Lovenox... just how scary is it? :)

[Duff Man]

my wife had to inject lovenox in to her belly twice a day for 9 months She wasn't thrilled with it, but it really wasn't bad. She figured out that it's more comfortable when she poked/jabbed in a quick motion. I thought it was cool that the syringes have a spring loaded cover/cap mechanism.

Lovenox is neat because it's mostly dosed by weight, not by INR or whatever. Even though a valver's INR might dip below a theraputic level when they stop taking warfarin, you still get the anticoagulation from Lovenox. You just stay on it until your INR is normal or about to be normal again. The bridge from/to warfarin/lovenox is fuzzy to me but I think that's basically how it works.

 

[Ross]

my wife had to inject lovenox in to her belly twice a day for 9 months She wasn't thrilled with it, but it really wasn't bad. She figured out that it's more comfortable when she poked/jabbed in a quick motion. I thought it was cool that the syringes have a spring loaded cover/cap mechanism.

Lovenox is neat because it's mostly dosed by weight, not by INR or whatever. Even though a valver's INR might dip below a theraputic level when they stop taking warfarin, you still get the anticoagulation from Lovenox. You just stay on it until your INR is normal or about to be normal again. The bridge from/to warfarin/lovenox is fuzzy to me but I think that's basically how it works.

You got it. That's the way it is.

 

[kerri73]

Just did my first Lovenox shot, and it really wasn't all that bad! The worst part was the anticipation of the needle... I held it to my skin for a minute... I had to pep talk myself a little... "after all you've been through this is nothing!"... and it went okay.

I was going to have my hubby do it, but he had a super bad night's sleep - I woke up at 4:30am and he was still up playing on his ipod because he couldn't sleep. So I wasn't about to wake him up at 8 or 9 to give me this shot!

It did sting a little, but other than that, the injection part was cake! My nurse had told me to pull back on the plunger a little to make sure I hadn't hit a capillary, but I never did do that (the instructions posted here didn't say to - and besides, she said even if I did to just go ahead, you'd just have more bruising).

Four more to go now! Thanks for all the encouragement! (at least that's one less thing to stress about now!)
Kerri

 

[Ross]

I never pull the plunger back. Just make sure that there isn't a drop on the needle before inserting in belly. She is right about hitting a capillary, you will bruise a lot more. Some people have applied an ice cube to the site prior to injection and that seems to help out on the bruising issue.

 

[kerri73]

Hmm... was there a drop on the needle? I can't remember! I'll note that next time (I do have to push some of it out to get to the right dose, I don't think there was, though). I'll try the ice cube the next time, too - good idea!

 

[Ross]

Also, make sure the alcoholed area is dry before putting it in. It's usually alcohol residue that causes the stinging.