Epidural Steroid Injections

[sand52]

I am a male with prodisc implanted at L4-L5 above a fusion by Dr.Delamarter in November of 2006. I have had many problems with legs,abdominal,back, and neck pain with headaches and vertigo. I have spinal stenosis and now a cervical herniation from this operation which I did not have before. and now since I have had to go to another Doctor he is recommending Epidural shots at C4-C6 for the neck and arm pain. Has anyone had these shots and do they work? I am pretty much bedridden now and it seems like things are getting worse. Very hard to sit in any chair or use computer, TV, etc. Will these shots help? How dangerous are they?

[berry]

Hi Sand and welcome to this forum, sorry to read of your ongoing troubles.

I have had two cervical epidurals, the first one did help relieve some of the pain in my left arm for several months but the second one didn't. For some people they are very effective.

There are risks with the procedure, which will be explained by your doctor, but in experienced hands complications are rare. I didn't find the procedure too uncomfortable, the worst part was the local anaesthetic injection (which simply stings a fraction, not bad at all). I also had vertigo and tinnitus and deveolped bilateral arm and hand pains and eventually went on to have cervical Activ C disc replacements....which have been marvellous, my neck moves freely and easily and my arm pains and vertigo have gone completly. Wonderful.

Do you have cervical stenosis or lumbar or both!
Wishing you all the best and let us know how you get on.

Lynda

[Pma_foyl]

Hi Sand,

Sorry to hear about your complications. Can you tell me why you had to go to another doctor? what did delamarter say?

Also, why do you think the complications are "from the operation"?

Hope you find some relief.

P

[cmac]

Sand52,

I am very sorry to hear about the issues you've been having and I hope you eventually find a solution that works for you.

Lynda pretty much summed up the EPI success rate and procedure very well, so I won't reiterate what she said. I will say that I also had 2 injections in my neck for the C6-C7 disk problems I was having and it did not work for me. Again, for some people it works great, I just happen to be one of those where it didn't work so well either. For the procedure, they put me under for both times, so I was not conscious during the injection. I think they can do it with our without anesthesia, but that is what my doctor recommended for mine. I also had to deal with an increased level of pain after the injection for about 2 weeks until it went back the the normal pain levels I was having.

Ultimately, I ended up having a 1-level ADR (Prodisc-C) last Tuesday to hopefully rid myself of the pain I have been going through. So far so good, and I seem to be slowly getting better each day.

I wish you all the best and hope you find some type of permanent relief soon.

Take care,

Cmac

[Don]

Sand52,

Sorry to hear about all of your complications. I had epidural shots in my lumbar spine and they seemed to help a lot with my numbness that was a huge problem in my leg, but it also seems to have been a short lived result. I had the shots last fall and my numbeness slowly decreased to near minimal, but it also seems to be slowly coming back. I had very minimal discomfort although one of the shots hurt like hell for a minute or two, but they added something to numb the pain and I was good after that. Good luck

Don

[snapoutofit]

Hey Sand52,

Interesting that you say you have a cervical herniation as a result of your lumbar surgery. I am 3 months post op from ADR and am now having cervical problems as well. Severe neck pain, left arm numbness and tingling. My stateside doctor said that neck problems are not a result of lumbar problems that its just bad genes. Since he didn't perform the surgery I believed this. I go for MRI next week and suspect that steroid injections will be the next step. PT hasn't worked.

I had the epidural injections on my lumbar spine and they didn't work for me.

Keep me posted. Sounds like we have similar complications.

[B13s]

For some people they help, for me they didn't do anything to improve pain before surgery and the one I had after made things much worse for a month. There is also a risk of quite serious complications - you can reed a bit more here: http://www.burtonreport.com/InfSpine...idHomePage.htm
I was suggested to have ESI again because of the new herniation but decided against it - if things don't improve - I'll rather risk to have another surgery.

[Jessica]

I found that they did not help my herniated disc pain, but did help pain that was generating from another level. I have had two surgeons suggest that they may have long term benefits, though the injection specialists do not seem to agree. Given the choice, I would do them again. I think the risk was worth the benefit.

[tazdell]

Hey Sand52...
I have had about 7 epidural injections over the past 8 years. The first one did nothing. A few years later I tried again and a series of three took the sciatic pain away. I have never had it help back pain but it did help nerve pain for me. The biggest complication I have been told by a doctor was that in the long run too much cortisone can deteriorate joints. I don't know how much is "too" much or if that is even true, but that is what I was told. I wish you all the best, I would at least give the shots a try, it really did help me and is probably not going to harm your body the first few times.

tazdell