Hey! That sucker looks pretty big. Are you going to stick that into me?!?Uh, Yeah! Duh...
The procedure is called an Epidural Steroid Injection and it means that medicine and pain reliever go into me near the nerves that are sending the pain signals. The idea is to reduce the swelling that is causing the nerves to get pinched and to turn off the signal sending nerves for a while to give them some rest.
Once the anti-swelling medicine (cortisone, usually) has stopped working and the pain reliever has stopped relieving, the hope is that the body has taken over and eliminated the cause of the swelling by healing and there is no more pain that needs relieving.
Well, that is the hope.
Tomorrow I go in for a treatment by Dr L and we'll expect the best results possible. Big Needle And All.
