it went very well, but i'm still stoned. i came home to meet my ride, darling shawn, and change into my sweats. alex the wonder dog had a seizure and an attack of diarrhea, in many areas of the house. ugh and double ugh. i spent about 30 minutes cleaning it up before we left to go to the hospital. i arrived a bit early, due to a mistake their scheduler made, i was listed as both a new pain management patient and as a procedure, so there was plenty of time, so we waited. my appointment was for 1:45, i got into the proceedure room at 3, took my xanax (excellent drug) at 3:01, was stoned at 3:06 (with a small empty stomach it doeen't take too long to kick in). the nurse was great, we chatted as she hooked me up to a blood pressure machine (110/63) and my pulse never went over 72 beats per minute. she kept commenting how calm i was. she used the c-arm xray machine, scanned me, found my left sacroilliac joint (which looked good) then found lumbar spine 5, 4, 3, 2. she prepped my back, betadine is ALWAYS cold, cause it's room temp, draped me, then went to find the doctor. he was hiding in their kitchen, drinking coffee. she came back, grinching about hunting down doctors, i commiserated, shared a story about chasing doctors into exam rooms too, and by that time dr. gladstone came into the room, ready to work. their easy familiarity and length of service together was evident, they were fast, effective and good, together and to me. i was up and off the table and out of the room by 3:40. since we were famished, i took shawn to dinner at olive garden, ate well, drank a glass of wine and came home with 90% of my dinner in a to go box. i made some coffee for shawn and eileen who had just came home from work,i sat down in the reclinerat 5:30, pulled the blanket over my lap, alex jumped up to sit with me, princess mojo joined us and suddenly it was 9:30pm. for the first time in many months, i'm not having any pain at all. amazing, just amazing.
there was minimal discomfort during the needle portion of the injections and one short burning sensation as the steroids went in, but whole thing wasn't anywhere near as painful as i was lead to believe. i am still a bit buzzy, but i feel fine, eileen says my eyes are still dilated and time and motion are moving a bit funny. i am on light duty for the next 2 days at work. i'll be heading for bed soon. i'd like to thank you all for the good wishes, it made me feel good when i was nervous.