I have not had one - just wanted to wish you luck tomorrow!!!

I didn't go through with it but was supposed to have them. Generally they will sedate you to some degree. They usually use a X-ray device to help locate the correct spot. They will further numb the injection site and then do the injection.

Good luck tomorrow and u hope it works for you.

Good luck tomorrow, should be pretty painless, I hope!
I have to get something like this myself at some point, so let us know how it goes...

I never had one but i worked in an office where these injections are given on regular basis. The amount of pain you may feel from the injection depends on two things - skill of the doctor and how much irritation is present at the site.
Typically the syringe may contain a steroid ( like Triamcinolone ) and an anesthetic ( like Marcaine) . Some people have immediate relief. Some people, who have a very angry site, experience temporary worsening of the symptoms, because there is a bubble of medication injected at the site. Some patients just had soreness, other had leg numbness because the medication was pushing on a nerve, which was already aggravated.
We usually told patients to apply ice to the area for two days if it was very sore and then heat. Once the bubble absorbs into the tissues it should start feeling better.
You may also bring someone to the appointment just in case if you are too worked up to drive after the first shot. Most patients drove themselves and could walk without any problems.
The complications we instructed people to watch out for would be hematoma. Small amount of bruising can happen, but anything bigger than a lime or lemon would be of concern. If someone was really having a hard time, we always asked people to come to the office for recheck the next day.
Majority of patients had no problems at all.

I would definitely ask who you can contact if you have any concerns/questions - name, phone number for the nurse, just in case.

I hope you have a good experience and good relief!!!

Hi, I had this done several years ago. If memory serves me correct (it can be a long shot some days lol). First, you will lay face down on the table. They then drape & sterilize the area. Your Dr will use a fluoroscopic X-ray machine to guide the needles to the correct area. Then using the fluoroscope small needles will inject a numbing medicine usually lidocaine, you will feel a stinging/burning pain. After this longer needles will be used to inject the medicine. I won't lie, I thought this test was painful.

Once the test is done you will go to the waiting room (at least that's what I had to do) and wait around 30min. The nurse will call you back and ask you to rate your pain level. Over the next few days I was told to keep a pain diary in regards to if I was feeling any relief. They followed up a few days later to see if the injections worked. Unfortunately one the lidocaine wore off my pain came back, but that's just me. You can expect the area of the injections to be a little sore for a day or two. I found ice really helped.

I sure hope this works for you. Please keep us updated on how you are doing. I will be keeping you in my thoughts & prayers tomorrow.

Hugs & God Bless
Lisa

It has been about 5 hours since I got home from getting the injection. I haven't had any pain relief yet. I feel the same amount of pain I walked in with. Is this normal? I have iced all afternoon. I hope this wasn't all for nothing. He did say I might not see any relief for three or four days.

Hi megsmom, I'm sorry you didn't get any relief. Unfortunately if you didn't feel any relief from the numbing med chances are the injections didn't work. Normally after getting the lidocaine or whichever numbing med they used before injecting the medicine you would have had at least a couple of hours of relief. Maybe, just maybe with fingers crossed you might notice a difference in a few days.......one can hope, right?! IMHO if you end up getting no relief I hope if your Dr suggests trying again you give it some serious thought before doing so as chances are it won't help.

I sure hope your Drs are able to come up with some ideas. If your pain is pretty much localized to the Lumbar area have you ever thought about getting a pain pump? They would be able to place the leads so that the meds go directly to that area. Also, say if everyday you notice your pain really increase around five o'clock they are able to program the pump to give you a bolus bump (extra pain med). You may also be given a Rx for breakthrough pain....just thought I would throw it out there. Sending up prayers for healing, comfort. & diminished pain. Again, please keep us posted on how your doing.

Hugs & God Bless
Lisa

I have had several and they do work to a point. You will be sore and tender for a few days but ice and meds should help that. It also takes about 2 weeks before you feel any relief.
I have had them in my neck and lower back. I still have some pain but not as much.

best wishes.

Give it some time. You will know in a few days.
Hope you feel better soon

Don't panic yet. I have had facet joint injections, caudals, cervical epidurals and so on. I am a complete woos so I have them put me out. It usually takes 3-5 days before you have relief.

Good luck.

I am so glad to hear that I might have some relief still. It has only been two days. Right now my primary diagnosis is DDD and facet arthropathy. I don't have a herniation according to the MRIs I had in January of 2014, My hip/leg pain is a little rough today, but I don't have increased pain in my SI joint, where I normally have pain. Right now my doctor isn't prescribing more PT, but that is the only relief I have really ever gotten. I will keep you posted. I hope to have some relief in a day or two still!!

Update: I had the second injection yesterday. It was a transforamenal injection and today I missed work even though he said I would be fine because of shakiness in my legs and they felt fairly weak. He said that should get better. They just felt very tired. I hope this goes away. It was kind of scary actually. Plus I felt nauseous. Anyone know if this is normal.

Here's what I found on FDA.Gov and is one of the reasons I'll never have them again.

July 2014
WARNINGS
Serious Neurologic Adverse Reactions with Epidural Administration
Serious neurologic events, some resulting in death, have been reported with epidural injection of corticosteroids. Specific events reported include, but are not limited to, spinal cord infarction, paraplegia, quadriplegia, cortical blindness, and stroke. These serious neurologic events have been reported with and without use of fluoroscopy.

I will repeat...
The safety and effectiveness of epidural administration of corticosteroids have not been established, and corticosteroids are not approved for this use.
My pain doctor's office nurse lied to me when I called and said that it was fda approved for injection into the spine...I called her out on it and she said "as far as they knew it was" I would expect a pain doctor's office to be more informed and updated than "as far as we know" when they're dealing with the part of my body that basically is needed for everything else to function properly!! I filed a complaint.
It should have been my decision to get it done as "off label use" not the doctor's!! They never gave me more than a couple weeks of relief at most. There's an extremely large amount of pain clinics doing them, because they make so much money off them for so little amount of time.

Here's the link:
http://www.fda.gov/safety/medwatch/safetyinformation/ucm409825.htm