Black & Blue & Cute: Monday, March 14, 2011

Preface: The posts in this series were written in the past. I am posting them chronologically, but these events are not taking place right now, they already happened. The date in the title of each post is the date it was originally written.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Nurses all told me that I'd "just know" if I ever did an injection and hit a vein. They said I would get a bruise and I thought, "Man, I must have really bad aim because I almost always bruise." Oh, silly, silly girl.

See, the bruising I had before were tiny, light gray bruises maybe the size of my thumbnail and usually faded away in a couple of days. Last week I was giving myself an injection on the left side of my tummy and it felt a little different when the needle pierced the skin. It felt a tiny bit different as I pushed the plunger end released the medicine into my body. But it wasn't until I pulled the needle out that I was sure. Oh, yea, I "just knew" alright... because blood squirted out and there was already a bruise. Within an hour it was a rainbow bruise with a knot in the center about the size of a chicken's egg.

It's funny because it was only the slightest bit tender, yet it looks like Rocky was using me for punching practice.

After a couple of days, I tried injecting on the left side again and did the same thing again. When I'm sticking 2 or 3 needles a day into my midsection, it's nice to be able to alternate sides, but I'm a tad apprehensive now.

The bruising aside, I am feeling really good. I am a bit bloated, but I still feel like I have an attention span, I don't feel exceptionally tired or moody. This is a lot better than I was expecting. I'd prepared myself for misery, but this is pretty tolerable so far.

I allowed myself to purchase a few clothing items over the weekend - the first since our "needs only" spending boycott began about 9 months ago. I got some flowy tops and stretchy pants that will help me hide the bloat that is undoubtedly coming and the first little bits of pregnancy that will hopefully be close behind.

I feel cute and a little spoiled.