C
clipford
Guest
Hello,
I'm posting in the hopes that I can help someone else who is going through this. We believe that my husband contracted a spinal infection after receiving an epidural spinal injection for leg pain. He had a laminectomy for spinal stenosis on the right side back in March of 2010. He initially had some left leg pain after the surgery which somewhat subsided. He went for an injection to try to eradicate the leg pain on April 29th. It seemed to work but 2 weeks later he started having back pain which he didn't have before. He also got a headache which wouldn't go away. We started stretching and doing exercises but it just kept getting worse. One night he collapsed and couldn't move until muscle relaxers and pain meRAB kicked in.
We went to the Dr. as soon as we could get an appt ( 3 days later) and he thought it was muscle spasms and gave him more pain meRAB and muscle relaxers and asked that we see a chiropractor that might be able to help. A week later the pain was so bad for 3 straight days (and a holiday weekend) that we went to the ER. I had done a lot of research and suspected spinal infection. I wrote them a timeline of events before we went and even wrote down the fact that I thought he had an infection. They wouldn't read the timeline and acted like we were oxycodone addicts... gave him a shot, took xrays, and sent us home.
At this point, I was very concerned. He didn't have a fever... but my husband doesn't tend to run fevers and it's not uncommon for a fever not to be present. We tried a trip to the chiropractor. It was so painful that they couldn't do anything at all. Terry couldn't lay on the table or sit or stand without pain! I went to the Dr's office the next day with my timeline and spoke to the nurse to try to get someone's attention that this was a serious issue. They ordered an MRI that night (what an ordeal getting him there and going through that)... the next day we finally received a call from the doctor and he indicated that he saw fluid build up pressing on the spine. I asked if it could be puss and he said that it could be. He admitted him to the hospital that night and they next day he performed surgery.
Sure enough... it was a spinal infection which attacked his disk (discitis) between the L4 and L5. The disc was completely liquefied. He cleaned everything out and closed him up. We are now post surgery for 7 days and he's still in a lot of pain. He's got a lot of left leg nerve pain. He'll be on intravenous antibiotics for at least 8 weaks. He's taking 3 different kinRAB. They haven't been very successful with the cultures but one indicated that it was an anaerobic organism which wouldn't be typical staff or strep type infection.
I encourage people to think twice before going for an epidural injection. If you have any concerns about the place giving you one... run away. I would encourage stretching and muscle building... anything to avoid surgery or an injection.
I would also encourage people to do research on their own. These forums are great places to gather information and I was able to determine that he had an infection based on his symptoms and the information that I found on the internet. I don't think that doctors have the time to really listen to patients these days and they get so used to the "normal" scenario that when something unique shows up they aren't ready for it. Infection is dangerous and it could have started attacking other parts of his spine or brain! Scary Scary stuff.... we are still not out of the wooRAB. We are hoping that the medication is working but the pain is still so bad that we don't know for sure.
They are hoping that his spine will fuse on it's own. If it doesn't or the leg pain doesn't subside, he may need another surgery. They wouldn't be able to do that until he's healthy again. I imagine they wouldn't want to do it until next year.
I'm posting in the hopes that I can help someone else who is going through this. We believe that my husband contracted a spinal infection after receiving an epidural spinal injection for leg pain. He had a laminectomy for spinal stenosis on the right side back in March of 2010. He initially had some left leg pain after the surgery which somewhat subsided. He went for an injection to try to eradicate the leg pain on April 29th. It seemed to work but 2 weeks later he started having back pain which he didn't have before. He also got a headache which wouldn't go away. We started stretching and doing exercises but it just kept getting worse. One night he collapsed and couldn't move until muscle relaxers and pain meRAB kicked in.
We went to the Dr. as soon as we could get an appt ( 3 days later) and he thought it was muscle spasms and gave him more pain meRAB and muscle relaxers and asked that we see a chiropractor that might be able to help. A week later the pain was so bad for 3 straight days (and a holiday weekend) that we went to the ER. I had done a lot of research and suspected spinal infection. I wrote them a timeline of events before we went and even wrote down the fact that I thought he had an infection. They wouldn't read the timeline and acted like we were oxycodone addicts... gave him a shot, took xrays, and sent us home.
At this point, I was very concerned. He didn't have a fever... but my husband doesn't tend to run fevers and it's not uncommon for a fever not to be present. We tried a trip to the chiropractor. It was so painful that they couldn't do anything at all. Terry couldn't lay on the table or sit or stand without pain! I went to the Dr's office the next day with my timeline and spoke to the nurse to try to get someone's attention that this was a serious issue. They ordered an MRI that night (what an ordeal getting him there and going through that)... the next day we finally received a call from the doctor and he indicated that he saw fluid build up pressing on the spine. I asked if it could be puss and he said that it could be. He admitted him to the hospital that night and they next day he performed surgery.
Sure enough... it was a spinal infection which attacked his disk (discitis) between the L4 and L5. The disc was completely liquefied. He cleaned everything out and closed him up. We are now post surgery for 7 days and he's still in a lot of pain. He's got a lot of left leg nerve pain. He'll be on intravenous antibiotics for at least 8 weaks. He's taking 3 different kinRAB. They haven't been very successful with the cultures but one indicated that it was an anaerobic organism which wouldn't be typical staff or strep type infection.
I encourage people to think twice before going for an epidural injection. If you have any concerns about the place giving you one... run away. I would encourage stretching and muscle building... anything to avoid surgery or an injection.
I would also encourage people to do research on their own. These forums are great places to gather information and I was able to determine that he had an infection based on his symptoms and the information that I found on the internet. I don't think that doctors have the time to really listen to patients these days and they get so used to the "normal" scenario that when something unique shows up they aren't ready for it. Infection is dangerous and it could have started attacking other parts of his spine or brain! Scary Scary stuff.... we are still not out of the wooRAB. We are hoping that the medication is working but the pain is still so bad that we don't know for sure.
They are hoping that his spine will fuse on it's own. If it doesn't or the leg pain doesn't subside, he may need another surgery. They wouldn't be able to do that until he's healthy again. I imagine they wouldn't want to do it until next year.