Lessening blood thinner injection pain

On my last day, my nurse was a former Viet Nam vet and he used my thigh (like all the others did - I cannot imagine injecting into my abdomen) but he pushed itin  SLOWLY and it did not hurt at all.  All the other injections BURNED like hell.  I do not remember if it left a smaller bruise - but all my brusies were small - less than an inch in diameter.

Interesting about the leg. Mine dont have much fat, I feel if I did a shot it would go into that and hurt more :( Ya, bruises are definitely on the smaller side. Except for whatever they did on my right arm, I think during surgery? I dont remember getting a shot there, but theres a GIANT bruise

I had perfectly chubby cupid things - I had enough fat there for you and me and several others.  I could see how that would make a difference about placement - but I was glad the last shot didn't hurt.  I can't believe the nurses were so rushed that 30 seconds more would have killed them.  Those suckers burned.

Pre-surgery, I had to do 2 Lovenox injections per day for 5 days at full therapeutic dose(about 3x the dose I got after surgery to prevent clots while in the hospital), and there was just nothing I could do to prevent bruises at the 120 dose. No matter where/how I gave them or had them given by a nurse, they bruised and bruised horribly. 

That said, pushing the medicine in as slowly as possible made it hurt less. Not jiggling the needle also helped. But the one thing that made the most difference burning-pain-wise was making sure that there was no drip of the medicine hanging on the needle when it went in--those hurt the worst and left those pencil-eraser bruises right around the injection site.

I had those injections for about half of the month, considering the pre-op shots, the post-op shots, and the post-hospital shots while trying to get my coumadin to therapeutic levels... I still have knots in my tummy from them! 

They're life saving and necessary, but lawdy do they suck! :)

I had those in the hospital and they hurt like the dickens.  They did one in my abdomen and the rest in my upper arms.  They would alternate arms and they would either have me blow air out or inhale in as they were giving the shot.  Glad I didn't have to continue at home.