Questions about injections

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Are there various types of injections for back pain or only one? For instance, I see people mention cortisone shots...is that what doctors mean when they mention shots? To be honest, I don't know what kind of shot the doctor meant when he mentioned giving me a shot, but as soon as he answered my one question, I thought no way am I getting any shots in my back! I asked him if it's anything like when you have a spinal tap done, and he said yes. Are the injections like spinal taps? I had one done about ten years ago and swore I'd never have one done again. I had a spinal tap headache (migraine for days after I had it done) and OMG, I felt almost like dying or something. It was horrible! So I called the doctor after so much time of that going by and feeling like I just couldn't take another day of that. He sent me to the hospital to get caffeine IVs, which he said would probably get rid of the headache. Right before the nurse gave me the first one, she mentioned the fact that people sometimes have heart attacks from them! :-O Say WHAT?! She assured me that it was very rare and so I tried to tell myself that it wouldn't happen to me. Soon after that my chest started hurting and the heart people rush in to check me out. I forget what happened in what order, but I know that I was taken down to the emergency room and given nitroglycerin, but later on was told that they thought my reaction to the IV was actually my esophagus acting up (I have GERD). While I was down in the emergency room, my head really felt like it was going to explode and I remeraber screaming bloody murder and throwing up and oh, it was not a good day for me. :( They admitted me overnight and I could hardly sleep because of the headache. I forget what they gave me for it but it did get better by the next day and I was released.

Sorry for the long story, but I wanted to make it clear why I absolutely refuse to have any injections in my back. I hate having this back pain but feel there is nothing I can do about it. We go to a free clinic since my husband lost his job two years ago and we haven't had insurance since then. That doctor says that I'm too young (I just turned 52) for surgery. He's the one who had ordered an MRI (which was paid for somehow) which showed I have degenerative disc disease. I posted before on here about it, so I won't go into explaining it all over again. I had to wait half a year to get in to see a specialist, which I wish I had known ahead of time what he was going to say and I'd have saved the trip. I'm no further ahead now than I was before I went. I don't know if it was because of the fact that we don't have insurance that maybe he was trying to scare me away from getting shots (which they would have done that day). I panicked so much when he said it's like a spinal tap and I even started crying because I can't imagine going through all of that again. I'm really afraid of the pain, and if I'd end up with all that mess again and have to be admitted, we'd be paying on that the rest of our lives. I'm not going through that. So I'm at a dead end, but anyway, I highlighted my two questions to make it easier for you to find them since I typed a lot. Thanks!
 
hi i wanted to say that i had the cortisone injection in my back for l5-s1 disc herniation with a tear in the anulus . well they did a big fat 0 nothing absolutely worthless . and no to mention they give it to you in your cocyx that is where mine was absoultely night mare

a discogram oh my i rather have a baby with a c section any day and the same thing with an IDET i rather have triplets via c section before those my husband heard me screaming in the waiting room with both of those . they are supposed to nurab you up . well i didnt get nurab at all and i felt it and talk about pain . i have a high pain tolerance but since this back injury i feel like a wimp . i refuse to have anymore injections , i refuse to have any more treatment which is not guranteed im at the end of my guinea pig stage either you can help me or you cant so tommorow my work comp has sent me to a new pain management dr when i was supposed to see a neuro for a 2nd opinion . so now im back at square one i really am not thrilled at all because i waste my time and gas to go . ughhh im beyond fustrated but im right there with you about not wanting to get a cortisone injection

i hope your issue is resolved quickly with as less invasion as possible
 
Hi comeonnow,
I am in England and have had back problems for over 24yrs. I had a laminectomy at 20 and another op at 38 on my discs so no way are you not a candidate for surgery.No one likes pain and I can really feal what your going throug. My consultants have tried to give me caudal injections that they failed to get through my spine because of some problems which I am yet to find out. These were done wihout any anesthetic and they were Bloody awful thats putting it midly.Is your pain athritic or do you get nerve pain from them being compressed etc.I am due to se a consultant to have this injection by flouroscope but i must admit i think it will be a short term plan and I am discussing with my Dr and seeing a neurosurgeon to see if a fusion could be done to help stabilize the discs so they dont keep pressing on ll the nerves.
I hope you find some relief and don't give up trying and if need be find anothe Dr/consultant who will listen to you and act upon it.
Good luck and hope you have a restful day.

Tracy:)
 
Please research these subjects... They should help understand your back pain. Degenerative back conditions are more difficult to treat and can be helped by chiropractic and physical therapy, from what i read around the web... injections can and cannot work....

