Frak!

The INR is a shiny little number that measures the ratio of blood clotting time in a patient on anticoagulation therapy to the blood clotting time of norms. In a regular human it's about 1.0 to 1.5. In us zombie types, they try for 2.5 to 3.5.

Went in for my draw yesterday and it was 1.6. NOT happy. Then I had to go get a Lovenox injection right that damn minute at the emergency room of the hospital I was in when I had the embolism, where I've been getting treated ever since. This was in the middle of class. REALLY not happy. Luckily for me the hospital is right down the road.

Off I go to the ER. The nursing supervisor is to give me the injection and once again I have good luck because he's given me injections before and he has been on anticoag so he knows exactly how miserable a person can get on this stuff. Right side's off limits, here's the scar (I think he was impressed, especially after I explained the filter thing) so let's do this.

Short needles still make me twitchy. Lovenox is an anticoag that can only be administered in the lower abdomen. It's a 140 mg dose so I only have to do this once a day, thank goodness. Shot delivered and waiting and THERE'S the burn. It's like someone lit a match under your skin. I sit and wait for the burn to subside. Can't rub it no matter how bad it hurts. And then I did something that piled on even more not happy.

I went back to class. I taught Jazz, or tried to. Mostly I just sat in the chair doubled over trying to not show how much agony I was in and how badly I wanted to throw up. Two more days of this stuff. Can't wait.