Advice? Medical Questions on Cortisone shots

[lavendertook]

I'd be grateful for advice here. Questions for any of you who have experience with cortisone shots, with some whining thrown in for good measure:

I went to the podiatrist today to get a cortisone shot in my heel. I have plantar fasciaitis and a small bone spur; ie., my right heel hurts when I walk on it, very seriously if I drive on it too long. The cortisone shot the doctor gave me today hurt like all get out--so badly I had to ask her to stop after only getting a quarter of it into me--which seemed to be taking forever.

She said the cortisone burns and so she had to do it slowly to keep it from being too much. But I think it was the needle being moved about that hurt moreso, though the burn hurt as well. But this was really unbearable. And I may be just a wimp, but yesterday I got a novocaine shot through the roof of my mouth to have a molar pulled out, and that shot hurt much less. I asked the podiatrist if she could inject it faster (in pain, I just can't tell how long it took--it may have been only 30 seconds or over a minute--which means it was going to take at least a couple more minutes to finish), but she said no.

So my question is, do cortisone shots usually hurt unbearably?

Does any shot to the heel hurt worse than a shot in a mouth with an infected tooth? Or did I have the misfortune of getting a war criminal for my podiatrist (like a dentist I had a couple years ago who was totally clueless on pain management--that was the one who also drilled a hole in my tongue--no, I was not getting a piercing.)

I'm not walking in this podiatrist's office again, even if it meant I never walk anywhere again. But should I bother getting a referral to another podiatrist who is better at pain management, or will the pain be just as bad with the most skilled doctor out there?

I'm really hating this podiatrist right now--I felt as shaken after this as I had felt after being slugged in the head. And I thought yesterday getting my tooth pulled at the dentist would be the bad day, but that was a breeze in comparison--this dentist is pretty good at pain management. However, I'm going to have to report this podiatrist for Geneva Convention violations.

Comments

[monkey5s.livejournal.com]

Cortisone shots, especially in a limited-space area like your heel, hurt like a MO FO! The mass of drug has to get in there to interact with all of the inflamed tissue, so there has to be a lot of it. They can't do it faster because it has to go in bit by bit, to be sure the doctor is getting it where it needs to go.

Think of it this way. The drug, a LOT of it, has to go into an area that is already inflamed. The drug itself burns when it goes in, part of the thing it does as it begins working on the inflammation that is in place. Also, many of us have extra sensitive feet. So, there's a triple to quadruple ouch going on.

I would expect that the pain with be just as horrific regardless of the doctor administering it. But, I may be wrong. And, I have never had cortisone to the heel. squashy, however, has. You might ask her.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Ty--for the lead--I will go ask squashy. I got lots of conflicting info when I googled last night on pain levels of the shot, and whether or not it could be managed better, but I also got lots of conflicting info on whether cortisone helps or hinders healing outside of temporarily relieving pain. Sometimes the shot can rupture nerves, so I hope that didn't happen because it actually feels worse today, though nothing at all compared to the pain levels of the shot itself. So it may not have been the doctor's fault that it hurt so badly, but it certainly was that it took me saying stop at least 10 times before she asked me if I really wanted her to stop, and for her lack of concern about it afterwards.