Lovenox update

Today, someone asked about Lovenox in the Texas Surrogacy Facebook group.  I thought I'd take the  chance to give an update on my experience with it, since I think the last time I really talked about it was the first shot, back on March 16. Now, nearly 3 months in and approaching the 100-shot mark, I have some perspective.

First of all, I still think that YouTube video saying it is the worst thing ever is vastly overstating it. I have no special method for injecting. Usually I poke around a couple times, because I've learned some areas of skin are much more sensitive than others. When I find a good, numb-ish spot, I inject. Still don't love the whole spring-loaded retraction, but it's just annoying, not painful.  

About 25% of the time, it's a little uncomfortable when the medicine goes in. A bit of burning. I might take a sharp breath. Of those times, maybe another 25% (so we're down to 6% overall), the burning/discomfort lasts for a minute or three. But even on the worst days, that's it. 

And sometimes there's bruising. I haven't figured out the magic formula to avoid the bruises- I even asked the doctors and they said it is just blind luck, since there's no way to avoid capillaries.  It bruises maybe half the time?  Maybe slightly more. This is the current state of the belly:

There are about five areas of bruising there, out of maybe 9 or 10 days worth of shots. Some of the bruises have little knots under them too (a coworker was feeling my belly through my shirt and thought one of the knots was a foot!  Not yet!).  The knots go away as the bruise heals, unlike those horrible PIO knots that can last for weeks.  The little red dots you see are from some of my trial pokes when I was scouting for painless injection sites- sometimes the teeny pokes react like that. 

Anyway, all in all: no big deal.  I do dread doing them at night, but only because it's a chore and I'm tired of it. The only legitimate complaint is the bruising, and that's basically just cosmetic. If someone someday reads this before starting Lovenox, be confident that it the potential benefits far outweigh any related hassle.  Don't stress out about it.