Injection failure
Hi
I had the injections done on 29th and unfortunately i have not felt much difference. It was slightly better for 1-2 days after but now back to "normal". I guess operation is the way forward. Can you tell me what i should do next? Do i go back to GP and request another appointment with you?
Injections itself were nothing at all. I was expecting the needle to be painful but it really was not any more painful than let's say giving blood. Unfortunately my body does not seem to have responded to the steroids and with the weather getting colder, my hands are hurting more especially at night :( I will wait to be called back to GP who did the injections. It is going to be 6 long and painful weeks.
If they are that painful then I will fit you in an appointment with me as soon as I can find a space (severe pain is a bit atypical for neurophysiologically mild CTS, though it does happen sometimes) - I'll go through the diary on Monday and see what I can find. We will repeat the nerve tests just in case you are one of the rare cases with a particularly aggressive CTS and we will take a look at the nerves with the ultrasound scanner in case there is something anatomically odd. Watch this space as, if I find a very early appointment slot there may not be time to get an appointment letter out to you. JB
I seem to be short of appointments at present so I will fit you in as an extra patient at the end of the clinic on the morning of Tuesday 17th January - 13:00. We will put an appointment letter in the post but don't worry if it doesn't reach you - just turn up anyway, JB
No need to bother your GP. Whoever did the steroid injection will see you for a follow up assesment 6 weeks after injection anyway and I would generally not do anything until then in case of the occasional late response to injection. If it is still a problem then we will consider surgery and given the story so far I would probably want to see you again first - we will arrange that after the 6 week review. In the meantime it would be useful to run through the questionnaire on here sometime in the next week so that I get a new subjective severity assessment to compare with your earlier answers - we will also do it again at 6 weeks anyway. How painful was the injection in the end? JB