Underwhelmed

Having a cyst aspirated = no big deal.  Who would have guessed?  Getting the ultrasound into the right position hurt more than the needle part – the doctor counted to three, I winced, there was a little “pop” feeling, and I said "Oh! That wasn't bad at all!"  And then I got to watch the cyst slowly deflate on the ultrasound screen.  Sayonara!  Honestly, I cannot emphasize how anticlimactic the whole thing was.  I almost made it out of the parking lot within the free half hour window.

You know what else isn't that big of a deal?  The shots.  Again, the needle isn’t the most painful part (for the record, that’s flicking the syringe to get rid of the bubbles - and Henry does the vast majority of that).  The first night, I barely felt the first shot and the second was just a little sting; it was far less painful than the stomach poking I've been doing with toothpicks and earring backs for the past week to prepare.  Interestingly enough, we discovered that the right side of my stomach is more sensitive than the left; whichever shot I get on that side is the more painful one.

Mixing the medications, however, is stressful.  It's a pretty foolproof system, but it I still had a few moments of panic afterwards thinking we had done something wrong and a couple of nightmares that night about various potential mix-ups.  At first I was annoyed that each medication is prepared in a different way, but now I understand: it makes it easier to differentiate between them, and harder to get them confused.

My own little pharmacy

Anyway, last week, around the time of the cyst fiasco, I started thinking the stress had finally gotten to me.  I felt sluggish and wanted to go to bed at like nine o’clock.  I had to be depressed, right?  Nope.  I realized a few days later that the onset of this depression coincided with when I ran out of my caffeinated tea at work and replaced it with decaf (because after booze, caffeine is the next vice to eliminate, right?).  A cup of coffee over the weekend, and I was magically cured.  Who knew the amount of caffeine in a cup of green tea was enough to keep me from going over the edge?

I also tried to go to acupuncture this weekend but was foiled.  I’ll be honest – I’m a bit of a skeptic.  Plus, I feel like adding “go to acupuncture” to my to-do list will add more stress to my life than acupuncture itself will eliminate.  And it’s sort of expensive.  But I am curious, and this seems like the perfect excuse to see what the fuss is about, so I found a community acupuncture place seven blocks from my house that opened at 1 on Sunday.  Perfect – I was supposed to leave at about 2:15 to meet my family for some Christmas shopping.  I got there right at 1, rang the buzzer, and… well, apparently community acupuncture means disorganized acupuncture, because the person on the other end said they wouldn’t be ready to open for another half hour.  Oh well.  It was a nice walk, and when I got home I listened to one of the meditation apps I downloaded to my iPhone, so I got some relaxation out of it.

This morning I went to the doctors and got my blood drawn to see how I’m responding to the meds.  I’m half expecting the nurse to call back and say that I’m not responding at all – I’ve felt almost no symptoms.  My period stopped, like, hours after the first shot, so I guess that’s something.  And I feel a little more aware of my boobs, although they don’t hurt or anything.  But aside from that?  Nothing.  It’s so strange to think that big, weird things could be happening inside my body and I don’t even know.  But, I WILL know later!  Until then, I’ll be wondering….