unbearable zoladex injection

Radar

From own experiences it's all down to the experience of those who administer it. Had 2 at hospital, no spray etc, whilst talking in out hardly felt it.
At surgery the nurse used to insist we applied a cream under a plaster with a clear opening for 30 mins beforehand. Only had one issue of note with a new nurse. My concern is if it hurt that much is the pellet in the right place?

Take note of Alan's comments on what to do.

Ray

I second what Ray just said

Barry

I agree with Ray too

Zoladex is a capsule or pellet designed to sit just inside the layer of subcutaneous fat under your skin but not any further. It slowly releases its contents through an absorbtion process. If it is injected too far in it might get absorbed more quickly than it should. This may not cause any actual harm in the here and now but it might affect your longer term benefit.

In any event nobody should endure a seriously painful administration, done considerately this should only be mildly uncomfortable like being pinched briefly. The only residual soreness or discomfort is usually a slight reaction to the drug rather than the procedure.

Ring your GP and get it checked out. The nurse probably feels awful for causing you that much pain and will be glad of training to ensure it does not happen again.

best wishes

xx

Mo

thankyou will ring gp and macmillan nurse today.

gp phoned me back she apologised for suffering i had but said the injection will be okay,also spoke to my macmillan support worker and she said i will be okay,but i will be back to my normal nurse next time for which i had no problems,if i thought i would have that pain again i would refuse it thats how bad it was the best word to use would be torture i nearly passed out things went black for a moment. thankyou.

I have had seven three monthly Zoladex injections all using freeze spray and all totally pain free.

I did have a strange incident with the one I had to get just before I went on holiday this year. The nurse put the freeze spray on the area and proceeded to inject the pellet, when she withdrew the injection the pellet came straight back out. She said she had never seen anything like it before. This resulted in a frantic phone around local chemists to see if anyone had a spare injection as I was leaving to go on holiday the next morning, most don't carry any extra as they are so expensive (£1,000 I think she said). She managed to find one chemist who only had a monthly injection so I went and collected it and it was administered without any problem. I went and got my next three monthly injection the following month and that was also administered without any problem.

I have also tolerated Zoladex very well with only the occasional flush, I think my last injection will be in October as that will be the eighth and I was told I would be on it for two years.

I was diagnosed Dec 2013 (PSA 59, T2C contained), I started Zoladex Injections in Feb 2014 and had EB Radiotherapy in July/August 2014 and flew through it with no issues, my latest PSA is still less than 0.2 which Oncologist is very happy with.

Gerry.

Barry

I also think the cost of £1,000 for a 3 month Zoladex injection does not look right. There is not a lot of difference between the cost of a 3 month injection of Prostap and Zoladex . See the link below for Prostap – bottom of page 2. The cost a couple of years ago was £75.24 for the monthly injection and £225.72 for the 3 monthly injection.

http://medisis.com/client_docs/pdf/Prostap_DCS_June_2012.pdf

I remember about 4 years ago an NHS body published costs for 3 monthly injections -. Decapeptyl was about £210, Prostap was about £225 and Zoladex was about £240.

Alan

It could conceivably be claimed that an injection costs £1000 if the hospital finance director or GP practice manager is factoring in the cost of someone ordering the capsule, appointment time taken, a qualified (& specifically trained) person to administer it and then whatever the LA charges for the removal of sharps waste?