Hi Diane, Emla cream is just a numbing gel. It is used by many doctors prior to giving injections or drawing blood. Ryan uses it when he takes his GH shot every night and before he goes in for blood draws. It really does numb the area very nicely. Aside from the tears if we give him a bad stick, we are hanging in there. We go for our first return visit since we began next week so we will know more then. Thanks for asking. I wish you good luck in figuring out the mystery of your missing CAH gene. Ann Carlson is a wonderful person and extremely pleasant to deal with so I know she will do all that she can for you. Please let me know how you make out.