Third Time's The Charm

After 9 solid weeks of daily IM injections of PIO, we've developed a nice little routine.  I'm so comfortable with these shots that we even joke around while I'm being stuck.  Generally, the ritual goes something like this:

1. Lay on heating pad for 10 minutes to pre-heat the area -I know many people use ice instead to "numb" their poor bottoms, but I think it's easier to jab a hot rump roast than a chunk of frozen meat.
2. Assume prone position and disinfect the landing zone.
3. Quickly, insert needle and pull back to check for blood -this ensures that you are injecting into muscle instead of a blood vessel.
4. Slowly inject the ridiculously thick progesterone and remove needle/syringe.
5. Massage area that was injected to disperse oil and avoid pockets/lumps of oil.
6. Lay on heating pad for another 10 minutes to further thin and spread oil.
7. Repeat daily until you reach 12 weeks of pregnancy (10 weeks of shots)!

Until today, this routine has been fabulous.  For some reason, we had trouble getting past Step 3 today.  During the previous 63 injections, Paul has always said, "No blood" before injecting the oil.  So today, when he said there was blood in the syringe hub, it was kind of surprising.  He pulled the needle out and got another shot ready.  Again, we went through the motions and again, he aspirated blood on Step 3.  Seriously?  After 9 weeks, he hit two flipping blood vessels in one day?!  Thankfully, the third stabbing injection went off without a hitch.

I've always wondered if Paul would know if he hit a vein- seeing the little blood droplets floating in the oil answered that question for me loud and clear!

Fail #1 and Fail #2 (what a waste of PIO!)

We've got 6 more days of PIO before I hit the 12 week mark and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no more blood.