'll need to arrive with my injections in tow because they need to be done around 9pm and I'm not going to go home that early from the party. OK, what's the big deal about that? It will be worth it to do all that to not miss out on a social opportunity. I need to live my life. I've done injections while away camping and that was fine.

So, I packed up my injection paraphernalia and off I went to the party. I planned ahead for what I thought would be every possibility. Extra syringe, extra needle tip, small sharps disposal container. I might not be partaking in the alcoholic drinks, but I was ready and armed with the hard drugs.

When I arrived, I set my potluck dish on the table and my non-alcoholic bevies in the fridge. It was then that I heard barking and remembered she was dog-sitting a very hyper Jack Russel Terrier who at that moment wanted desperately to get into my bag and chew everything inside apart. I rushed over and wrestled it away from the dog. Whew, could you imagine all that stuff getting strewn across the room and potentially $500 worth of drugs spilled, or worse yet ingested by the dog! I tucked my bag away out of reach and poured myself a stiff apple juice.

Later in the evening I discreetly slipped off to the washroom to mix my injections and shoot up. I have a bit of a procedure that I use at home to double check each step as I go along, and usually use the written directions that my clinic provided as a cross check. So I spread out all the supplies and set the paper directions on the bathroom counter and began to mix up the first shot. It was while drawing the liquid into the syringe that I smelled something burning. OMG the directions had come too close to a lit candle and had started on fire. Thank goodness I was right beside the sink so was able to get that out quickly and turn on the bathroom fan to hopefully clear the air before lighting off the smoke detector. Whew, back to injections, now sans directions. Who am I kidding I could practically do them in my sleep.

I finished mixing the first shot and that went off without a hitch. Of course I got a bleeder with the second needle. This seems to happen 1/10 times, and it just takes more time and keeping pressure on the site to keep it from gushing. I didn't want to hog up the bathroom for any longer than necessary because at this point I'd already been in there for 10 minutes.

Injections now under my belt, I gave the toilet a fake flush and returned to the party while discreetly placing my bag back out of reach of the vicious Jack Russel with one hand and maintaining pressure on my injection site with the other. Whew.

I'd like to hope that nobody but me noticed anything out to the ordinary. Cheers everyone!