Have you ever gotten a shot of cortisone in a painful,arthritic joint? If so, how long did it take until it took effect?

Similar questions: shot cortisone painful arthritic joint long effect.

The effect was either immediate - or none! I sympathize with you and hope your reaction to cortisone shots is different from mine! I've received cortisone shots in my finger joints about once a year for a few years and either the pain subsided immediately, while the needle was still being injected, or not at all.

However, since cortisone is destructive to the tissue in the long run the physician will not administer another shot for at least 6 months or preferably a year, so I gave up on shots. My mom gets both cortisone and lidocaine shots (hands, shoulder, hip) and her response is the same. Either they work immediatelly, or they don't... It is worth trying again though because when they do work, they are a great long term pain relief!

I wish you luck! Sources: alas, experience .

Yes, I have had many, many shots of cortisone in several joints... Back in 1991 I had a severe right shoulder injury that caused me to lose the use of my arm and 85% of all muscle mass on my right side and had surgery the following year to try and repair everything. Because my shoulder was really torn up and I had nerve damage and the muscles across my back had to be pulled tight in order to connect my rotator cuff back in 2 different places, it left me with permanent arthritis, chronic and debilitating pain and daily migraines so I had to have my orthopedic surgeon and my pain management doctor give me cortisone injections with numbing and pain medicine in the top part of my shoulder where my arm connects with my upper body. I also had to have injections in my elbow joint as well as my hand near my thumb because of the nerve damage.

I had injections, as well, in my neck, jaw and various areas across my back and shoulderblade and my head because of the severity of my shoulder injury. In 1994 I had knee surgery and it was another severe and debilitating injury which again left me with chronic pain in that joint as well so I had to get injections in my knee on a regular basis in an attempt to give me a little pain relief and to break up the scar tissue that kept building up. Again, the cortisone injections also contained numbing and pain medicine.

The injections directly on top of the shoulder joint never really did much at first but then when the scar tissue there began to break up, the injections started giving me some relief for a few days/weeks. The ones in my knee helped for several weeks because it broke up the scar tissue buildup which was putting a lot of pressure on various areas in my knee causing the pain. As far as how long it took to begin giving some relief...in my personal experiences (and there were a lot of them!), it varied depending upon how severe the pain in the joint was and which joint I was getting the shot in.

Some areas, like my knee, felt better by the time I left my doctor's office because there was numbing medicine in the injection. But after the numbing medicine wears off, it starts hurting from the injection a bit but not much and if it's going to work, you'll feel relief in that joint the same day you get the injection...as long as you rest the joint for a few days. Ater receiving the injection(s) and you go home and take anti-inflammatory meds like Motrin or Aleve or Advil or any pain or muscle relaxers that your doctor prescribes for you and you spend several days doing absolutely nothing with that joint and resting, you will most likely get some longer term relief.

If you get the injections and then go straight to work or do things involving that joint, you might as well have never gotten the injections in the first place. (That was what my orthopedic surgeon and my pain mgmt. Doctor both told me.

) Also, alternate using hot and cold packs on the affected joint (unless your doctor tells you otherwise) and that will help reduce some inflammation in the joint as well. My doctors told me that whether you have an injury or not in a joint and you're experiencing joint pain similar to arthritis, the muscles in that area tend to pull up towards the joint to "protect" the area because the body thinks there is an injury and that process causes inflammation in the muscles which, in turn, causes the pain and arthritis. That's why resting the affected area/joint is so important.

My recommendation, if you haven't already, is to make an appointment with your doctor to get a referral to an orthopedic doctor/surgeon just to make sure you don't have a serious injury that requires something more than just rest, injections or medication. I waited an entire year before having my shoulder checked out by my orthopedic surgeon and I ended up with so much damage that I'll never be the same.As for my opinion of getting cortisone injections, it was definitely worth it for me and were positive experiences overall. You can typically get the cortisone injections every 6-8 weeks if you have a liberal doctor but most will tell you that getting injections more frequently will end up causing damage within the joint.

My doctors usually said that it was safe enough to get about 4 per year and not experience joint damage from the cortisone. I hope some of this information is helpful to you and I wish you luck and hope you feel better and get some relief very soon! Sources: personal experience .

I think that's the question to which your doctor should be trying to find the answer. I recently had a Cortisone shot in my right knee. I had been on Naproxen for 30 days or so, which I quit taking when I had the Cortisone shot.

The Naproxen was giving me relief, but after the Cortisone, the question becomes, "is the Cortisone giving any relief? " I experienced an almost immediate increase in pain in the knee when I quit the Naproxen, but not to the level it had been. After about 3 weeks, I began experiencing some pain relief in the knee, apparently as a result of the Cortisone shot.

I know of some people who claim to have experienced immediate relief from Cortisone, and I know of other people who claim to have experienced no relief at all. It was a highly reputable orthopedist who shot my knee up with Cortisone. He readily acknowledged to me that he did not know what the result was going to be.

I will be returning to tell him how my knee reacted to the Cortisone. Hyalgan is another possibility. Lastly, scoping for loose bodies or the like would be a possibility.

All this is trial and error to a degree, However, this is a good conservative approach. You don't necessarily want to jump to the most invasive procedure to begin with. If the Cortisone does the trick, that's great.

But if not, there are other procedures possible. I would expect that your doctor would want you to report back on how you react to the Cortisone injection, just like mine wants me to report back.

A little while In a day or two it ought to start feeling better. I've had two in my shoulder. They put some anesthetic in the shot so it doesn't hurt at first then by the time it wears off the cortisone kicks in.

The shots always helped me. The most painful cortisone shot I ever got was in the base of my thumb(s). Weeeeee doggie that hurt..

Celiac diet(no dairy or gluten grains) helps arthritis and then no shot maybe needed.

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