It's not every day that your doctor says you look like a drunken sailor. Yesterday morning I went to see my anesthesiologist to get steroid injection #4, which I had hoped I wouldn't ever need. Since I hadn't had any noticeable improvement since the last injection 2 weeks ago, on Thursday the doctor decided to pull out all the stops. He did three injections this time: one in my tailbone like he'd done the previous two visits, and one in each of my sacroiliac joints, which have to be located using an x-ray. Along with the new shot locations, Dr. N. added a higher dose of longer lasting Novocain in each of the injections, which certainly took its toll on my legs! I was able to walk back to the recovery room on my own, but within minutes I had lost much of the feeling from my rear all the way down to my feet. I enjoyed an unexpected morning of laying in the recovery room watching Comedy Central, which was kind of nice! Nurse Courtney brought me all sorts of snacks and took good care of me!
After at least an hour of laying around, my legs started regaining some feeling and Courtney helped me in an attempt to get up. I thought I was fine until I put all my weight on my legs and almost fell over! It was the freakiest feeling! That's what prompted Dr. N.'s drunken sailor comment--he's very funny and personable. I would really recommend him if you ever need a good anesthesiologist! He said that some people aren't affected all that much by the extra Novocain (they used to give it with all steroid shots apparently), but clearly my body absorbed it much better than some people's. After almost another hour of laying around, Chad came by the office to pick me up and drive me home, which was lucky since he just happened to be in town for a meeting! After lounging around the house another hour or so, I finally made it back to work about 1:30. I was still walking a little funny, but at least I wasn't falling over anymore!
I had really hoped to be pain free after the third injection so I wouldn't have to do this fourth one. There was huge improvement after the first shot, getting me back to my pre-July 4th pain level. After the second shot, I had some minor improvement so that I was no longer relying as much on ice packs and my TENS unit while sitting at work. After the third shot, there wasn't really any noticeable difference, so I'm still in pain while sitting, but for the most part it's tolerable. I'm just kind of sad because I wanted to be pain free and not just in a tolerable amount of pain!
There's still obviously a chance that the last caudal injection and the SI joint injections will make a difference, so all hope is not lost! The doctor said SI joint injections usually only help about 50% of the time, but he thought it was still worth a shot (no pun intended). I'm thinking anything is worth a shot at this point!
After at least an hour of laying around, my legs started regaining some feeling and Courtney helped me in an attempt to get up. I thought I was fine until I put all my weight on my legs and almost fell over! It was the freakiest feeling! That's what prompted Dr. N.'s drunken sailor comment--he's very funny and personable. I would really recommend him if you ever need a good anesthesiologist! He said that some people aren't affected all that much by the extra Novocain (they used to give it with all steroid shots apparently), but clearly my body absorbed it much better than some people's. After almost another hour of laying around, Chad came by the office to pick me up and drive me home, which was lucky since he just happened to be in town for a meeting! After lounging around the house another hour or so, I finally made it back to work about 1:30. I was still walking a little funny, but at least I wasn't falling over anymore!
I had really hoped to be pain free after the third injection so I wouldn't have to do this fourth one. There was huge improvement after the first shot, getting me back to my pre-July 4th pain level. After the second shot, I had some minor improvement so that I was no longer relying as much on ice packs and my TENS unit while sitting at work. After the third shot, there wasn't really any noticeable difference, so I'm still in pain while sitting, but for the most part it's tolerable. I'm just kind of sad because I wanted to be pain free and not just in a tolerable amount of pain!
There's still obviously a chance that the last caudal injection and the SI joint injections will make a difference, so all hope is not lost! The doctor said SI joint injections usually only help about 50% of the time, but he thought it was still worth a shot (no pun intended). I'm thinking anything is worth a shot at this point!
2 comments:
WEll, this takes me down some memory lanes...where should I start???=) Love the pictures. Happy Birthday, Erin!!!! Love to you and your family.
sa
Thank you Sherry!!!
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