Preparation
The major reason for the injection is to determine whether or not pain is altered in the six hours after the injection. Therefore, it’s important to have a method for recording the pain score. You will be kept in recovery for a couple of hours until the doctor or nurse determines when it is safe for you to go home.
A commonly-used pain scale rates pain from 0 to 10. When represented in a linear fashion on a chart, it’s called a Visual Analog Scale (VAS).
Zero (0/10) indicates no pain while 10/10 indicates pain that is almost unattainable. At 10/10 a person can’t think, move or function at all. Each person needs to know what their VAS is, and apply it to each area of pain. For example, your back pain may be 6/10, and leg pain is 4/10.
If so, two columns of the pain chart need to be recorded. As the aim of the block is to see if pain is altered, it’s essential that pain is present at the time of the injection. Thus, patients shouldn’t take pain medication on the day of the injection.
It’s normal to feel anxious about the injection. However, the injections are very safe, generally not too painful, and can be done quickly.