For the love of lovenox

Brief update, all. Beta #2 = 469. Doubling time of 31.48 hrs. Grey is almost recovered from the shock of all of this (poor guy, this cycle has been hard on him) and we're preparing to get through this next week. After 2 miscarriages, both of which happened during this time, I'm cautious. But I'm still maintaining the attitude that I am doing everything possible to make this work. Balanced thinking; not for the faint of heart.

Back in October, following the APA panel that revealed I probably have Antiphospholipid Syndrome (can't diagnose formally until after 3 miscarriages and all have to be after 8 weeks . . . bastards), Dr. Smile and I talked about me starting Lovenox. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this medication, it's common name is Enoxaparin (commercially known also as Xaparin and Clexane), which is a low molecular weight heparin. The purpose of this is to inhibit the formation of clots and is also believed to help with substaining a pregnancy. Hence Lovenox is commonly prescribed, even to women how have not been diagnosed with APS.

Grey and I weighed the risks of the medication (none to pregnancy, but I am now wearing a medical alert bracelet in cause I get into an accident) and decided that adding this medication made sense.

What I wished someone had warned me about was how painful this injection is.

Let's go back to Dec. 31, 2012. After feeding the cats and changing the Vivelle dots, I prepped my stomach for the Lovenox injection. As this one is subQ, I didn't think anything of it, so I did what I always do with subQ: clean area with alcohol wipe, pinch the skin, insert needle in dart-like motion, and inject.

Immediately, I doubled over in pain. My belly was on fire and the pain had caused my vision to become blurred. After what seemed like an eternity (read 60 secs), I was able to see again. Shaking, I capped and disposed of the needle and sat down on the floor until I could move without shaking. I then spent the next 30 minutes trying to figure out what I had done wrong.

Later that night, I noticed this.

Considering I've NEVER had a bruise that big (which completely freaked Grey out) and because I didn't want Grey to be wrongly accused of beating me, I figured it was time to do some research.

As a reminder, SQ is filled with lots of great information about administrating medications (among many other things), so I was slapping myself for not visiting the site before I started these injections. I do have a few additional tips to add, but first I wanted to give you the video.

Couple of additional tips.

1) Prepare a reward for yourself prior to doing this injection. For me, this is a tall glass of good orange juice (no concentrated stuff).

2) Ice the area. This is especially true for those of you who ice prior to any of your other injections, as you will be inserting the needle slowly.

3) As mentioned in the video, inject slowly. I've actually started singing "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" while I am injecting, as it slows me down. Whatever works, right?

4) Have gauze pad ready and apply light pressure after you have slowly removed the needle. Do not rub in circles, as you will make any bruising much worse.

5) After cleaning up, indulge in your reward (trust me, you've earned it). In general, I found it takes about 60 secs for the burning sensation from the medication to subside. Enough time to drink my juice and think about breakfast.

6) If bruising is still bad, contact your RE. Keep them updated about any problems you are having with the medication.

To date, since slowing down the injections, I only have a series of pin-sizes bruises. Definitely not attractive, but much more easy to manage.

Anyone else on Lovenox? Have you found a way to cut-down the stinging or do you have any tips?