|
|
 |
|
Reply
| | | Message 3 of 10 in Discussion |
|
My experience with epidural injections was the exact opposite of what was just posted by franknberrye. Going into the epidural, I was totally happy thinking that it would be a simple cut and dry outpatiend procedure and that it would basically be like "magic" and make the pain go away.
Both of them I had done were outpatient procedures at a surgery center, where they gave me sedation / pain meds via an IV, but I was barely awake while getting the injections. They used an Xray machine while I laid on the table.
The first time, it was pretty fast but I remember constantly being in more and more pain until it was over when they did the injection and the nurse being surprised that the pain meds via the IV in my hand weren't enough.
The outcome of the first epidural was no pain relief whatsoever. They did the injection directly into the effected area in my back and basically my doctor attributed the injection not working because he did it right into the area that was already inflamed. Basically I walked around with a softball feeling in my back for about 2 weeks. My pain got worse, like I said and I experienced no relief.
The 2nd injection about a month or 6 weeks after the 1st one was going to be "different". This time instead of injecting right into the affected area, my doctor was going to do what he "normally" did and run a catheter from my lower back up into the affected area, using the xray machine etc.
The time came for the procedure and I happened to be prepp'd and given my IV right next to the room for the procedure, and I got to hear the guy that was in there before me screaming his head off in pain. This made me really want to run out the door thinking "oh boy this is going to hurt 1000 times worse than the last one". So, go time came and I went and laid on the table and was given some sedation meds and pain meds as well. Basically, to make a long story short, the next 45 minutes or so was me screaming the entire time on the table because my doctor couldn't seem to feed the catheter up my back and the entire time the nurse kept giving me more and more and more pain meds in the IV in my hand. I mean at one point I felt the cathetor coming out of the my right side of my back (way from from the spine!). After 40 minutes of me screaming in pain my doctor decided to go like 2 vertabrae away from the affected area and do the injection. He succeeded in doing the injection but little did I know what i was in store for.
Let me put it lightly by saying that I woke up the next morning basically feeling like someone took a large knife and scraped the heck out of my lower back as well as stabbed me multiple times in it, which is almost esentially what they did. The area where they tried to insert the catheter and run it up my back hurt so bad I could barely sit up for about 2-3 days without massive pain.
Again, I had the softball effect into the area where I had the injection too. The doctors words were "you have the most different anatomy than anyone I've ever seen in my life". (appearantly what he had told my stepmother about a different procedure he failed at doing with her 3 or 4 years prior.).
So in closing, if I had the choice of getting one again, I'd be cautious but probably go for it, because if it does work, the positives outweigh the negatives by miles, but don't get your hopes up thinking you'll be cured. Just remember that everyone is different, and we all respond differently to treatments etc.
On top of that, I'm type 1 insulin dependent diabetic, so I had to deal with messed up blood sugar from the epidural injections each time for about 4-5 days or so afterward becasue the stuff they use to inject is very syrupy/sugary substance, just in case you may be type 1/2 diabetic. At any rate I wish ya good luck gettion one of these things. Boy, I'd still give anything for one of those things fto work like they say for 6 months!!!!
Good luck,
~Phil |
|
|
|
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
Prev Message
