Had one this morning in my fucked ankle. The procedure was as follows;
Quick clean with a wipe.
Quick blast with a very cold spray.
Slight scratch as the anaesthetic goes in, feeling of mild pressure.
More pressure as the steroid goes in. After a few seconds, the pressure builds and it becomes uncomfortable. You remind yourself to stay still.
If it's very inflamed, you say some rather rude words because a swollen joint is technically more swollen now there's extra fluid been added to it.
All done, you get a plaster on it.
As you're putting your shoe back on, it hurts, but a few seconds afterwards, the anaesthetic kicks in some more and the pain fades away.
You limp like hell because of the extra fluid in there.
You feel a bit bruised once the anaesthetic wears off a few hours later.
You feel a lot less pain overall by bedtime.
You rest up the following day.
The first intra-articular injection was horrid, but much easier on subsequent ones because you know what to expect.
If you're very anxious, take your partner and look into their eyes to provide a fixed point and breathe out slowly as the doctor starts.
If you've had an epidural before, that pressure in your back is the maximum you'll feel. Obviously, im injections are far more agreeable, but if it's one joint that's causing the problem or you've already had quite a few of those, they're more likely to want to concentrate the steroid in the most inflamed part, rather than affect the rest of the body.
They aren't my favourite thing to do of a Thursday morning, obviously, but it's worth it in my experience - except for the ones for plantar fasciitis, especially when there are multiple spots of damage and pain. They're absolute bastards and are far less successful. I'd always opt for a removable cast for months and then hard orthotics over having a needle moved around whilst still inside your foot over ever having one of those again, as they did stop the pain where it touched, but that just meant the other bits took over instead.