IUI and IVF Needle Injection Tips
How To Do IUI and IVF Medicine Injections At Home
Here are some additional tips if needles give you the heebie-jeebies, or otherwise make you feel generally shitty about the whole process:
Ice. NO ONE TOLD ME THIS WHEN I STARTED. And yet, it seems so obvious. Holding a bit of ice on your impact zone before injecting numbs the area to make it far more pain-free. One minute of icing, and go! That being said, DO check with your doc re your particular medicine, as some varietals could be affected by the cold, however, we find a majority are not.
Have something that comforts you nearby. I like my junkyard pit puppy at the ready for post puncture love. A friend suggested to me that with each needle to think of that bigger picture, that bigger reason, that bigger love I am working to create.
Try a relaxation technique. Do a breath countdown from 20, counting your in and out breaths and focusing all your attention on the breath going in and out of the nose. Can't make it to 20? Our busy brains are easily distracted. Wring er' back in with The Bill Chill Guided Meditation for Pro-Conception- on us. XOXO
Create a ritual around it. Doing anything the same way each time frees up your mind to think less of the how, why, and when, thus reducing stress.
Ready? Ok, let's do this.
- Wash hands first.
- Get the alcohol swab out and ready.
- Get your injection, needle etc prepped.
- Ice the belly, I usually aim for a minute, but get impatient after 30 seconds.
- Wipe the area clean with the alcohol swab.
- Pick the correct area. Pinch an inch of chub (unless it's a medication you don't need to pinch).
- Plunge. As you pull it out, have a new alcohol swab ready to cover the area as you slide the needle out (*with certain ones, you need to first expunge an air, with others you don’t. Make sure you know which yours is).
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