cervical epidural injection and side effect

Irecently had a cirvicle shot in my neck and after two weeks I had gained 10 lbs. I had went to the dr and my thyroid was off so much he asked me if I was taking my meds as I do not have a thyroid. I was curious if the weight gain is a side effect from the shot or is it that I have to increase my med I have already have been on increased med for a monthand Im getting chunkier each day

I had 2 cervical epidurals last year. I have been gaining weight which is disconcerting but I am more concerned about the change in body temperature regulation. I was ALWAYS the cold one at work (I'm 55). Now all it takes is for me to have the sun hit my face briefly or to be in warm room or to have a scarf or turtleneck up around my face and I turn bright red. I am hot most of the time. My face burns when it's just touching my pillow. I've been to a dermo and gyno who are scratching their heads. It began after my second injection. I asked the Dr. who gave me the injection if this symptom was related and he said he'd never seen it. Anyone else have this???

Bonnie

I have had 2 spinal epidural injections. this did not help with my pain. I was told the problems were stemming from my neck. I did had a Cervial Epidural injection was in bed for two days aferward for tiredness, fatigue and leg cramps. When I went for a follow up two weeks later to my Anesthelogist I gave him a long list of my side effects. Hot all the time, perspiration dripping down my neck,hair wet, shortness of breath, easily tired, bruising on arms, blurry vision, sensitive to light, can not see in the dark, teeth sensitive to cold, teary almost anything, short term recall bad, base of hands hurting, unable to wear a small necklace, unable to bear any amount of weight around my neck, swollen left ankle and leg after working all day ( Data entry and research). easily frustrated, face broke out in pimples, skin turning lighter in color, weight gain of 15 pounds, My Doctor said he had never heard of these side effects.(some one has). Had my eyes tested by a Specialist was told the injection cause cataracts. I had cataracts but not that bad, now must have them taken out in September, 2010 due to loss of vision. Can not drive at night. Takes too long to focus. Cramps in legs and feet. Feet point outward, toes curl. I have jumped out of bed and walk for over half an hour. This is what I did on my own!! I take B-complex for the tiredness, bananas and drink water for cramps, toasted Wheat Germ for added postassium also melons. I have my Air Conditioning and floor fans on at the same time. Leave bruising alone, Vitamin e- oil on the pimples. This gets me to work. At home I am unable to manage. Too tired.

Cortisone is a serious steroid so yes it causes weight gain and a lot of other weird things.I've had 3 in my lower back which weren't bad but I just had one in my cervical spine that was a horrendous ordeal and painful. The anesthesiologist must have hit a inflammed nerve about 3 times or a bone. I was a wreck when I got out of there and will probably have to have 1 or 2 more.

going for an evaluation of cervical epidural on 9-13 for herniated disc at c5 and c6 ....in a lot of pain...fell at work...i need help please...i dont know what to do...pt made it worse. thanks

had my first epidurals 2003 worked great except after second injection i went from116lbs to 150lbs.first year lost 10lbs three more years
before the rest left. ihave had the injection twice since then ,but would only take one each time not a series.they last from one to two yrs.
just had one and had another strange reaction comming out of sedation, my bolld presure went sky high 200/90
headach you wouldn't believe.blood pressure brought down with medication, but kept going back up, headache
and muscle and joint pain for nearly two days. I hope this last because that was scarry my weight stays around
123 which I can live with.I'm small boned have always been thin I do look better with a little weight,But 150lbs was miserable!!

hello

i am two months after having had 5 epidural steroid injections. three were in the low back and two in right hip for arthritic hip(guess he figured while i was there do it all. i understand they were to split the dosages up so i would not be recieving too much.....but i really have no idea and do not trust them now for any info. for they do not know of any idea why i am having a problem now.


besides all pain back by week three now i have stomach pain .....headaches.......shaking internally.....like a vibration....if you lay close to me quietly you can feel it like a small moter running.....and the general feeling bad like i had the third day after injections ....now every day...



third day after i just generally felt really bad all over.....fourth day stomach hurt and hadmigraine headache which went away after lasting three days.

fifth day returned to work and nausea set in. by that night throbbing in the stomach area was intolerable....booming heart beat.

