stomach vs. thigh

[jelise]

Is it ok to keep using my stomach for the shots?  I have A LOT more stomach than thigh fat, and  I haven't had any lasting effects at the area of injection.  I just want to make sure there is no belief that shooting the medicine into all that fat keeps it from getting into your system as well as it should.  Any thoughts?

[newleaf09]

Fat areas are good because the possibility of hitting a vein is much reduced.  If there's more fat to grab on the stomach, stick with that.  All my shots were rotated around the stomache area, with nothing worse than a bit of redness from the procrit shots.  I heard on this forum that the thigh shots might hurt a little.

[Trish77]

I did every shot of everything into my abdomen only, interferon and procrit/eprex.  Didn't want to go near my thighs, lots of soft stuff on my abdomen.  The only fallout is that I have a couple of patches that are discoloured on my abdomen.  Change it up between four spots perhaps and rotate between them.  I injected at 90 degree angle, straight in, no bruising.  Did procrit at an angle because the tips on those needles were bevelled so went with the angle of the bevel.  If your needles are bevelled, that might determine your angle also.

[sail10]

I have just only completed my 8 th shot , but so far , i think the stomach is best i get  funny places to , on my thigh's and itch . I dont know if this has anything to do with anything , but i have found if i put the needle in at an angle , instead of straight in it seems to leave less of a bruse and dont squeez the injection site at all , and inject slowly .  Looks like you more injection sites in the stomach area anyway . sail

[copyman]

i used my stomach for every shot during treatment. i alternated from one side to the other every shot.

[jelise]

Thanks Bill!  

That is good news because I'd much rather shoot into fat rather than muscle.  I am keeping track of where I give the shot in the journal that came with the meds so as not to use the same place twice.  

The numbness sounds creepy, but I wouldn't mind eventually losing the layer of fat  =)

[Bill1954]

Hi Jelise,

I don’t think the choice of injection site is going to affect the availability of the interferon. It might eventually cause some discomfort though. If you get those little red circles after injecting, you might use them to guide you the following week, so you don’t hit the same area twice. I used my stomach the first treatment, and thighs only the second time. I did develop a strange area in both thighs towards the end of my second treatment… it became numb, and the layer of fat disappeared and left a slight depression about the size of a silver dollar in both legs. No lasting issues; the numbness and tingling (like neuropathy) disappeared within six months post treatment.

Best of luck to you—

Bill