Surprisingly little pain

[alitalf]

After being warned that the steroid injection would be painful, and remembering the the excruciating one I had in a tendon in my left hand a few years ago, I approached this mornings injection for the frozen shoulder with some trepidation. It turned out to be less painful than the base level of pain in the shoulder, and scarcely added to the ovrall pain level.

Now I have to hope it will be one of the 50% or so that works. If not, they can try a second time, but I will really prefer if it fixes the problem in one go. Even then, it can take several weeks, but since the problem has been severe for several months now, I don't really have much excuse for impatience.

Comments

[emperor]

Good luck!

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[pellegrina.livejournal.com]

I do hope this works for you.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

You and me both!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I'm pleased it wasn't too painful, and I hope you see some rapid results from it.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

It would be nice to reach the stage where I don't need to take so many tablets to keep the pain under control - if only because then alcoholic drinks will no longer be a very bad idea.

"I have come, but I do not choose now to do what I came to do" - I shall go to the pub, but drink no beer or wine.

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

I've had steroid injections both pre- and post-adding novacaine into the mix, and while the non-novacaine injection hurt more than childbirth (and, remember, both of my kids weighed over 4 kilos at birth), the novacaine/steroid mix hurts no worse than any other shot.

I think the non-novacaine shot was in the mid-90s, and the first one with novacaine was either 2005 or 2006.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

Well, I have of course never done childbirth, but although both had some sort of local anaesthetic included, the one in the tendon of my left hand was the most acutely painful thing I remember - before the anaesthetic started to work, and my ability to change gear (stick shift) threatened to reach zero before I arrived home, as the anaesthetic spread.

Since the one in the hand did no good, so I still can't wear my wedding ring, statistically you'd think this one ought to work. If only!

[rustica.livejournal.com]

Good to hear that it wasn't too awful. Now let's hope it works for you!

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

Yes, I want to be optimistic about that. Since the one that was excruciating did no good at all, it may just be that this one does work, despite not hurting much. The doc did say that it might hurt extra for two or three days, after the anaesthetic wore off, and that seems to be what is happening. Even so, it is not, so far, as bad as I might have feared.

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

Being close to professional in sticking bits of metal (or having others stick) into me, I can explain this easily: nerves. Your hands are stuffed full of them, and your shoulder isn't.

You can test this with a (trusted!) friend and a pair of scissors. Instruct them to prod you gently with the scissors, with either the blades closed, or slightly apart, or a cm or so apart, or 2 or 3 cm apart.

On your hands, you will know as soon as the blades touch what the position is. On your shoulder, you will know you have been touched, but probably not be able to judge the distance of the blades (or, possibly, the difference between a few cm open, and closed).

Of course, touch and pain are not quite the same thing. If you have an enemy (friends, yes I can see you getting a friend to experiment with, but not an enemy) you can do a pain-based experiment.

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

True - I have done those kind of tests decades ago in school - though with something less dangerous than scissors. The doc said that the other reason for less pain is that there is more room in the shoulder joint for the injected fluid to fit.

I can't think of any enemies - but I doubt any enemy would stay still for me to torture them:-(