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Spinal Steroid Injection....YIKES!!!


BottomHeavyKate

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Had 2 of them in December. Not a big deal, as was said above, definite pressure but not any real pain and I had no after effects. Unfortunately they didn't help me either.:cry:

 

As a back sufferer I feel your pain. I've had 3 back surgeries on L5-S1 ending with a fusion 4 years ago. It's doing fine but now the level above (L4-L5) is going bad. I'm going for another MRI then it will be time for a micro-discectomy, which fortunately is a relatively easy operation to recover from. The fusion on the other hand is a biotch!

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Lumbar Epidural Steroid Injection....


Anyone get one of these? I'm getting one next week and I got the willies big time


:cry:

Yep. On 3 different occasions. What's the problem. You play bass and like to discharge big guns at the firing range. For a tough gal like you, this is nothing. I didn't get the "headache" they warn about after any one of them. Follow the Doctor's orders and rest afterward.

 

In my case they didn't solve the problem.

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I had 3 in my neck many years ago, say 5 or so? Also, had two in the L5-S1 region last summer-fall timeframe, and am going in tomorrow for another one. It's not that bad. They give you a bit of a med to put you in twilight, and numb the area well. You feel pressure, not pain. For me, the worst is being awake while fasting for hours. I'm dying for a cheeseburger when it's done!

 

However, on to your back...

Surgery is not necessarily the evil some PT's and chiropractors sell it to be. IF you have numbness, and it doesn't go away, or PT or ch makes it worse, then there is damage being done to the nerves on a permanent basis. The longer the damage goes on, the greater the extent and the more permanent it is. I went through this with my neck. IF I had undergone surgery about a year or more earlier, with the first sign of trouble, first, they would have addressed the second disc that blew out before it happened, and second, none of the damage would have been nearly as severe or permanent.

 

This is from my experience, neck and back, over 15+ years.

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Had 2 of them in December. Not a big deal, as was said above, definite pressure but not any real pain and I had no after effects. Unfortunately they didn't help me either.
:cry:

As a back sufferer I feel your pain. I've had 3 back surgeries on L5-S1 ending with a fusion 4 years ago. It's doing fine but now the level above (L4-L5) is going bad. I'm going for another MRI then it will be time for a micro-discectomy, which fortunately is a relatively easy operation to recover from. The fusion on the other hand is a biotch!

Same here. Had a S1-L5 fusion in '06 and am having trouble again. Just had facet joint injections last Friday. (Also had cortizone injection in the disc a few years back.) The worst of it is when they actually do the injecting. That made me feel uncomfortable.....but not much pain to speak of. Nothing to be afraid of.

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Yup.


And chiropractic is working great so far.


Seriously, glad surgery has worked out for you. I just heard too many horror stories, so I'll avoid the knife any way I can.

 

I jumped on the surgery for both of my feet a couple of years ago. $40,000 for not significant improvement? I don't think so.

 

I'm not ruling out surgery but I want to exhaust other avenues first. I tried chiro for a year with no improvement so not it's PT. We shall see what happens next.

 

I feel like an old lady tho :o:cry:

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I jumped on the surgery for both of my feet a couple of years ago. $40,000 for not significant improvement? I don't think so.


I'm not ruling out surgery but I want to exhaust other avenues first. I tried chiro for a year with no improvement so not it's PT. We shall see what happens next.


I feel like an old lady tho
:o:cry:

 

I've been feeling pretty blessed. I was in total agony the 2nd wk of January thru the end of the month. After a couple weeks of chiro, the pain reduced significantly. A few weeks later the pain was gone and only very minor discomfort remained. The numbness freaked me out, but it's almost completely gone now.

All the best to you, BHK. All I can say is follow the Dr's orders to the 't'...rest means rest. Most recovery failures are due to patients doing their own thing.

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I'm pretty big into chiro too. I would suggest trying that before surgery as well. I dropped 12 feet onto my left shoulder and couldn't straighten my neck or lift my head. 3 or 4 months of working with a chiropractor and I was back to normal.

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I'm pretty big into chiro too. I would suggest trying that before surgery as well. I dropped 12 feet onto my left shoulder and couldn't straighten my neck or lift my head. 3 or 4 months of working with a chiropractor and I was back to normal.

 

 

And that's the point- you have to work with the chiropractor. When he told me to "ice" my back, it wasn't a suggestion. Fortunately, I disregarded his order for only a week. After a week of icing, the improvement was drastic. Same experience w/stretching exercises. When he recommended therapeutic massage, I scheduled it the next day.

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I've had so many injections in my back I've lost count. The first one was kinda freaky, a bit of pressure, then my legs went numb, I couldn't feel my feet for hours. Helped with the pain for a bout 6 months. I've also had them in my hips, knees and ankles, but the Spinal epidural with cortisteroid inject was the most fun, cause it really stopped the pain for the longest.

 

Spinal arthritis with problems from the T-5 - S-1. facet arthropy with osteophite growth and dessication of the discs from T5-S1 with buldges in L5 L3 and dislocation of the T5 and L2. Surgery is not an option for me until it's pretty far gone.

 

You'll do fine, but be careful of what the PT has you doing, don't want to make it worse while you can't feel it as much.

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