As anyone following me can see, I am not doing better with my posting. The one good thing I have going for me is that I am at least posting every week after my injections.
This week was a bit different for me. I have been fortunate that a person at work who gives injections has been doing them for me. I decided that it was time for me to learn self-administration. With the person’s help, I learned about cleaning the vial, adding a draw needle to the syringe, drawing the .25 estradiol into the syringe, replacing the draw needle with a 1.5-inch injection needle, injecting the needle into a leg muscle, pushing the plunger to release the medicine into my muscle and of course clean up.
If I said the process was a cakewalk, I would be lying; if I said the process was complex, that would be a lie. While going through the process, I was extremely nervous. The person helping me had me do every step myself and would occasionally double-check the work. The hardest part was putting the needle into my skin, but I was amazed that the pain stopped once I broke that layer of skin. Even removing the needle was painless. I did feel pain in my leg later on, but that lasted for about ten minutes.
I do not doubt that next week I will be even better at the process. If you ask why I am learning, it is because I need to know how to do the injection in case that person is not around, and I hate being reliant on someone else. If I can’t handle injections, I should have gone with the pills.
In other news, I participated in a support group for people taking Estrogen. It was amazing meeting these new people from around the states. I was most impressed that I was not the oldest one there. I met someone a few years older than me, and they had just started hormone replacement therapy(HRT) last week. It was a fantastic experience, and I look forward to future meetings.
For anyone interested, my support group is through PLUME. I also use them for my HRT. The people at Plume are very impressive, and if you are interested in Gender Affirming HRT, I suggest you check them out.
Alla Davis
