Clexane Jabs

I have amazingly developed the skill of giving myself an injection for flying, without much fuss at all. I am surprised at myself, really, because whilst I don't have the most heightened fear of needles, I am sure I have the usual level of anxiety when there is the prospect of a skin prick with either fluids coming out, or being injected. Thus, I can, and do, do it without much drama. The lengths I will go to for my travel bug!

Each time I am preparing to head off on a long haul flight, I seem to invariably get a client with a horror DVT and/or PE story. This time, just before my Sri Lanka trip, I had a client who had big DVTs like mine, went on warfarin for the six months, cos of the presence of PEs. Then after all the tests like I had, and the all clear in terms of blood factors, he went off the warfarin. He says he got another DVT very soon after, and thus, is now a lifer. Yuck.

These stories are everywhere, seemingly to pop up everyday as a reminder. AFL player Daniel Wells is the latest, and of course the comeback to tennis of Serena Williams this year.

Each jab usually leaves a little red mark for a few days on my belly, and sometimes a bruise. This time, after my jab when I landed in Sri Lanka, I ended up with a massive, apple-sized dark bruise patch - which I can only imagine was because I had the injection after landing, riding the 4 hours in the bus down to Galle, and quite a few Araraks! Clearly the blood thinning properties of the clexane and the alcohol worked overtime at the injection site!

I had tried to get pre-existing travel insurance for this trip too, and was advised that because I had no blood factors, that my incidence of DVT does not qualify as pre-existing. Would be an interesting test, they agreed, if I did get another one, but technically my status was not a determinate of experiencing another.

Putting the thigh-high pressure stocking on, in humid climates, is always a challenge too, pre-flight. This time on the way back I managed to do it in the back of a taxi on the way to the airport. Anything not to get another clot, and to avoid the need to take warfarin for life!