Back Pain Support Group
Back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek medical care. In fact, about 3 in 4 adults will experience back pain during their lifetime! The term back pain includes pain affecting the neck, midback and low back. Acute back pain may begin suddenly with intense pain but typically lasts fewer than three months. Usually, chronic back pain is persistent, steady, and...
I started experiencing leg pain in December in my lower leg front/shin bone. I had testing done of my back and leg. The leg showed a bunch of cysts in the bone. My back has bulging discs in L2L3 and the L5. My regular dr has referred me to a pain clinic which is great except one thing..I have to pay the first 500 of my deductible and the emg is going to cost about that much, maybe a little less. They said they could bill me for the test but would not do any needed injections until I paid the for the test. They aren't very willing to work with someone who is in severe pain..how nice..
But my question is this....
1. Do injections in your spine work or is it just a temporary and expensive bandaid??
2. How often do the injections need to be repeated?
3. Is this a safe procedure??
Thank you for your help!!
But my question is this....
1. Do injections in your spine work or is it just a temporary and expensive bandaid??
2. How often do the injections need to be repeated?
3. Is this a safe procedure??
Thank you for your help!!
1. They may work but not always. For me, 100% have not (I have had 16), my wife's have worked for a few weeks or months and she has had them repeated. Very seldom are injections considered a fix. They are expensive depending on your insurance.
2. No way to know. Maybe often (few months) maybe never.
3. I believe that they are considered safe and routine. However, it is an invasion procedure done in an outpatient hospital so they have all the standard risks.
Personally, if your finances allow, I would go for it since the alternatives are much less attractive.
Good luck in whatever you decide.
Some other things to consider are things like psychical therapy, chiropractors, acupuncture, bio-feedback, and other non-invasive procedures. All may help, or not, or make things worse.
BTW - - You mentioned going to a pain clinic. I went to a 30 day outpatient chronic pain clinic a little over a year ago. Their goal is not to cure your problems, but help you live with the pain. So their plan is usually a lot of PT, mixed with other therapies like some I mentioned above. In my case, it was a 30 day program, 8-5, everyday (but if needed you could take a day off to take care of other business), and all of the other patient's bills were being paid by Works Comp. The costs were $1,000/day and my insurance co-pay was $100/day. It was interesting to see how the other patients took the program not having to pay a cent vs. me paying $100/day. Like I said, their goal is to try to get you to the point where you can live with the pain and have a normal life, or as near as possible. They also really pushed all patients to reduce, or stop, taking narcotic pain medications. IMO, they pushed that last goal way too hard leaving many in severe pain, or feeling like failures if they could not. One thing that I thought was odd was that getting off narcotic pain medication was considered great, but many had to switch to high doses of NSAIDs to do this. Did they ever look at the side effect profile of NSAIDs? They are really as dangerous, more dangerous IMO, than opiates. It was an interesting experience though, but a waste of money for me.
Trust me, I really understand your frustration, there are no good solutions to back problems, and a whole lot of bad ones.