The acute pain of the steroid injection was worse than the chronic pain of arthritis. I was glad when the injection was over and done.

My rheumatologist said a localized steroid injection would be better than systemic oral prednisone. I was never convinced. I said it was much easier to increase my prednisone dose.

I had so much joint damage and scar tissue, it was hard for anyone to get into the joint space to do the injection. An ultrasound guided injection was better but I still preferred to increase my prednisone dose.