If you've never been to a foot doctor before, it's likely that you don't really know what to expect. And I had a chance to ask my team some of the more common questions they get asked, especially for our newer patients.
Hi, I'm Houston podiatrist, Dr. Andrew Schneider, and one of the comments that they told me is that people are concerned that they need a shot in their foot, and wonder if a shot in their foot hurts. Well, there are times where we have to give an injection into the foot. Sometimes it's to do a procedure, if I have to take a biopsy or if I have to numb your toe to take care of an ingrown toenail. Other times it's more therapeutic, where someone is suffering from heel pain or pain from a Morton's neuroma, I may give a cortisone injection.
Here's the thing. Your feet are sensitive. You have a lot of nerves and that's what allows you to stand and walk and know where you are, I mean space, your feet have an amazing nervous system to be able to give that feedback, back to your brain and let you know, what's going on. But because of that, and because your feet don't have much soft tissue, much space in them, an injection can be uncomfortable. As the medicine goes in, you're going to start feeling that the fluid expand the tissues, and that's really the uncomfortable part of the injection. But we try to make it as easy as possible.
For instance, before I give you the injection, I'm going to spray with a cold spray, to freeze the skin, to try to eliminate the pain from the needle stick. And then the pain, I put an anesthetic in the injection to make sure that you don't have any pain after the injection. And the injections that we give in the office are pretty quick. The therapeutic injections last seconds, and the injections to numb the toe and for a procedure also last less than a minute.
So if you feel like you need to come in, don't let in the fear of an injection stop you. I will talk you through it and let you know what's happening next and give you all the information you need to feel comfortable. If you have any questions feel free to contact us at the office or feel free to visit our website www.TanglewoodFootSpecialists.com. Thanks so much for watching and have a great day.
