Pain Management: What To Expect
We make it a priority to ensure you are at ease during your pain management therapy. Canada Diagnostic Centres provides private change rooms and comfortable cloth gown or scrubs. You may also be asked to remove your jewelry before the procedure. One of our technologists will assist you to the fluoroscopy room and help to position you on a table. Before the procedure begins, our technologists will record your current pain level on a chart.
A radiologist will clean the site to be injected and will administer a local anesthetic into that area. Once the anesthetic has numbed the area, the radiologist will inject pain medication (typically a steroid). Using a needle and imaging guidance (‘real-time’ X-ray) directly into the pain generator site. This minimizes any spreading of medication into the body. This method makes the procedure much shorter and reduces any discomfort.
Once your treatment is complete, a technologist will ask that you remain in the waiting area for 10 minutes and will re-evaluate your pain level on the chart. You can resume normal activities after your exam. However, please refrain from any heavy lifting or other strenuous activities in the 24 hours following your treatment. Also, Canada Diagnostic Centres recommends that all patients refrain from driving 24 hours after the procedure.
It can usually take anywhere from two days to two weeks before your condition improves. The benefits of a single treatment can last for months; however, results will vary by individual. In some cases, the medication will last only a few weeks and in others a year or more.
Canada Diagnostic Centres recommend that you follow-up with your referring doctor within two weeks of your treatment to evaluate its success or sooner if you feel no improvement of your symptoms.