1 Intradiscal Electrothermoplasty (IDET)

2 Radiofrequency Discal Nucleoplasty, (Coblation Nucleoplasty), DISC
Nucleoplasty Percutaneous Discectomy

3 prolotherapy

4 Spinal decompression, with physical therapy

5 Epidural Injections

* caudal block
* translurabar
* transforaminal

6 Facet Injections

7 Selective Nerve Root Blocks/Transforaminal Epidural Injection

8 Sympathetic Blocks

9 Intrathecal Pain Pump (Morphine Pump)

10 Radiculopathy

11 Fluoroscopic guided injections

12 Arthroscopic discectomy

13 Arthroscopic Microdiscectomy

14 endoscopic discectomy

15 Percutaneous endoscopic interlaminar discectomy

16 Percutaneous Laser Disc Decompression was pioneered by Dr.
Peter Ascher and Daniel S.J. CHOY

17 Trigger Point Injections

18 Modalities
 
There are NO back procedures that come with a guarantee. The spine is too complex and there are too many nerves involved for anyone to be able to accurately predict how an individual will react or respond to a particular procedure. :mad:
 
Asya, I have to agree the discography test really sucks, I generally have a high tolerance to pain and since I was originally told they wanted to similate the pain I figured it wouldn't be all that bad and that I would be in a twilight sleep.

Needless to say WRONG!!!! Very mild sedation (in my opinion NONE) I felt every single needle they put in (which this part hurt enough) then the contrast die WHOA and OUCH major time L3-4 I only felt maybe 40% of my normal pain, L4-5 I really felt BIG TIME and sent me crying (even though they said I took it pretty good and handling this) Not in my opinion I am not accustom to crying in the first place, let alone where people/doctors can see. (this is where they found the disc herniation which had a torn and healed again) and the L5-S1 I felt big time as well because this is where the bulging disc is.

He originally or should I say prior to scheduling this procedure that they would wake me up so that they could similate the pain, then I was told that morning of the procedure that I would be conscious and using only mild sedation and that I wouldn't like the doctors. Guess what, I didn't LOL.

Anyways they originally thought discectomy, but trying epidural injections and that I would be nighty night for this procedure. If I go to the other least invasive discectomy (actually had type the name of it in another post but can't remeraber at the moment) 1:30 in the am so brain is kind of foggy LMAO. Then if neither of these 2 procedures don't work then I would be having surgery. I was also told I have only about 50-70% chance of correcting the problem (not very good odRAB). However, at 39 and having fibromyalgia and other health issues I would like to at least have some type of relief as I am so tired and frustrated of being in constant and disabling pain 24/7/365 and things getting noticeably worse as the days go by. I am as you are SO FRUSTRATED it is on real.

Should also add, he had asked me if he could do another needle for comparison to see if there is a difference, I didn't go for it and tho he did understand why not, even today though he told me again the reasoning of why he wanted. But he did also say I do sympathize and I did worn you before that you wouldn't like me, (he was right of course) but since I told him that he did mimic my pain, he felt pretty sure of what we should attempt now based on the discography. I just hope no time soon I face that again. The other procedure (not the epidural,) but the other minimal invasive discectomy I would be still awake, but more in a twilight sleep so I could still tell if he went to far, or hit a nerve or something, but would be considerable more than what I had for the discography. Hope he isn't jiving me, cause that one trully sucked.
 
Hi, the shot you were told about is most likely an epidural steroid injection (ESI). And yes, the needle does get put into the spine. It gets injected into the space that surround the dural covering of the spinal cord and nerves. However, if you get a lower luraber injection, the spinal cord is not there (it enRAB around the 1st or 2nd lurabar vertebrae) What's in the lurabar spine is the "cauda equina" which is a big bundle of nerves that runs off the spinal cord. And from all those nerves run smaller nerves that branch out from the spine. The injection usually contains some anesthetic and a corticosteroid (such as Celestone , methyl-prednisolone, other some others). These meRAB are powerful anti-inflammatories and it floats all up and down the epidural space bathing all the nerves. The hope is that is will reduce the inflammation in there, which can relieve pain. It doesn't work for everyone, though and there are pro's and con's to it.

Cortisone shots, as far as I know, are usually just injected into muscles, tendons, bursa, etc...they don't go into the epidural space. So if you hurt a shoulder muscle, for example, you might get a cortisone injection into that muscle.

