I am sorry there is undiagnosed pain with your family. the question I have is why does the dr. want to do an epidural without knowing where the pain is coming from? That is kind of like a shot in the dark. Do you have a pain specialist? My pain specialist was the one who got me to get further evaluation, since my infussions were only working for a short time. The underlying problem was still there with the epidurals, it only masked the real issues. I don't know if I would choose to do the proceedure without a real "place" that is causing the pain. Just a thought, because I hate needles alot also...ginnie