Twilight Sedation

Early tomorrow morning I'm going back to the pain clinic for a medial branch block in my lower back. (Basically, they inject drugs into the space around the nerves to help reduce the inflammation, and hopefully the pain.) While my spinal cord stimulator does wonders for the CRPS pain in my arm, unfortunately the mechanics of it are such that it can't help my back. So my doctor and I are still trying to find something else that will. (Fingers crossed.)

When performing procedures, the docs at the clinic use what they call twilight sedation. Unlike being "knocked out" with regular sedation, this way lets you be aware enough of what is going on to still communicate with them, but relaxed enough to not be bothered so much by all the needles that they're poking you with.

Before one of my previous procedures, I was explaining to my husband what they were going to be doing, and he asked if I was going to be sedated. I said that they would be using twilight sedation, to which he replied, with a completely straight face, "So, what, they just put the movie on for you and it puts you to sleep?"

You just have to love a man that can make you laugh when you need it the most. Because even though I've been through these procedures plenty of times, I still can't help getting a little nervous before each one. Problem solved. Now whenever I go in to have something done I don't think about being nervous, because I'm too busy picturing this.