Yay!! I've completed my first epidural injection. I was very nervous and went down a lot of different avenues of treatment before I finally accepted that this was my next course of treatment. THANK YOU for all of you for helping me and encouraging me and answering my millions of questions. I wanted to post my journal from today to ease the minds of others out there who might have the same concerns that I did.

Monday 4:30 pm
I'm home. It's over. The stress, the not knowing, the fear...it's over. Now it's just recovery and PRAY that the steroids work their magic!!!! A very nice surprise today was that I was able to sleep through the procedure. I was given an IV of valium and was sound a sleep for a half hour. I'm finally not feeling fuzzy :) When I woke up right after the procedure, my leg hurt a lot...but my doctor told me not to worry it was the nerves reacting to the needles he had just punctured them with!!!!!! All of my nurses were wonderful...I knew immediately when I arrived that I was in good hands because the nurse at the front desk her name was Adele and the nurse who gave my IV etc, her name was Leslie. I knew if I asked for a list of every nurses name, one of them had to be Pat. And sure enough when I got into the operating room, a new nurse introduced herself as PAT!!!! Yes, that is Mom's name!!! I felt her with me all day long. I still feel her presence so strong around me.
I am supposed to rest for 24 hours. Ice constantly for the first few hours and then off and on every 25 minutes or so. So I am resting in bed, my leg elevated and I'm comfortable with my a/c running and watching some tv. Tomorrow will be more of the same and I should be fine to go to group bereavement tomorrow. Only 3 more sessions left!!!
Thank you everyone for all of your support and well wishes, and telling me that everything will be OK. It has meant SO much to me. I cherish all of my friends here at DS so so much!!!!!!!!