Back Pain Support Group

unfortunately, this is a dead end for a lot of people, for some it's the holy grail. the only advice i can give you is to keep trying everything that you can to become pain tolerant(you will probably never be pain free) going for my first epidural in a week.........

Hello littlemiss... To hopefully encourage you...I went through the series then six more injections afterwards for the arthritis that set in. It totally got rid of the buldging disc's - over 5 years now and they haven't come back. After the injections I went for accupuncture - took about 3 months but then in one session I felt the nerve pinching release...wow, it was amazing!!! finally the heavy nerve pinching was gone from my lower back problems. My biggest problem now is my back is soooo tight when I wake up in the morning - but thankfully that goes away after a shower and get things moving. There is hope, keep trying whatever you need until it works...best thing I ever did was focus on the good things life has to offer. Stay positive and before you even know it, things will be better.

UMMM ok I don't think I should have read this yet. I go for my injection in a couple of days and am scared to death (because of a bad experience when I had my daughter), and now I'm reading these posts and hearing that it is very painful and the other problems you experienced. I just pray that its all worth it in the end. I think maybe I'll go find an anxiety group now, lol. Praying for all of you....

Hello Littlemiss,
The epidurals are a combination of anesthetic and steroid and the doctors tell you that they usually take 3,5, maybe 7 days for the steroid to kick in. Often times they will book you for another injection a few weeks after your first one. Although these are generally done with the help of an ultrasound (so the doctor can see your spine) the more information the doc has about the location of your pain, the better. Each location (disc) will affect different parts of your back, hips, legs, etc.
I tried epidurals a number of times in different locations and got minimal, if any, relief. The doctor then tried facet blocks (facets are another part of your spine) and the results were immediate! I was/am so excited! I still get injections as often as my insurance company allows them. I have multiple disc involvement (a blown L-3 and hernited L-4, L-5, and S-1) so surgery is not really an option. When I say that I get immediate relief, I mean that the injections "help" with the pain (nothing totally takes the pain away) and this lasts for about 6-8 weeks. For someone living in chronic pain, you take what you can get! My doctors recommended and tried the RF (radio frequency, or laser) facet injections because these are supposed to last longer than the regular facets. Now these are very painful as you have to be awake/aware of the sensations and have to interact with the doctor throughout the procedure. I lierally got sick on the OR table during this procedure and after going through 45 minutes of torture, the stupid thing didn't even work! I stick to my regular injections and am grateful for any pain relief that I get!
What area of your back is bothering you? The steroid injected right to the site of the problem really should help with the inflamation/swelling. I find that the local anesthetic injections that they give you prior to the epidurals themselves hurt like hell! My doctor usually gives me a script for 10 mgs. of valium prior to the procedure, I also have muscle relaxers to take afterwards if needed as I have a tendency to tense up all of my muscles and sometimes have spasms.
Icing the site for the first 24 hours will help as will taking some ibuprophen or other anti-inflamatory. After the first day I live on my heating pad or use moist heat packs.
I do hope that these help you, they don't work for everyone nor do they last that long, it varies from person to person. I hope this was helpful, xoxoLyn

For anyone considering an epidural, I would demand being put in a twilight sleep with Versed. It gives you amnesia for the event. I had one with no anastheic and I believe I screamed curse words I had never even heard before. Yikes!!! These injecctions did not work for me at all, period. Some people swear by them. You won't know until you try. Good luck.

thank you all so much for your responses. I am seven days post epidural and its starting to work a little in so much as nerve pain in my leg is reduced and the site pain has eased.... bit disappointed its not more tbh.... but beggars cant be choosers as they say.... so perhaps these things can work after all and perhaps the pain endured may be semi worth it... thanks again, xx

i had an epidural and i had blockers or trigger shots. But they made it worse.