braingonebad,

I have had PLENTY of cervical spine injections and yep, they can be brutal. I have had them with and without Versed. All the Versed does is to calm you down enough that you really don't care LOL! But they do NOT give you enough to knock you out. You HAVE to be alert to TELL THEM they are in the right place when they elicit a pain response. You are right...you CANNOT be knocked out else how will you or the docs know they are in the right place. And, yes, the lumbar injections are a piece of cake compared to the cervical injections. With the cervical injections they have to more or less weed everything down in there through, for me, the sides of my neck. I know, this sounds horrendous! But, guess what? My CURRENT PM is sooooo good at these that I actually look forward to them...no problem! Now, the facet injections will usually hurt a bit more; but my facets are always inflamed. But again, he uses enough numbing medication (NOT Versed) that all I really feel is pressure.

Anyway, what you said about hurting is a fact. When I first was told, years ago, that I was going to have to have cervical injections, I said...NO WAY! But when you are in that much pain, believe me, you will practically BEG for one! And I sure got to that point fast. The pain was so bad that I visualized a needle going into my neck just to get it all to stop! And thank God it worked!

And as my PM says...no one LIKES the thought of needles going into their neck. This isn't something we jump for joy for...but boy, when they work, well, well worth it! They at least allow me to keep my meds low. And, no, I don't use them FOR pain management; they are diagnostic..it just helps that they are therapeutic as well.

As far as cervical ESI's go. I have never had one done. I overhead my PM's nurse say that he will NOT or does NOT do ESI's in the cervical spine. And I think I know why. I just haven't had a chance to ask him yet. What I get are normally facet injections and at times Selective Nerve Root injections. I was scheduled for an RF but was able to cancel because the last set of injections stopped the pain for going on 2 months now.

Okay, and last but not least. Versed is truly not needed. UNLESS it is your first time, then I could understand it. But they are over with so fast it really doesn't seem necessary to me unless I have just grown used to it. Nowdays my PM says just take a Valium or two if anxious. And he has even said they are going away from Versed. Of course he will DEFINITELY use it for an RF. I had him give me plenty when he did the RF in my lumbar and I did NOT remember a thing! BUT that's because he had already done the facet injections and he KNEW where the problem was. So, I was given plenty and practically fell asleep. He said it would give me amnesia and it did. All I remember is talking about the Super Bowl LOL! I know I said a lot more as he was asking me things; I just CANNOT remember the questions or my answers.