Please don't freeze my face

Infertility injections brought some stressful as well as light-hearted moments. I had my husband give me my progesterone intramuscular (IM) injections in my butt. I just didn’t feel like trying to reach around, and the needle is just so big, and I was just pretty tired of giving myself injections. So this became his job. He is a queasy guy though. And hates needles. He would squirming in pain and contorting his face thinking he was getting hurt when he went with me to some of my initial RE (reproductive endocrinolgist) visits. It was ridiculous. But he decided to man up and do it for me. I was very proud of him for doing that for me. But it was a little scary for both of us. Thank goodness I had the EMLA cream to numb the area because I was always a little tense.

There were many funny phrases he said during this time. Some that I recall and am willing to write down for the world to read are: “drop your drawers” and “I hope I don’t freeze your face”--(yeah, me too buddy).

With me being a nurse, my hubby has learned a few nursing facts along the way. But the funny thing is that you never know quite what he will remember, and when he does it is hilarious. There is a large sciatic nerve that runs from the butt down the leg and in nursing school we were always reminded to not hit the sciatic nerve or else it could cause some serious pain and rare, but possible paralysis—but not of your face. Face, leg, same difference, right? To my husband, yes. So having him give me an injection in that same area so close to my sciatic nerve was a frightening experience for both of us.

Thankfully, the torture of getting nightly injections ended, thankfully the hormones eventually wore off, and thankfully my face never froze.