My experience with epidurals was awful. I had an epidural in 95, when I first hurt my back.The Dr that did it punctured my spianl column. I ended up with a spinal headache, having to have a blood patch. After the blood patch I developed mennigitis, my body reacted to my blood. I was hospitilized for two weeks, so this time when I re-injured my back I have refused an epidural. I had the same result from the mylegram, the Dr punctured my spinal column. So needless to say I am very afraid of a future epeidural. I do however know people who have had great results although temporary.

err, this makes me nervous about mine on Friday and I was hoping for some reief, but this sounds like I might not get it. :(

I had epidural and facet joint injections as kasrandra wrote and none of them helped.

I had epidural and facet joint injections as kasrandra wrote and none of them helped.

i had 2 epidural injections. the first one did nothing. i had no pain related to the injection. the second one helped me . i then had p/t for 3 mos. my body was out of alignment. one of my shoulders was higher as well as one of my hips. i got a hunchback and shrunk 2 inches. p/t fixed these problems.
i had no pain for about 6 mos after the p/t. i have some discomfort now but it is still better than before p/t and the shot. i tried massage and chriopractor and the tns but that just made me feel worse. i have a herniated disc and some bulging discs.
i rarely feel well. advil helps sometimes but i can not ocunt on it.

I had a caudal epidural done on March 1st. So far so good.

i had a epidural put into my spine 4 weeksago, and im already in pain again , didnt last long , maybe the second or third dose will help have to wait and see.

The injections only help to maintain you in a minor way. They are not the cure all doctors tell epole they are. I always liked them though. A series of three twoo weeks apart is the best possible treatment. I get the shots into the muscles surrounding the spine also. That is where they do their best work.

I had my first epidural injection back in Mid november. I have severe herniations L3/4/5. It was awesome. I did have some numbness in one foot...however, that faded. Unfortunately, the pain started again last week. Not nearly as bad..but went to ortho who suggested i get another shot. The good news is that it worked the same day. Everyone doesn't have the same positive effect...I was grateful that it worked for me.

MY SURGEON TOLD ME NEVER TO GET THESE SHOTS.ONE OF MY SURGERIES WAS NEEDED BECAUSE OF THEM(THE NEEDLE CREATES SCAR TISSUE).IF THEY ARE DONE WITHOUT FLOROSCOPY,AS SOME CLINICS DO,THEY ARE ONLY GUESSING WHERE TO PLACE THE MEDICATION IN THE SHOT.I'M STAYING AWAY FROM THEM!

SEAN

I have had several epidural injections some have worked great and then others haven't worked at all. Going through the process of getting an epidural is very painful I have never had sedation while getting these and they can be quite painful. And there is some stiffness after the procedure.

My best recomendation is make sure that the epidual is x-ray guided and that the doctor performs this procedure frequently such as a pain specialist or orthopedic specializing in spine problems.

The first one lasted about 2wks, the second hasn't helped at all. I don't think I'm going to get the third that the doc wants to do.

This worked for about 8 days,but the same pain returned and there was pain from the procedure.Not really worth the time and effort in my opinion. But has worked for others.

Epidurals didn't help me either, ended up having the fusion done anyway.

It did not work for me at all the only thing I could tell was I was out more money and still had the pain was scheduled for three had two and the dr. said it was not working I think it was an insurance thing to have it done to try not to have more surgery