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

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

Can you get a topical anaesthetic for the injection?

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

She did use ethyl chloride and it did nothing to ease the initial injection, and of course nothing thereafter. If I ever decide to try this again with another podiatrist, I'll see if there is any stronger kind of topical they could use. If there isn't any, I'll want a local anesthetic injection, if there is any kind that can be injected quickly. I think any injection to that area will hurt like hell (I wasn't prepared for it at all), but it's the prolonged nature of the cortisone shot that makes it unbearable--I think more than the fact that the cortisone burns as it spreads. She only got a quater of it injected in about a minute--so it was going to be around a 4 minute or so ordeal. Plus I could feel her moving and adjusting it, so she wasn't very good at doing injections.

Right now, my foot is better from the stretches I've been doing, so hopefully I'll never need to try to this again. No 8 hour driving day distances for me anymore (which is what messed the fascia up so bad) unless it's an utter emergency--I will do all drives in smaller chunks.