Discharge advice and information following a procedure at pain clinic

Discharge advice and information following a procedure at pain clinic

Please read this leaflet carefully.

For the next 24 hours you are advised:

• Not to drive your car.
• If you have had sedation you are advised to not operate machinery, drink alcohol or sign legally binding documents.
• To take all your tablets as normal.
• To eat and drink normally.
• To be prepared to take the next day off work depending on how you feel.

What to expect after your procedure

It is entirely normal to feel a little bruised after your procedure today. Even if you feel very comfortable, it is very important that you are careful with your activities for the rest of the day, and you may even need to reduce your normal level a little. In particular, be careful not to lie, sit or stand in any position for too long. As a general rule, try to avoid doing activities that you would not normally be able to do with your pain condition.

The local anaesthetic part of your injection will still be active when you leave the clinic and can last up to 24 hours. While the local anaesthetic is working, you may not be able to tell when you are hurting your area of pain. If you overdo things without realising, this could result in a severe flare-up of your pain over the next few days. Continue to take all your regular painkilling medications.

From tomorrow, although you may feel sore, it is safe to gradually re-introduce exercise and increase activities. It is normal to have some bruising and experience some tenderness around the injection site for a few days. Use your pain as a guide and start gently, exercising daily, but only increasing the exercises by a small amount each day when the flare-up starts to ease and when you are confident that you are not hurting yourself.

If a flare-up of your pain does occur this will settle down over the next few days / weeks. Take your painkilling medications regularly for 24 - 48 hours and reduce your activities for a day or two to let everything settle down. If you are not currently taking anything for pain relief you might wish to take simple pain relieving tablets. When the flare-up settles, you can restart building up your exercises and activities.

A follow-up appointment will be sent to you to attend pain clinic in two to eight weeks to review the outcome from your procedure today.

At your review appointment the nurse will need to know how the following information.

How much your pain has been relieved by?

• 100% (Pain not changed)
• 75%
• 50%
• 25%
• 0% (Pain has gone)

How long the pain relief lasted?

• Pain relief received
• 12 hours Pain relief
• three days Pain relief
• two weeks Pain relief
• four weeks Pain relief continues

Has any stiffness or mobility improved since the procedure?

Yes / No

Please use this sheet to record the information and bring it with you to your appointment.

The nurse will review the outcome of the treatment with your consultant using this information so that a plan can be made for any future procedures for you.

If you experience unusual symptoms such as a marked increase in pain around the injection site, fever, severe headache, new symptoms of pins and needles, new muscle weakness in your arms and legs, or you are very concerned about how you feel after the procedure contact your GP in the first instance or the pain clinic on 01223 217796 between 09:00 and 16:00hrs.