Cortisone injection in middle finger

[carol555]

Just wondering if anyone has had a cortisone injection in a finger and if it helped? My middle finger has swelled and lumps have appeared which i am guessing are bone spurs and would like to hear from anyone who has had this done and did it help. Thanks

[TansyR]

Hi Carol

The swelling of fingers is sometimes synovial fluid. In my case anyway. And the little side bumps are more of the same I believe. I have those too. If you dent these smaller bumps, you can tell they are softer than bone. But in you case they maybe bone spurs.

I have not had steroid injections in my fingers. I did ask the rheumatologist if I could have injections on me hands on e and he said there are too many joints. As this included my wrists as well.

If your doc wi give you a finger injection , please let us know.

Good luck

TansyR

[carol555 in reply to TansyR]

Thanks for your reply Tanya. I am seeing my Rheumatologist in a couple of weeks so will see what she suggests and will update then, thanks

[DaniBeeLcLa]

Hi Carol! I get cortisone hand and thumb joints injections about every 3-4 months.... Yes, they help immensely! Warning: right afterwards for approximately 4-6 hours where you got the injection will hurt like hell BUT the next weeks are all worth it, I promise! My husband's pain management guy is also a friend so I had acccess to steroid injections for my at will-he, thank God, fixed a mistake my hand surgeon made with a steroid injection every six weeks for 5 months. They are worth it. I'm actually looking forward to my first one this year (next month).

Good Luck!

Dani

[helixhelix in reply to DaniBeeLcLa]

Do be careful as too many injections in same joint can wreck the tendons/ligaments.

[Lucy76]

Hi

In the first years of having rheumatoid ( 15 years ago) I had a lot of problems with my thumb and had frequent steroid injections into it .

Just wanted to add a word of caution in that it did have initial good results but the joint did eventually collapse and my thumb is now at a 45 degree angle . It doesn't hurt and I can use it normally but it doesn't look too great as you can imagine .

Looking back I think I should have had my medication increased so the disease control would have been better rather than repeated injections .

Sorry don't want to scare monger but felt I had to tell you to be cautious

Hope you get some relief soon

Good luck

[carol555 in reply to Lucy76]

Thank you so much for letting me know Lucy - this is the very reason I was asking as I am very unsure whether to try it and thanks to you with your advise I will not as it's not worth it. I can up the sulphasalazine by one more tablet - am up to three on this so far (have to let the tummy settle) so maybe this will help.

Thanks again for the advice.

[helixhelix]

I have had fingers and toes injected with good results. But first off you need to be sure that the problem in the finger is one that an injection can fix. If you do have bone spurs then it will probably do nothing. However if you have active inflammation then it could help loads.

I agree that the best approach is to tackle the disease overall and get it under control properly. Steroid injections are not a long term solution unless you have no other option. But occasional one-off interventions when there is a sudden problem can be great.

[caggy]

Hi Carol from carol I had my middle knuckle injected 6 years ago about 6 months from diagnoses and it really worked; I'd had pain and swelling for over a year before; like Helix says it hurt alot and I mean alot when the needle goes in, but it was worth it, and I only had it done once. Good luck.

[MOLLy8]

Hi there. I had a cortisone injection at the base of my index finger didn't do a thing for me. Take care hope it helps for you.

[Radiogirl]

I've had Carpal Tunnel Release surgery on both hands. Then quickly developed 4 Trigger fingers (both thumbs, left ring finger and rt middle finger. My hand surgeon did the injections. He did a numbing injection first prior to the steroid injections. Later that evening when the numbing medication wore off, my fingers hurt horribly, but today -- three months later I am so improved as far as the Trigger fingers pain. I have other finger and wrist pain, but I don't think either my rheumy or hand doc will inject for all of those issues. Maybe too many as someone said here.

Good luck to you for less pain.