got thru the week eating oatmeal and taking hydrocodone (vicoprophen) and trying much natural things......dr's male nurse only could offer it was the hydrocodone upsetting my stomach.....never have i had it before and i am a five year user of advil (600 to 800mg daily) for my inflammation. I always ate banana's and such to coat the stomach and have never had ill affects from advil that were felt.
i somewhat have always used the vicoprophen but like one for one or two days a week just to get out of pain on my days off from work.
so i have only been using the vicopophen daily when the pain got out of control waiting for the steroid injections two months ago.....have only taken 2 daily before the injections and after the injections 1 daily and now 1 daily for all the pain is back....it's as if i never had the steroid injections pain wise......just maybe some peripheral pain is aleviated....not much.....there are much more details

anyway stomach has persited to be the main problem ...ended up in er after trying DGL for three days......they didn't help either but did rule out major organs with ct scans and have done a follow up with a very good stomach dr. she started me on a pill to regulate stomach acid and carafate which was a life send.....immediately felt better with the carafate. so she scheduled a stomach scope expecting to find ulcer but found none......deudonal was inflammed and was swollen and the throbbing was it pressing on the arota (sp?)artery. three weeks felt great stomach wise but now all seems not to be working......headaches have returned they come and go.....i have not taken any advil except for small amount that is in the vicoprophen which ain't much.....so my inflammation levels suck. i have tried much natural to no avail but back to the stomach......with the headaches returning and stomach also what to do......i tried two days off the carafate but had to return to it.....for even though it seemed to feel bad it was worse without it (throbbing)and pain. tried three days off pill for acid reduction and just started it again yesterday after spending the whole day nauseated at work.

i am shakey feeling inside (trembling) stomach throbbs on artery when it wants to.....feel nauseated today ......i have so much gas and some pain is from that.......taking plenty of fiber for the carafate constipates horribly but why is it not working like it did......sigh
taking plenty of probiotics and such

headache is unbearable when it hits......then all starts up.....is there nothing to do for the side effects of these ESI's other than wait.....i am in so much pain i cannot tolerate it.......am seeing my primary care monday and hopefully she knows something......she is a godsend brilliant doctor world known. but then again so were these other doctors....well known......i am so disappointed in the back surgeons no admittion of side effects from these ESI's and his nurse is a buffoon......a doctor should be able to take care of their patient and admit problems that can occur and help if they do.

does nothing help and how long to clear out of the system? thank god i so far have lost weight from the stomach pain and not eating much......unless this too is to come......sigh.

just adding.....i am not one to have headaches.....maybe twice a year.....so this daily is killing me. heck pain being back in hip and back
is bad enough and not able to take an anti inflammatory.......oh tried zyflamend for the inflammtion since not taking advil for i know that will not help the stomach.....anyway nit helped for three days but then headache and stomach returned so i quit it.....no i do not think it triggered it back....it was always somewhat there no matter what i took.....

love and light
to us all
phyllis

Ok really you need to find a new doctor. With C-Spine Injections there can be a number of problems, or new symptoms of an existing condition that may become acute after the injections. Such as a problem with the adrenal or thyroid glands and more. So from your new found symptoms it sounds like you might have a blood clot or several in you system, but since you have mentioned rounding of the face also known as (moon face) and extra hair growth this stands out to me as a lower GI problem. This sounds like tumors on the adrenal glands, or chron's disease. Also these symptoms point out pancreatic cancer. Also very rarely the injection may have caused air bubbles to for in the CSF or maybe even and infection that spread post inj. to the CSF. If you have any of these illnesses prior such as glandural disorders, cancers, DVT, HTN, Heart problems, Diabetes, This may increase more of your chance of side effect or worsening of symptoms. Other factors that may make things go wrong include smoking, drinking more than few times a week, and certain types of medications. My advice is to find a doctor soon as possible the longer your problems persist, the more chance of you messing up your body, and treatment difficulty become a higher risk. Things a doctor might do and or should do in this case is, run a battery of tests and diagnostic procedures such as and MRI and x-ray w/contrast to see if there any clotting issues or swelling in the body or bubbles in the CSF, do an LP (lumbar puncture) to test CSF, but first run the following bloodwork a CBC with full diff RBC/WBC, Troponin, a lipid profile, GTT, ESR, BMP, basic chem but first and for most test the amount of cortisol, and a TSH. Hope everything works out and this helps somewhat, also hope your new doctor is smart and takes care of you. As a reminder I given you the advice and diagnosis best to the symptoms you had written. As with anything dealing with human body can be difficult to make a proper dx without seeing a physician face to face, that is why i didn't list all the possible dx (diagnosis) and tests. Hence the reason I will not list any tx, or rx that may help, These are the top ailments that came to the top when reading your symptoms. Although there are many, whatever the problem is could be very minor. It's just best in the medical field to assume the worst and hope for the best, to make sure all bases are covered. Please keep me updated as to what happens.

