"DO NOT TOUCH THE STICKY SIDE OF THE PAD!"

My new prescriptions came in the mail yesterday. I balked a bit when I saw them:

• 2 patches of transdermal estradoil 0.1mg/day twice a week.
• 200mg prometrium (pregesterone) twice each day.  

There's still a bit of confusion regarding how this relates to my current scripts. When I received a call from the nurse on Friday, she said the new estrogen script would be in addition to my current dose. The new progesterone dose would be a replacement. Opening the letter containing the documents, the note from my endo read "switch". After some research and consideration, I believe what the nurse had told me was the correct procedure. 

It took several minutes to fill the prescription for the patches. I had plenty of progesterone, so I didn't ask them to fill it. While waiting, I overheard the pharmacist and the tech chatting about the script. "Wow, that's quite a bit," said a woman's voice. Yeah, isn't it? I thought, This is going to be a fun experiment. Some time afterward I was ripping into the white paper bag to get a look at the stuff. 

To my surprise, the patches come in a stout, purple box with a name brand stamped on the cover. In 3 years of prescriptions, this is the first time I've seen band name on anything. I didn't apply them then, as I was planned to hit the YMCA after my errand at the pharmacy. The instructions clearly stated to apply the patches to a clean, hairless, oil-free spot. It's probably not a good idea to apply such a thing just before sweating for 50 minutes, is it?

The instructions also stated, not just once, or twice, but four times and in boldface that I shouldn't touch the sticky side of the pad. I can't help but wonder just what would happen if I did touch the sticky side of the pad. Maybe I'd turn into a werewolf or something. ^_~

I have been tweaking my E intake since Friday to take the edge off. While difficult to describe, a lack of sufficient E in the system does carry a particular feeling. It's not depressing, but it does seem to drain the emotions and narrow my focus. Since I was picking up the patches today, I went back to my specified dose. The patches -- applied about an hour ago -- must be working because the feeling is slowly evaporating. Hopefully, the patches will prevent or reduce the "crashes" I felt around 4pm each day.