Ouch!

Yesterday I had my second injection of steroids (insert "juicing" joke here, as my husband always does) for my ongoing back problems. The first injection two weeks ago went very smoothly, and although it was uncomfortable, it wasn't ridiculously painful. Yesterday, however, was a slightly different story. This time the doctor decided--based on the fact that my stabbing pain while standing/walking had gotten so much better but my rear/leg pain while sitting really hadn't--to do a caudal steroid injection instead of an epidural steroid injection. It's much like the injection into the epidural space but instead goes into an opening right near the tailbone called the sacral hiatus. This type of injection is supposed to be better for radiculopathy (nerve pain that that radiates down the rear into the legs), which is often referred to as sciatica. It darn well better work, because it did NOT feel good at all!! Nurse Courtney (who, ironically enough, is married to a guy I went to high school with, whose sister was in my class--what a small world it is) told me there would be a lot more "pressure" with this injection, which I guess is code for it's going to hurt like crap!

If you're interested, I found kind of a cool website that shows you step by step how an epidural or a caudal steroid injection is done, along with a bunch of other spinal procedures. The description of how it's done is slightly different than how my doctor does them, because Dr. N. doesn't use the fluoroscope or contrast solution, but you get the general idea.

Because of the injection site pain (which went away in 2-3 days last time), today was pretty miserable since I had to sit all day long. My tailbone hurts!!! Right now I'm resting comfortably in bed on a heating pad, so I'm a much happier camper than I was earlier while at work. Like the last injection, I'll have to wait a couple of days before the steroid starts doing its job, which isn't a big deal since I won't have to be sitting much during the weekend. Hooray for weekends! Hopefully by Monday the steroid will start taking effect and I'll start sitting more comfortably. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!