Having an ESI, though, isn't always painful. If you ever do get one, make sure the doctor uses fluoroscopy (which is a live x-ray where they can see exactly where the needle is going....this might prevent other problems). Many PM's also will give you twilight sedation beforehand, so you are still awake & talking, but you don't remeraber what happened and it really relaxes your body. I've had ESI's without any pains at all during and after....but since after my surgery, i've had some that were a bit painful, maybe it had something to do with my scar tissue.
 
hi

wow you are in the same boat as me . pretty much . well where do i begin if its the IDET procedure where they take a catherter and insert it and heat it up that is worse then the discogram . much worse imagine your back feeling as if its buring for about 7 minutes its about a 15 minute long procedure but imagine it burning and torture and the meRAB they give you for mild sedation heck forget those just give me tylenol thats pretty much what they are like .
good luck with whatever they are gonna do with you

the new dr i found out didnt get any of my old recorRAB so she put a diagnosis of lurabar radiaculputhy . so this should be intresting and we need to do a new mri with contrast . she wanted to do another cortisone i said NO . im not gonna let someone tell me to do something which already failed. so now i have to wait for the workers comp to approve that she said pretty much nothing she can do other then refer me to a neuro which she doesnt think it will help and im not letting them hack my back open period . i have heard too many horror stories i worked in the hospital too many years to know . also they will do a function test and also a disability rating . new restrictions are no bending no lifting wonder what kind of job i can do with that . NOTHING because even sitting in her office for 3 hours was torture on my back heck if my 6 year old wasnt around to help me when i cook it would be miserable .
 
If the epidural injections don't work, (and starting to feel as though nothing will), but anyways trying it who knows maybe I get some relief. The next procedure will be Percutaneous Discectomy probe ( if anyof our fellow back suffers have any info in regarRAB to this I would greatly appreciate and knowing a bit ahead time what I am getting myself into could possibly be a benefit (though after judging the discography) not to sure anymore. These are the 2 things he will try prior to commiting to surgery route. So I am and guess basically running out of conservitive procedures. I just want some relief just tired of basically exhisting through life and hurting all the time.
 
Baybreeze, I couldnt have explained that as thoroughly as you did! DITTO! As with any injections, it's possible for them to flub up and it mistakenly becomming a spinal, which can cause a leak of fluid and require a patch to be done.

These are not the norm at all. The injections can be painful at times, depending on varying factors, such as the skill of the doctor doing them, the patient's pain threshold, the approach of the injections, the health area of the site being injected, such as scar tissue, tight space, vast swelling, etc. Plus the patient being tense. All these things factor in.

My first one.. very painful because I wasn't not fully nurabed, but I thought it was supposed to hurt that badly, so I said nothing. The second one, the doc asked me a questions about the first one.. and when I explained that it took me over 20 minutes to get to my car.. she felt really bad for me. So from that experience.. I always tell them to treat me like a sissy (even though I am little toughy actually) and to NUrab ME TO THE HILT! Really helps! After my second injections, I went to lunch smiling with my BF and then went shopping afterwarRAB. All my other injections.. I went on my lunch hour from work, and then went right back to work to finish out my day, with my oral meRAB and icepack in tow.

As for you being too young.. shame on the doc for saying that! Seriously. That's ridiculous! It's not an age thing, it's a pain and an interruption of the quality of life thing. Drive's me nuts to hear docs say that to people. I get saying that to truly young people, but IF everything non-surgical has been exhausted, etc.. then surgery may be the last option for the patient, regardless of age.

You have the right to medical care, even if that is through the free clinic. Don't let that doctor push you away because of his wisecracks. Stand up for yourself and demand treament. You are no less entitled than anyone else. The best way you can help yourself is to suck in as much information as you possibly can about the nature of the injury or problem with your spine, the causes and effects of it, possible treatments and get yourself fully involved in working with the doctors about what is next to try and help you. This approach helped me get where I am today. Im 93% improved since my surgery.

Good luck and keep us posted.:)
 
I have had about 5 epidural injections over the past couple years. Knock on wood, but I have never had a problem with them. I am put under with IV sedation and sleep during the whole procedure. I have never felt any pain after and resumed my normal activities the next day.

After the injection, my pain is reduced by about 60-80%. This relief is short lived, but at this point, i will take a few weeks of pain relief.

I am 35 (have had 2 discectomy surgeries) and have been told by two surgeons that I am too young for any further surgery. They have sent me off to a PM to control my pain until I become "old enough" for surgery ;)

I do not know anything about a Percutaneous Discectomy probe, but wish you luck!
 
wow it seems everyone in florida suffers back injuries my back injury happened when i was working in florida helping assist a patient off the toilet .

im glad the pain injections work for you but for me its not an option becuase it keeps adding scar tissue and calicifies the disc to my knowledge . im too young for surgery to i just turned 30 . and now have a life of suffering ahead . but you know i have come to terms with it its what was written for me
 
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