Shoulder injections? (human)

[Quelah]

A couple of years ago I got hit very hard in the shoulder. Very boring, I was walking behind a shopping center on a narrow sidewalk and someone came flying out the back door of the pizza place and BAM! Steel door to the shoulder. Bad design, door completely sweeps the sidewalk, I could go on about the but not the point. ANYWAY, it hurt, a lot, for a while, so I was careful and iced etc. It mostly got better. About a year later, after a good twinge I thought oh hell, should probably get this checked out, so I went to very good ortho surgeon who took X-rays and said "that must have hurt like a motherf-cker!" I adore her. Apparently the impact chipped piece of bone off. Chip had resorbed, divot remained. Soooo...nothing to do really but she said if it started to bother me, she could inject it. It does bother me sometimes, often enough that I was thinking about injections but I am a HUGE ridiculous sissy about needles. If I was a horse I'd be an absolute bastard for shots . Surgeon said shoulder injection wouldn't hurt, that I'd
"barely feel it" but has anyone here had a shoulder injected? Big thing or no?

[Moutaineer]

Yes, I've had it done. I dont remember it being any more painful than the pain it was to get rid of. Takes a couple of days to work and it's a bit sore during that time as there is more fluid than space for it to be, but then miraculously it stops hurting and you can go back to doing stupidly excessive farm chores until.you make it hurt again.

Good thing is that they sneak up on you from behind so you dont get to see the size of the needle...

[heddylamar]

Not a big thing. It's quick and relatively painless. Sometimes the doc used a topical numbing, other times he didn't. The area will be warm for a while until it starts to work.

Don't do anything that requires getting your hip injected. THAT is painful!

[Kyra's Mom]

I have had a couple...and probably am in need of another one. Having to use crutches for about 8 week really did a number on my arthritic right shoulder. The PA put local into the mix and it really didn't hurt. Maybe some pressure and residual slight aching for a day. Otherwise a non-event.

Susan

[Sue B]

So far, I've had a knee, hip and shoulder injected and, maybe my orthopod was really, really good, but none of them were all that painful. I take that back, the knee one was unpleasant because he accidentally hit bone with the needle, but not THAT bad, As I recall, shoulder one was easy peasey.

[DJR]

I haven't had a shoulder injection myself, but I've given them to many patients.

It's an easy office procedure. The most time-consuming part is getting everything set up. The actual injection takes about 30 sec (or less) and is easy to do and usually very, very well tolerated by the patient. I personally don't use freezing for the skin because (a) it hurts more than the actual needle, and (b) it means getting stuck twice instead of just once. I personally use the same size needle as I use to give a flu shot (25g) so it's really small.

About 15% of patients may get a "steroid flare" which means more inflammation for the first 18-24 hrs while the body is breaking down the emulsion into usable steroid molecules. The risk of bleeding or infection into the joint is extremely low (I've been doing this for 20 yrs, and to my knowledge none of my patients have ever had bleeding or infection).

[Kelo]

I have absolutely no helpful contribution to this, but I had this vision of you there, with one big nurse holding a lip twitch, maybe grabbing an ear as the doc approaches, the other big nurse sitting, exhausted, after finally throwing that hobble on you, while you throwing everyone the worst mare death eye known to man, as the doc approaches, casually and soothingly, hoping for the best......and it made me giggle.

[Quelah]

That’s pretty accurate!