Dr. Benjie

Since I have a history of preterm labor and my doctor could not determine the cause or any risk factors, the only way to reduce the risk of a recurrence is to take weekly progesterone shots, from week 16 to week 36.  Those who know me well know that I have major needle fears, as in hyperventilating-I'm-gonna-throw-up-and-pass-out type of fears.  So the news of weekly injections for 20 weeks was pretty traumatic.

But have no fear, Dr. Benjie is here!

Rather then shell out hundreds of dollars for the porta-nurse to drop by and prick me in the butt each week, Ben was adamant that he could administer the shots himself.  (In his defense, he did give himself allergy shots for years; however, he was quite eager to do the job.)  Dr. Heidtman was very supportive of showing Ben how to give the shots and said it was somewhat common for hubbies to do it. 

To compound my fear, the compounding pharmacy where I had to pick up my serum made a unnecessarily big deal about these being intramuscular shots & the 1 1/2" needle had to go all the way into the flesh.  And the helpful annoying pharm tech pointed out that she'd "heard" these shots were really painful so she gave me a lower gauge needle (i.e. bigger) so it would go in faster.  Thanks for the tip.

So the fateful day rolled around.  I got home from bible study and faced the inevitable.  Ben was a bit too excited.  He made a especially big (and unnecessary) show of washing his hands, disinfecting the the vial, loading the weapon syringe and prepping a cotton swab.  I was armed with my US Weekly, laying on the bed so he would have access to target.  Trying my hardest to be distracted with Hollywood's latest gossip, I honestly did not even realize he had given me the shot.  I didn't feel a thing - no the prick of the needle, the sting of the meds, nothing. 

And of course, I assumed he'd done something wrong since it went so smoothly.  After a chat with the nurse the next day, I was reassured that he most likely hit the right spot & some people just don't find the shots painful.  We are 5 weeks into the shots now and Dr. Talbert still have a perfect track record of pain-free pricks!