Foot Injections Don't Have to be Painful
72When most patients enter a doctor's office for almost any ailment you can think of, the thing they fear most is an injection.
Doesn't matter if it's going in the mouth, the arm, your shoulder, or your foot. People have an inbred aversion to needles. Perhaps it goes back to visiting that fearful man/woman in the white coat. We had a sore throat, a cold, whatever. Just please, give me a prescription, and skip that awful shot.
Whatever the reason, people absolutely loathe getting injections. Since I am a podiatrist, and deal with foot injections; I'll spend some time talking about that.
There is one main reason why foot injections are painful. As you can imagine, the foot (particularly the bottom of it, or the plantar aspect), is a highly innervated structure. It also has a fair amount of fat, to protect us while we pad around the world. It is that lack of space, or tightness, in the bottom of the foot that causes that burning feeling when the injection is being placed. The tissues literally have to be forced apart in order to make room for that bolus of injection fluid. As if the initial stick of the injection was bad enough, it has to be followed up with all that burning!
There are mainly two reasons why that shot "burns" everytime you get it. Number one is that the pH (how acidic the solution is), is typically more acidic than your body pH. One of the ways to "basify" the injection is to add a small amount of sodium bicarbonate to the mix. This makes the pH of the injection closer to that of your body pH, and hence, less burn.
Secondly, the temperature of the injection solution is colder than that of your body. As everyone knows, normal body temp is 98.6 degrees. There's no way that solution is warm to that temp coming off the shelf. What I do to warm it up is to roll the syringe between my hands. In much the same way that we warm our hands by rubbing them together, so I warm up my injection fluid.
I have found these two basic modifications to be very helpful in lessening the pain of an injection. I always lay the patient back; and encourage them not to look. It also helps to push that needle home quickly, as it is the anticipation of what it is to come that is more damaging than the shot itself.
Don't you find most of life to be that way?
And lastly, I always talk them through what I'm going to do, as I do it. A foot injection is the worst part of every procedure, and my aim is to lessen that discomfort as much as humanly possible.
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Mainly to numb the toe (much like a dentist would numb your teeth before he/she works on them).
I also inject steroid into the heel quite frequently for heel pain/plantar fasciitis and the like.
Ok, ok doctor! If ever I need an injection, you have to fly me in to wherever you are so you could do a good job of making it as painless as possible. :) Can I have a chocolate after? I promise I won't cry. LOL
Hmm, chocolate as enticement, eh?
That probably works better than all the syringe warming and sodium bicarb on the planet!
Hmm. I think chocolate MIGHT have helped the shot I got in my heel!! Nice website Doc !! :)
Now, there's two requests for chocolate.
I'm going to get some.
Do you administer restalyn or sculptura injections for foot pillows. I am a long standing victim of rheumatoid arthritis and foot deformities. Due to the pressure I put on the balls of me feet, I have had ulcer upon ulcer which has recently led to me being no longer able to walk and therefore work, or live an active life.. I was recently rejected after one date...I presume because the limp and pain in my feet was obvious. Please help!!! I don't want to live the remaining 60-70 years of my life alone and unhappy! belindagreene777@hotmail.com
BG:
I don't currently do so. I would imagine some of the doctors in the Hollywood area perform that. Do a google search for "cosmetic foot surgery."
Is there anything else to help with the pain of plantar faciitis? I would rather limp than get a shot in my foot.
My podiatrist used a spring-loaded device before injecting the cortisone for a neuroma. I didn't need the area frozen. It deadened the nerve. What is that device called?
My old podiatrist used such a device before injecting cortisone into my neuroma. I wish my new doctor had such a devise.
I can personally attest to the fact that foot injections are by far the most painful thing I have EVER experienced in my entire life! I had to have 6 areas of my foot injected in preparation for removal of plantar warts on the sole of my foot. Now two areas have come back and I need to do it all again.
I applaud your efforts, but wish there were a much better way to much more greatly reduce the extreme pain (almost unbearable) associated with foot injections.
I still cannot believe the pain and also that there is no way to lessen it.
I have had steroid injections of the main joints near the big toe of each foot. The injection of the right foot was painful but nothing compared to that of the left foot. When the steroid fluid was injected into the joint of the left foot, the pain was almost unbearable. My doctor said the pain was so severe because the joint space was so small. Whatever the reason, the pain associated with injecting the steroid into the joint of the left foot was torturous. Is there a way to reduce the pain of these injections? My doctor said I have arthritis of the joint of each foot and the only real solution is injections. What can I do? I don't want to go back if the same amount of pain is experienced again.
I have had heel injections a number of times for heels spurs. They aren't fun, but they weren't nearly as bad as I expected. My doctor was very skillful. She also sprayed the injection site down with a topical anesthetic. That helps to take the edge off the injection.
I just had a cortosone shot in my heel........Child birth was much less painful.......The pain was nothing like I have felt before .....AVOID AT ALL COST
I"m about to have some local anesthesia injected into both of my feet so they can laser out my many plantar warts. Will it hurt? i heard the sole of the foot is the most sensitive part..So not looking forward to it..
glassvisage 3 years ago
What do you need foot injections for? Eek! This Hub really gets down and dirty... good explanations.