Much greater pain following a lumbar nerve block......

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J Scott

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Hi. I am looking for feedback from others who have had several lurabar nerve blocks. I have had in the neigrabroadorhood of 8-10 over the last eight years. I have had, over those eight years, lurabar stenosis (corrected with surgery in January 2000), herniated disk (dealt with during that same surgery), and lots of pain associated with those issues. Following that surgery the pain remained and, ultimately, a fusion of L4/L5 was done in February 2003. Throughout this whole period a few nerve blocks were done, with modest success with regard to reduction of pain.

I continued to have the same pain, only more of it, following the recuperation process associated with the fusion. I was sent to a pain management specialist, who has been great to work with and very helpful in getting my pain to an acceptable level. Two summers ago (2006) I began having a "different" pain in my back. Where most of the previous pain had been of the sciatic nature, affecting my right buttock and leg, this was in the sacroiliac joint. Long story short, I had three blocks last years, with the final one really hitting pay dirt. I had roughly five months of relief.

Late last fall the sciatic pain began to get worse and, just before Christmas I had an mri which shows a herniated disk at L5/S1. Today I had a block in that area in hopes of nurabing it up and getting relief. That may well happen. But, in the hours following this morning's nerve block, I have hurt worse than I can ever remeraber with other blocks. In fact, the pain has approached about a nine. It has calmed ever so slightly tonight, to about a seven or eight. Question: Have any of you had a similar experience following a block? I absolutely do not remeraber ever approaching this level of pain before following a nerve block. I'm not sure if this means we hit the right spot and I am about to feel wonderful, or if we hit the wrong spot and my life is about to become considerably less enjoyable.

Any insight is greatly apreciated. Just so you'll know, I am a 55 year old man, in reasonably good health. Thanks for your help!
 
Hi, the only pain i've had after having nerve blocks or epidurals has been soreness & achiness in the area I got the injection, which is normal. They say one may have this for 24-48 hours afterward and that's what happened to me; though this only happened with 2 injections, not with every one i've had. Sometimes I also get a little spasming around the area, but i've personally never gotten worse nerve pain. I've been very lucky in that my blocks and ESI's seem to help me quite a bit with nerve pain. Then again, you've had several surgeries, so maybe something else could be causing the pain, I don't know. I do know there are some other spiney's on here that have also had worsening pain after blocks, so I am sure they will reply and give you further insight.
 
Hi J,
I have had 3 ESI's and 1 sympathetic nerve block and I had increased pain with all of them. It didn't happen the day of the injection but the next day when all the nurabing agents wore off. Then I was miserable for about the next 2-3 weeks (sorry, don't want to scare you but...). None of them helped my nerve pain. There have been others on this board who also had increased nerve pain. Good luck, I hope this works for you long term and that you may just have pain for a few days. Please keep us posted.

Deb
 
Hello, I would be one of those who had severe pain after a block. I had one done in Septeraber of 2007 and have not recovered. I did have back surgery in 11/28 to remove hardware on one side and a double laminiectomy but to be honest my pain has not gone away from the nerve block. My surgery has had no affect on it. I feel very strongly that something went wrong with the injection because when it was given on the table I experienced the worse pain in my life down my leg. I almost came off the table until my surgeon started yelling at me not to move.

Before the block I was on 1 or 2 5-325 percocets. Now I am on 5 percocets 10-325mg daily and oxycontin 2 tab 20 mg. I am still in severe pain.

So yes it can definitely happen and I am praying that this is temporary for you.
 
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