Faslodex

Hi Collie Mum, 

When you say vary, what do you mean exactly? Faslodex needs to be delivered into the muscle of the buttock, so as long as the needle tip ends up in the muscle (there are two), it should be fine.

Are these oncology nurses, or practice nurses?

Hi. Thanks for answering. They're oncology nurses. It's usually a different one each time and the position they inject varies a lot. A senior nurse said it should be in the upper outer quadrant yet a few times it's been very low and I've had no muscle pain afterwards whereas on Friday the senior nurse did it as I explained my concerns and showed her a photo she injected much higher and boy I've got muscle ache still! It's good to know either muscle is ok it's just I read a research article which reckons some nurses are only reaching the subcut tissue and that the drug is ineffective if not in the muscle. As I say I raised it with the ward manager and they're going to do some refresher training. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

The upper outer quadrant would be the gluteus medius (just below the pelvis), which is a smaller target, but does come with fewer potential complications (nerves, major blood vessels). That said, ideally you would use a different injection site each time, which is harder if you limit yourself to the medius.

The much larger gluteus maximus is an easy target to hit, but depending on the patient, may have more adipose tissue (fat), making intramuscular injection harder.

Being oncology nurses, I'd hope they know what they're doing!

Thanks very much for the info. 

I have these injections and I have noticed that they do change the position of the injections every time. They sometimes hurt afterwards or leave a lump for a while. 

Thanks Caroline. It definitely went into the muscle last time as I was aching for days afterwards. I've not had that reaction for months. No pain, no gain! Best wishes to you and thanks for replying.