My left leg still hurts. But this is good news. For a change, lately.
Today I switched from oral estrogen supplements (Cenestin®) to intramuscular Delestrogen®. It was something I've wanted to do for some time. Not only because of the much lower long-run cost, but it's harder to miss doses, so PMS will (hopefully) be a rare thing indeed.
Intramuscular injection sounds scary, but it really wasn't a big deal for me. I even did it myself.
Under the guidance of a nurse, I put a special dosing needle on an IM syringe, and cleaned off the opening to the vial with an alcohol pad. Carefully, I slurped out exactly a half a milliliter of tranny dope, being sure to push out all the air pockets and bubbles to the point that a drop came out of the needle tip. Then I put the original IM needle back on the syringe.
The hardest part about the whole thing was actually poking this long metal thing straight down into the top of my left thigh. For the first time. I was a little nervous about it, but the nurse assured me that most people say "Hey, that's not so bad." I did.
I backed the syringe up just a little to make sure I was injecting into a muscle and not a blood vessel (that would be bad), and then slowly pushed the plunger down until all the girly goodness was in my leg muscle. It started to get pretty sore. She said this was normal. I left the building with a slight limp and a smile.
I go back to see the nurse in two weeks to make sure I'm able to do the procedure myself correctly. In the meantime, much fewer pills.
Unless I screw up and hit a blood vessel or two, this tiny, expensive vial (about the size of a very large grape) will supply me with gradually released sex hormone for 20 full weeks.
Congratulations!!! That's awesome! I "celebrated" my second anniversary of sticking needles into myself on purpose back in April. Two years of sticking myself and pushing that plunger. When I asked me doctor if I could switch she called it in and said, "Let me get the nurse in here to schedule your first injection..."
I laughed. "Doc, you might not want to worry about it, I did two tours in an ED as an RN and a several years in an ALS bus before that, I think I have a good handle on something as simple as the difference between subq and IM. If it's all the same to you, I'll just do it myself at home..." That was the end of that...
Yeah, once you get it done the very first time, it's cake after that.
So if you are paying for it yourself, and don't have any insurance to speak of, or even if you do depending on your co-pays, you might want to transfer your prescription to Stroheckers Pharmacy in OR. I pay fifty bucks for more than a year supply of "girl juice" and needles with them, and I know for a fact you can call them and have them transfer the script for you from Walgreens. How do I know for a fact? Because I used to get it from Walgreens too... :-o)
Strohecker's Pharmacy can be reached at 1-877-252-9393 or 503-222-4822 and they service plenty of women with our background. So much so that my doctor was originally going to call it right into them for me. At that point I had better insurance than I do now, so the co-pay wasn't an issue. Now Strohecker's charges me less than my co-pay on a larger supply. So I called them up and they switched the script for me. They rock!
Once again Milla, congratulations! Much better way of things than pills or patches, especially since it's once in a great while instead of every day.
Hi, Samantha. Thanks! =) It was pretty rough making the transition (ha) from Cenestin, but I do feel much better than before now.
It's also a snap now that I've done it three times.
I get my Delestrogen® at a discount without insurance (through Howard Brown), but that's like $75 with needles for half a year. Is the price you mentioned with or without insurance?
Price I mentioned is without insurance... Big difference no? $50.95 with both 22 gauge and 18 gauge injection needles, plus the syringes and of course the lovely girl juice. It's like an 80 dose vial, so that's, well, much more than a year come to think of it. I can do math when I have to, I just try and avoid it whenever I can... When I do bother to do the math, it always works out just snazzy!
The difference is because Walgreens gives you a 10ML vial, and Stroheckers gives you a 40ML vial. Kinda cool you know! Plus everyone I've talked to at Stroheckers is really nice, which certainly doesn't hurt...
Shoot It Up - 07/09/08 06:31 PM
Today I switched from oral estrogen supplements (Cenestin®) to intramuscular Delestrogen®. It was something I've wanted to do for some time. Not only because of the much lower long-run cost, but it's harder to miss doses, so PMS will (hopefully) be a rare thing indeed.
Intramuscular injection sounds scary, but it really wasn't a big deal for me. I even did it myself.
Under the guidance of a nurse, I put a special dosing needle on an IM syringe, and cleaned off the opening to the vial with an alcohol pad. Carefully, I slurped out exactly a half a milliliter of tranny dope, being sure to push out all the air pockets and bubbles to the point that a drop came out of the needle tip. Then I put the original IM needle back on the syringe.
The hardest part about the whole thing was actually poking this long metal thing straight down into the top of my left thigh. For the first time. I was a little nervous about it, but the nurse assured me that most people say "Hey, that's not so bad." I did.
I backed the syringe up just a little to make sure I was injecting into a muscle and not a blood vessel (that would be bad), and then slowly pushed the plunger down until all the girly goodness was in my leg muscle. It started to get pretty sore. She said this was normal. I left the building with a slight limp and a smile.
I go back to see the nurse in two weeks to make sure I'm able to do the procedure myself correctly. In the meantime, much fewer pills.
Unless I screw up and hit a blood vessel or two, this tiny, expensive vial (about the size of a very large grape) will supply me with gradually released sex hormone for 20 full weeks.
Posted in hormones by Milla | Comments (3)
Congratulations!!! That's awesome! I "celebrated" my second anniversary of sticking needles into myself on purpose back in April. Two years of sticking myself and pushing that plunger. When I asked me doctor if I could switch she called it in and said, "Let me get the nurse in here to schedule your first injection..."
I laughed. "Doc, you might not want to worry about it, I did two tours in an ED as an RN and a several years in an ALS bus before that, I think I have a good handle on something as simple as the difference between subq and IM. If it's all the same to you, I'll just do it myself at home..." That was the end of that...
Yeah, once you get it done the very first time, it's cake after that.
So if you are paying for it yourself, and don't have any insurance to speak of, or even if you do depending on your co-pays, you might want to transfer your prescription to Stroheckers Pharmacy in OR. I pay fifty bucks for more than a year supply of "girl juice" and needles with them, and I know for a fact you can call them and have them transfer the script for you from Walgreens. How do I know for a fact? Because I used to get it from Walgreens too... :-o)
Strohecker's Pharmacy can be reached at 1-877-252-9393 or 503-222-4822 and they service plenty of women with our background. So much so that my doctor was originally going to call it right into them for me. At that point I had better insurance than I do now, so the co-pay wasn't an issue. Now Strohecker's charges me less than my co-pay on a larger supply. So I called them up and they switched the script for me. They rock!
Once again Milla, congratulations! Much better way of things than pills or patches, especially since it's once in a great while instead of every day.
Sam
Posted by Samantha at August 8, 2008 11:24 PM
Hi, Samantha. Thanks! =) It was pretty rough making the transition (ha) from Cenestin, but I do feel much better than before now.
It's also a snap now that I've done it three times.
I get my Delestrogen® at a discount without insurance (through Howard Brown), but that's like $75 with needles for half a year. Is the price you mentioned with or without insurance?
Posted by Milla at August 9, 2008 02:11 PM
Price I mentioned is without insurance... Big difference no? $50.95 with both 22 gauge and 18 gauge injection needles, plus the syringes and of course the lovely girl juice. It's like an 80 dose vial, so that's, well, much more than a year come to think of it. I can do math when I have to, I just try and avoid it whenever I can... When I do bother to do the math, it always works out just snazzy!
The difference is because Walgreens gives you a 10ML vial, and Stroheckers gives you a 40ML vial. Kinda cool you know! Plus everyone I've talked to at Stroheckers is really nice, which certainly doesn't hurt...
Sam
Posted by Samantha at August 9, 2008 08:40 PM