Lumbar Epidural Injections And General Back Pain

[Jhardi36]

I just had my first neck injection 2 hours ago. I've had too many lumbar injections to count. The back injections didn't work at first. It took many times to take. The relief I got from the back injections was amazing. I hope I get the same relief from the neck injection. 

 

[Jesse]

Lumbar epidurals work for me too. They only last about two months and I still get breakthrough pain, but I usually---keyword there, "usually"---get upwards of 75% relief from them during that two months. The tricky part is that doctors don't want to give them that often. (I swear, when something works, they decide you shouldn't be allowed to have it anymore!)

I think it depends a lot on the cause of the pain. They're foisting these injections on a lot of pain patients whose conditions aren't appropriate for injections. All it does is put a steroid right into the epidural space. If the problem isn't going to be solved by reducing inflammation around a nerve, then a steroid injection probably isn't an appropriate treatment, but they're holding patient prescriptions hostage to these things for everything from migraines to fibromyalgia. Doesn't matter if you get any relief or not. You want your prescription? Get on the damn table and submit to a needle stuck in you. The patient can't give true consent. It's basically assault by coercion.

I've been screened for surgery, but given how well the injections work for me, surgery wouldn't make sense. Besides, I wouldn't have surgery in the current climate if my life depended on it! Not in the era of "opioid-free hospitals." A lot of places are going "benzo-free" too now, so instead of getting Versed before a colonoscopy, they---I swear I am not making this up; you can Google it---they're playing music.

[Insert joke here about which music you want played while they're shoving a scope up your ass.]

 

[questionsguy]

I just had this done a few days ago (my first one), too early to say whether successful or not but I hear there is about a 50% success rate on them. I get constant muscle spasms in my lower back which etizolam has been easing for me (previous to this injection). 

The injection itself was fairly straightforward and much less painful than i thought it would be, just hoping for good results now.

 

[Nitetrain]

@Jesse you’re absolutely correct about pain management leaning heavily on steroid/epidural/trigger point fluoroscopic injections. My micropolitan area had several pain management practices until 2004 when a highly regarded physician was busted for “overprescribing” opiods.

Overnight there were no docs practicing medicine management but rather they all became “interventional pain management” practices, i.e. injections, spinal cord stimulators requiring invasive surgery to implant etc.

Fast forward to 2019....I’ve been traveling monthly to a large city 5 hrs.driving RT plus appt. time, pharmacy time etc. so it’s an entire day sitting on metal rods screws cages etc. for a script. Drug Insurance companies (CVS ia a major player now and not just a drug store) hires non-medical clerks to intervene in my highly paid anethesiologist and neurosurgeons’ treatment plan to dictate what, when and how much medicine I can have so to hell with the Drs. wishes, right?Are we being held hostage ?

yes indeed....

 

[Nitetrain]

I went down this road years ago.  Docs kept wanting to do more and more facet blocks and the rhiz and the rfa.

Nothing on my MRI.  I did a few blocks, but stopped the docs there.   I could tell they had no real idea what was causing me pain.

I had tried everything ... yoga, doctors, accupunture, chiros ...

Then a friend finally recommended a doctor.  But it turned out to be another chiro.  

I was about to bolt out of his office, when he just started immediately telling me what was wrong with me and why I felt the pain I did.

After one treatment, my facet pain was 80% gone.  I still had plenty of other pain.

Over a couple years of persistent stretching, and treatments I am much much better.

Get away from the pain docs and the surgeons.  Find a good Old School chiro.  One that does deep tissue work as well as the adjustments.

That book is successful because 70% of back problems resolves themselves.  And most by moderate stretching.

However, the true cause of 90% or more of lower back pain (including disc problems) is found in the Sacro-Illiac joints.  They are the massive two joints on either side of you sacrum.  When these joints are not moving ... the surrounding msucles ligaments and tendons (the biggest ones in your body) get shorter and shorter.

That in turn leads to a twisting of the pelvis which then puts strain on the spine.

So either find a good old school chiro ... or at least a truly knoweldgeable PT ... especially one that knows how to deal with athletes.  

You want the kind of guys who can do the major stretching that athletes like football players get from their trainers.

But nothing beats an good Old School chiro ... one who also strips inflammation out of muscles with severe deep tissue work BEFORE moving any joints.

Just a question. Old school chiropractors to me mean “adjustments!”  I’m wondering if anyone’s tried a “activator” chiro? He uses a small metal device with a spring loaded rubber tipped tapping post. It gently “taps” your spine on presser points to stimulate the electrical meridian of the nerve....acupressure. My family members go to them and report miracles. But they have never been referred for surgery.

just curious, thanks!