• Reference Number: HEY-674/2022
• Departments: Pain Medicine
• Last Updated: 1 March 2022

Introduction

This leaflet has been produced to give you general information following your discharge from your pain treatment. Most of your questions should have been answered by this leaflet. It is not intended to replace the discussion between you and your doctor but may act as a starting point for discussion. If after reading it you have any concerns or require further explanation, please discuss this with a member of the healthcare team caring for you.

For the next 24 hours you are advised:

•  Not to drive your car. Your insurance void if you ignore medical advice.
•  If you have had sedation, you are advised not to operate machinery, drink alcohol or sign legally binding documents.
•  To take all your medication as normal.
•  To eat and drink normally.
•  To be prepared to take the next day off work depending on how you feel.
•  To remove any dressings after 24 hours.

What to expect after your procedure

You may find that your pain gets a little worse after the procedure but this should begin to settle in a week or so.

You should continue to take your normal pain relief medication or a simple pain relief tablet such as paracetamol.

It is normal to have some bruising and experience some tenderness around the injection site for a few days.

A letter will be sent to your General Practitioner (GP) and you will be reviewed either by telephone or seen at the Pain Clinic in due course.

The nurse or doctor will ask you if your pain has been reduced or relieved since the procedure.  We need to know how much your pain has been reduced, for example:

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

We need to know how long the pain relief lasted to enable us to evaluate the effectiveness of the procedure, for example:

•  12 hours
•  24 hours
•  Number of days
• Number of weeks

We will also ask if your movement or mobility has improved since the procedure. The outcome of the treatment will be discussed with you and a plan will be made for the next stage in your management plan.

Additional Information

The information in this leaflet is not intended to replace the advice given to you by your GP or the pain service looking after you. If you require more information or have any questions, please speak to your GP or the Pain Service who are looking after you.

If you experience unusual symptoms such as a marked increase in pain around an 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, please contact your GP.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Pain Service
Outpatient Department
East Riding Community Hospital, Beverley
East Yorkshire
Tel: (01482) 478868

In the event of an emergency and outside normal working hours of the Pain Service (9.00am – 4.00pm), please contact your own GP or your local Emergency Department.

General Advice and Consent

Most of your questions should have been answered by this leaflet, but remember that this is only a starting point for discussion with the healthcare team.

Consent to treatment

Before any doctor, nurse or therapist examines or treats you, they must seek your consent or permission. In order to make a decision, you need to have information from health professionals about the treatment or investigation which is being offered to you. You should always ask them more questions if you do not understand or if you want more information.

The information you receive should be about your condition, the alternatives available to you, and whether it carries risks as well as the benefits. What is important is that your consent is genuine or valid. That means:

• you must be able to give your consent
• you must be given enough information to enable you to make a decision
• you must be acting under your own free will and not under the strong influence of another person

Information about you

We collect and use your information to provide you with care and treatment. As part of your care, information about you will be shared between members of a healthcare team, some of whom you may not meet. Your information may also be used to help train staff, to check the quality of our care, to manage and plan the health service, and to help with research. Wherever possible we use anonymous data.

We may pass on relevant information to other health organisations that provide you with care. All information is treated as strictly confidential and is not given to anyone who does not need it. If you have any concerns please ask your doctor, or the person caring for you.

Under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 we are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any information we hold about you. For further information visit the following page: Confidential Information about You.

If you or your carer needs information about your health and wellbeing and about your care and treatment in a different format, such as large print, braille or audio, due to disability, impairment or sensory loss, please advise a member of staff and this can be arranged.