For Ladies Only...or maybe not

I can't begin to describe the agony I was in after the accident.  And I have a pretty high tolerance for pain.  Outside of toothaches and hard labor pains anyway.  What I was left with after my encounter with the 'red light runner,' rates right up there with those two experiences.  Except labor eventually ends and dentists can fill or pull a tooth pretty quickly. 

This went on round the clock, month after month after month.  And all I looked forward to were the shots the doctor thought would help.  But I couldn't have those until all the testing was finished, and circumstances beyond my control caused that to take longer than it should. 

Finally, about five months later, I went in for the first of a series of three shots over a month or so.  I was offered an I.V. sedative but I've had enough I.V.'s in my life (pregnancy related) that it didn't seem like any shot could hurt that bad, so I said no.  I'd just tough it out. 

Wow.  What an experience.  Amazingly enough the shots did hurt.  At least as bad as an I.V.  But it wasn't anything I couldn't tolerate, and I didn't have to worry about feeling groggy the rest of the day.  Or groggier than had become normal by that point. 

Those first shots, one somewhere along the spine, and a second one in the bursa of my left hip were wonderful.  Almost immediate pain relief.  I was so happy I could have danced, but I knew better.  Just because the pain was essentially gone didn't mean the injuries were.

When the shots wore off within ten days, I was discouraged.  Relief from excruciating pain, only to have it return full force, only makes it feel worse.  So I was a little skeptical for the next two appointments.  With good reason because the next two sets didn't have any effect at all.  On the pain.

They did, however, have a peachy little side effect no one bothered to mention.  Can we say irregular periods?  I don't know about you but just one regular four or five day period every month is more than enough for me.  

Try nine in six months, each one lasting ten days to two weeks. 

At first it scared the heck out of me and I started Googling it.  Could there be a correlation between the steroid shots and what was going on?  Yup.  And it's fairly common, too, from what I was able to find.  Common enough that it should have made the side-effect list they gave me. 

I'm not sure what decision I'd have made had I known at the onset that the shots weren't going to help.  Probably gone ahead and gotten them anyway.  I was pretty desperate.  At least now I don't have to weigh pain relief at the expense of half my life on a period.

Would I have more shots?  Not a chance!  I wasn't impressed with the three sets I had (all without I.V. sedation).  I was even less impressed with what followed.

So why did I share this experience?  Because you need to be informed about any procedure you have done. And not just from the information doctors choose to give you.  Get all the facts.  

Many women thought they might be experiencing early menopause-or even symptoms of cancer-when it was nothing more than an unpleasant side effect of the shots.  So check it all out before you agree to anything like this. 

Even men, because you could be surprised, too.