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| Post Info | TOPIC: Epidural Steroid Injections for disc-related pain |
| Posted By: Dinah S. Posted On: Nov 4, 2004 Views: 443 | Epidural Steroid Injections for disc-related pain Figured if you were responding to this poll you might be looking for tx of nerve-related pain caused from DDD and/or a ruptured/bulging disc. ME scoliosis 70/45 pre-op and 60/30 post. Surgery 1983 (age 19) w/ Harrington rods. Moderate (level 4/5) daily neck & back pain by 1990; severe (7/8) by 1995. Took me ten years of having undiagnosed DDD, osteoarthritis and bulging discs at C4/5 and C5/6 before I got some real help. Orthos are great for surgery but they have no clue when it comes to the complex, multi-source chronic pain that scoliosis patients can get years after surgery and that they'll have to live with the rest of their lives. Board-certified Pain Management docs are M.D.s with extensive training in chronic pain. They know more about back pain than any other doctor I've met. NERVE PAIN SYMPTOMS Nerve-related pain from a "bad" disc can be stabbing, searing, dull, achy, zinging (like a mild funnybone hit), pinching, shooting, etc. In the last couple of years, I've also developed numbness and tingling down my right arm into my hand. For the last 5 years, I've been getting ESIs (Epidural Steroid Injections) a couple of times a year. The steroid is injected into the nerve root that is the origin of the pain. You are under "twilight sedation" (Versed), so you not only don't feel anything, you don't remember anything, either. Since the steroid is injected locally, you don't have any of the side effects associated with oral steroids. The steroid decreases the inflammation around the nerve so it isn't being constantly triggered. These get my neck/shoulder pain down from an 8+ (daily) to < 3 (daily). Once I started getting the nerves for both discs done, it also decreased the amount of numbness & pain in my arm, hand and fingers. In my case, I get a set of two injections two weeks apart and then I'm good for 6 or 7 months (last time worked for 9 months!). It took some experimenting with my doc to figure out the right combination of treatments that would work for me. Know this is long, but hope it helps someone else. BTW - with a T2-T10 fusion, I ski, hike, ww raft, skydive (it's actually a very soft landing) and paraglide. If you relate, you need to find the article on "Scoliosis Overcompensation Syndrome". I can't find it on the 'net anymore, but the basic theory is that people who've had to overcome the physical, mental and psychological junk that goes along with scoliosis (and possible life&death decisions early on in life) wind up being "adrenaline junkies" and "overachievers". The article had about 30 personality traits (I think there were 2 or 3 that didn't really fit me). |