Pulmonary Embolism Support Group

By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.

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Ferr 04/20/2009

OK I know many of us have been on Lovenox injections on many different occasions. Being in the health care field I give lots of injections......to other people. Heck I even do a lot of my own veterinary work on my horses, cows and dogs. But there is something about giving oneself a shot in the tummy. I myself am the biggest woosie you will ever have the pleasure to meet in your life. Yesterday I was faced with the dilemma of giving myself a shot. My Hubby was out of town for 2 days and there is no one else around to give me the shots. (My days off from work and no nurses around) I refuse to go to the ER and pay some ridiculous price for ER charges just for a shot.
OK so I get myself prepared after going through about 20 different anxiety attacks, reassuring myself I can really do this. I prep the site and stick myself and inject the lovenox..........OK that wasn't so bad. All went well. Then of course because I did so well on the first one I got cocky! HA this is a piece of cake. So I prep myself for my second shot, and poke myself real quick. OK I guess I have just enough belly fat to make my tummy react like a rubber ball or a balloon when poked. (NOT GOOD) I poke myself and the needle immediately pops back out and I stab myself again. This happens once again before I in a cold sweat managed to give myself the shot.
I am sitting here laughing this morning over it because the third shot (this morning) I went slow and all went well but I wanted to share my experience with all of you. I figure we all need a good laugh.

deleted_user 04/20/2009

You poor thing! Glad you overcame your anxiety about it and was successful despite shot #2. I found it easier to go slow when I was giving my injections as well. The first night that I was in the hospital two nurses, one on each side of me gave me a shot simultaneously and the nurse that did the shot on the left side, just jabbed it in and over seven weeks later I still have a hemotoma where she did the shot at. I was glad to give them to myself after that because then I had no one but myself to blame if it hurt. lol :)

deleted_user 04/20/2009

Im so sorry you had to go through that. The anxiety must have been horrible. I am just the opposite. I have no problem giving myself the lovenox injections but if I had to give someone else the injections I would probably feel bad about it. I'm a big softy and don't want to hurt anyone but I have no problem with needles for myself. I hope you don't have to give yourself the injections anymore and if you do I hope it gets easier. Best of luck to you. April

deleted_user 04/20/2009

Yes that is a bit funny. I recall a quick needle in and out once as well. I think I was shocked that I poked myself and pulled it out with excitement. The stick does not hurt but when you dose by weight and are a heavy person it makes for a larger dose and sometimes is sure burns afterward.

deleted_user 04/20/2009

I had to give myself those shots in my tummy 8 months pregnant with twins...now that SUCKED!! My stomach was so tight and it hurt like hell. The bruises were even larger. I definately don't miss those shots

CJMcCormick 04/20/2009

I understand your challenge. Just prior to having my PE, I had opted for oral antibitotics for my horse for a respiratory problem because I'm squimish about giving the horses IM shots. Well, after 4 days in hospital, I was given the option of proving to the nurses that I was capapble of giving myself Lovenox injections, or staying in the hospital until my INR was up to 2.0. I quickly said, "give me the syringe". So after going home, every am/pm at injection time, I would say my mantra.... "I'm not going back to that hospital..." My vet got a kick out of this story :-)

rmb 04/20/2009

Yeah, I always felt like injecting myself required complete concentration for fear I'd automatically jerk the needle out and to make sure I was inserting it straight. A couple of times I had the needle at a slight angle and it gave me really hard knots at the injection site. The slower I injected myself, the better.

Seriously, I would take lovenox injections every day over warfarin. I know that sounds crazy , but worrying about INR gets old. I like the idea of taking a shot and just being done with it. Plus, I sort of mastered the shots.

But I realize how fortunate I am to have access to warfarin. I mean, it's cheap and effective. Do you guys ever just feel grateful that we have access to meds that work? I mean, imagine it if there was nothing that could effectively treat this clotting business. I think about that sometimes.

deleted_user 04/20/2009

We are fortunate to have something to help. And for most the cost is minimal however if you cannot afford to keep up with your INR checks then you do not get the medication. I have known a few in that position.

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