Corticosteroid injections - direct into the joints

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I've just been through five of these my left shoulder, elbow and ankle and my right wrist and elbow. One a day over a working week (which was broken up by a weekend). Let me describe the procedure and what it is like afterwards.

The first thing they do is find a pathway into the joint using an ultrasound machine, and a gap in the joint that they can inject into. I didn't have a lot of pathways. Or gaps. The degree of difficulty on my joints seemed high. I tried to follow along on the ultrasound machine, but all I could see was a series of lines. 

Anyway once they've decided on the pathway and space, they prepare an injection with a mixture of local and steroids. They do NOT give you local before inserting this injection. They use the ultrasound to guide the needle into the joint (ouch) and once they are in the gap they slowly inject the local/steroid mixture. Which really hurts.  If I had to try and represent this pain visually, I think the image of the Greek statues in the Bank of Evil from Despicable me (see below) except imagine they're pushing the column and manage to increase the gap. Once the injection is removed your joint feels different. Full and awkward, in about 10-15 minutes the local has kicked in and it feels really good! My ankle was not fully operational after the local kicked in. 

ouch

But the local wears off and then you're left with a fairly annoyed joint. Mine stayed mad until the next morning. 

Add insomnia, feeling on alert/agitated and a little bit of roid rage and that's my experience. 

It's been two days since my last injection and I'm still feeling like an insomniac, but my joints feel great. Thanks Craig. At Xradiology Toowong. 10/10 would recommend.