The Injection

I've been dealing with this herniated disc since July 20. It's been difficult beyond belief and I am way over the whole sit in my apartment, take pain meds and chat on the internet thing. It's also been quite a learning lesson in terms of where support comes from. It seems that for me, support comes from my mom (to the extent she's able) and a couple of close friends. But there is no help offered from anywhere else in my family. Rather disheartening but a good lesson on how to plan for my old age.

Yesterday, I had an epidural steroid injection. I'm optimistic about the results because cortisone in other problem joints has always worked well for me. I had to be at the surgery center (yes, even though it was only an injection, the specialist uses a surgery center cuz he "sedates" you) at 6:45am. I'll never understand why doctors insist on doing stuff like this before the sun comes up. My sweet, dear, reliable friend James got up early and took me. After they made sure to get their money, I was called back to the prep area by this nice RN named Deb.

Deb proceeded to explain the procedure and have me sign all the waivers so that if I became a paraplegic as a result of the spinal injection, I wouldn't be able to say they hadn't told me. Then RN Cathy comes to do the IV. Even with a little local anesthetic, that shit still hurts. After the IV was started, I was called back to the procedure room. I was instructed to lay face down on the procedure table with my belly button on the 3 pillows. What that translates to is that I was on a table with my ass way up in the air. I'd no more than laid down when one nurse yanked my shorts halfway down my tush and the other nurse pumped the versed and fentanyl into the IV. It wasn't enough and I felt the whole damned injection. Ouch!

The entire thing took maybe 5 minutes and then I was rolled over onto a rolling stretcher (I could have walked but hey, for $1500 I'll let 'em push me) and whisked to the recovery area. There really wasn't much recovery as I couldn't tell that I'd been given any drugs. Either they use a very low dose or I have a very high tolerance to versed and fentanyl.

So today I'm sore from the injection but I'm thinking I might be starting to feel a little relief from the herniation. With cortisone, it usually gets a little worse for a day of so before it gets better.

And I so need it to be better.