Foot Injections (cortisone, steroid) Flashcards
Foot Injections
Injuring one of your feet while playing a sport is fairly common. Despite all the bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles in your feet, they can be quite fragile when placed under awkward pressure. A steroid injection in the foot eases your pain. And if you suffer from rheumatoid arthritis in your foot, a cortisone injection in the foot can help. Get a cortisone injection for foot pain so you’re not hobbled by an injury or a disease. Make your appointment today in our sports injury and pain management clinic of New York to get your foot pain evaluation and treatment.
NYC Foot Injections (cortisone, steroid) · Sports Injury ClinicEven if you’re not on your feet all day, your feet still get a workout from your normal daily activities. Pain and inflammation in your feet not only slow you down, but also impact your attitude. Instead of suffering through weeks of foot pain, see your sports medicine and pain management doctor in Manhattan for a cortisone injection in the foot.
Cortisone is a corticosteroid medication. It’s derived from the most common hormone that your adrenal gland releases in times of stress. It actually contains a healing mix of anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving medicine. Your sports doctor often injects a cortisone shot into a painful joint to ease the pain, reduce the swelling and promote healing.
Getting a Cortisone Injection in the Foot
Your NYC physician may recommend a cortisone injection for foot pain when you’re dealing with specific medical conditions or injuries, such as:
Plantar fasciitis
Morton’s neuroma
Rheumatoid arthritis
Other types of arthritis, including reactive arthritis
First metatarsophalangeal joint pain
Tendonitis, including peroneal tendonitis
Getting the shot is a simple procedure done right in your doctor’s office in New York City. Depending on the reason for your steroid injection in the foot, your physician may put all of the medication in one insertion point or in several, to surround and coat the problem area with the medicine. The whole procedure takes less than 15 minutes.
Effects from a Cortisone Injection for Foot Pain
The injection ingredients include saline, steroids for inflammation and a local anesthetic for immediate pain relief. So the injection eases your pain right away. But after the anesthetic dissipates, within about three hours, the pain often returns. The steroid anti-inflammatory drugs often don’t start working for a couple days after your injection. At that point, you’ll experience what pain relief from a steroid injection in the foot feels like. And relief lasts for several months.
You may notice some minor side effects from the injection. Most often, these are temporary. Side effects include:
An increase in your blood sugar levels, especially if you’re diabetic
A flush of warmth in your face or chest
A spike in the inflammation and pain in your foot for up to two days, before the corticosteroid medicine starts working
Recovering from a Steroid Injection in the Foot
While you should feel pain relief immediately after the injection due to the anesthetic, you have to be watchful for a few days before the steroid medication starts working. The normal precautions of most medical treatments apply for a cortisone injection in the foot:
Keep the injection site clean
Look out for infection symptoms: increased pain and swelling or a fever
Avoid stressing your problem foot; don’t go from your doctor’s office to a long hike across town
Stay off your foot, if possible
Apply a cold pack, but not heat, to the insertion point if it’s sore or swollen
Don’t soak your foot in water, which includes in your tub or in a Jacuzzi
You may feel a little more pain in the days that follow your injection, but the pain should disappear by the third day, as the steroids start working. If the pain is drastically worse or you come down with a fever, contact your doctor right away.
Risks of a Cortisone Injection in the Foot
Risks are low when your shot is administered by a trained physician. But the risks include:
Infection at the insertion point or in your foot
Skin lightening at the insertion point
Osteoporosis
Weakened tendons
Nerve damage, which is very rare
Cartilage damage
To prevent cartilage damage, your NYC pain and sports doctor limits the number of injections you can have to about three or four per year, spaced at least six weeks apart. Because of this limit, a cortisone injection in the foot is not a long-term strategy for chronic pain. It’s a technique for easing pain temporarily, while your body heals.
More Pain Relief from Steroid Injections
The pain-relieving properties and anti-inflammatory effects of a steroid injection in the foot can also help you deal with pain in other parts of your body. If it’s not your foot but your ankle that hurts, your doctor can give you an ankle injection to fight the pain of an ankle injury. In most sports, your feet and ankles take a beating; spare yourself the pain of an injury with a cortisone injection.
