2DPER

My IM HCG trigger shot and my first PIO shot (last night) went well, but just now S tried to give it to me and it made me scream. Somehow he was pushing pretty hard with the needle, but it was not breaking my skin. Thus, I am composing this message with a blue-ice thing chilling my glute. In addition, my other cheek is already sore from the other to shots. My I have a lot of complaints!!

(I've got to go do this shot before I get frostbite. Yowza!)

...OK, that was tolerable. Blue ice from now on! And S says that he will be sure to jab the needle in hard since it actually hurts less that way. Now I'm using a heating thing on the area...gotta make sure the medication gets absorbed.

I hearby declare that Medrol is the most unpleasant-tasting medication that I have ever taken. It is so bitter, and the tablet starts dissolving the second you take a sip of water to swallow it. Even when I try to just put it in my mouth and gulp it down immediately -- ick!!

As for my other, um, problem... I went to increasingly extreme measures all day long and eventually got some relief a little while ago. I'm still not 100% back to normal, though.

I spent half the day reading about single versus double embryo transfer at the blastocyst stage. At this moment, if we are lucky enough to have really great embryos, we may choose the single embryo transfer. Really, though, we're hoping that the decision on Sunday is an obvious one. And we may still change our minds. A few days ago, we were leaning the other way.

A few days ago, Cindy asked me whether I felt like the doctors treat me differently because I'm a doctor, myself. Hmmmm. Good question, and one that I have thought about in the past. I don't think the medical aspects of my treatment differ. However, I think they are probably a bit more cautious in answering my questions because they know that I have read a lot about this stuff (thanks google!) and would be more likely than the typical patient to see through any nonsensical type explanations and to ask lots of followup questions. I know I am not the first physician-patient that they have had, and I'm sure I won't be the last.

I know that when I have physician-patients (or, more frequently, when I have patients with children or other family members who are physicians), they do make me a bit more nervous and I don't really enjoy the feeling. This was particularly strong when I was an intern and resident, and is fading a bit as I develop a sub-specialty level of expertise in hematology and oncology. With those patients/family members, I feel like I try to be a bit more collaborative in my conversations (and definitely use medical terms rather than lay terms), but a lot of times it seems like they want me to know that they're a doctor (so I'll "treat their relative more carefully", maybe?...lawyers do the same thing, BTW). On the other hand, they still want me to make my treatment recommendations independently. They don't necessarily want input, but they often want to know my reasoning and any evidence behind it. And that's exactly how I think I am as a patient. I certainly don't want to tell Drs G, A, and W what to do. They're the subspecialists. But I do want to understand what they are doing and why. I'm sure that most of you feel the same way, actually. :)