Has anyone else ever gotten nervous, jittery, and tremors, like you drank too much caffeine after the steroid injections? I had facet joint injections five days ago, and I have been shaky and a bundle of nerves ever since.
June

Hi I had an curvical epidural last Tuesady Oct 19th 2010. The procedure itself was easy as pie , by the second day my face turned as red as a tomato and I felt like I was on fire from within . Within 4 days I lost my taste buds and developed terrible heart burn . I called the Hosp where they did the shots and they said these were not side effects from the injection . By the 6th day I developed severe mouth sores , again I called and again was told they were not from the shot . I looked it up on line and guess what ? It is listed as a possible side effect , so the next day I called back and informed them of what I read , at which time they told me to rinse with baking soda , I still feel like my insides are on fire and was told "I'm at that age " Almost 2 weeks later , and I had a Diflucan on hand so I took that but I feel like my throat is closing up , not sure what to do . I do not have a family DR and the Hospital is completely useless . Anyone have any suggestions? Oh also my neck feels no better , infact my whole body is achy . I too have developed an extreme fondness for food , even tho I can't taste it !

i am going in for this shot because the says i have inflamation in my cervical spine. i read and reread my x-rays mri's not one sys inflammation. i have herniation and bulging disca from my c3 c6 area these even go into my spinal canal. i do not think this is thr roght treatment i know and believe that i need to have cervical traction to open these areas so my disc can get in the right area. my side affects from these are numbness in my right arm with sever weakness to also with terrible pain i can feel my muscle tighten up causing bulging in my neck. heating pads help somtimes. i don,t understand these doctors who do treatments that to me do not help spmeone please help me with this decisition.

I have had a total of 3 injections over 9 years or so. The last one  - 3 years ago made so many things worse; I refused or dodged the issue with current pain management doctors and have switched doctors to getting away from having to have injections. Well, I am on medicare, they seem to have me in their target. So they held the medications over my head saying that they had to do something proactive (I believe due to not only the DEA but the clinic wanting to gain additional billing for antithetic procedures.) The out come: now I have severe numbness in left hand particularly palm and last two fingers, also in other hand, but not as severe. Now I have to go for a "NCS" and an MRI, which none of this would have happened if they just stayed the course with medications due to my diagnosed degenerative disc disorder. I am wondering if there should be a law suit involved or at leist an investigation as to why these punctures; which are known to cause scaring, and other unknown side effects, the drug companies have disclaimed themselves which are the drugs they used to shoot you in the target pain area. The last shot was 10+ pain. I cried, and could not get control of my self even after walking out of the office; it was a horrifying, traumatic experience and now this. I am a graphic designer and a can hardly type anymore due to the reckless usage of this treatment. It should be banded. Is there a class action site that I can join, what can I do as I need the med's for the pain which is now more severe than ever after the shot! They act like I don't know anything, well I do know my body and I am not ignorant to what they are doing to me. Like i mentioned I believe here, that I tried to avoid having an injection for a very long time. I have read and heard of some people that the shots do help, but they don't have popped disks either. I am hopeless as to what to do. The doctor eagerly suggested I do another Bursa shot, which I really don't need, but I believe this place is just crooked and have numbers to meat, so if they can bill me (insurance, medicare in my case - $1000 ish) for this shot, they are happy happy can plan there next cruise while we are suffering and truly trying to get to the bottom of it, I would like also to be med free but am waiting for the new surgery where they put a fake disk in your neck instead of fusion, which in itself cause scarring and other bad side effects. I have been reading up, and the pharmaceutical companies are saying that their drugs (steroids) should not be used for this injection. I want to say educated, I don't know what these money seeking doctors are doing, they seem to be doing me harm that good. It was fine as long as it was just very low does opiate medications. I live in Southern Ohio, so if  anyone out there is a lawyer or a doctor and knows how to respond to this,  I would really appreciate it. I am doing the MRI, no harm.. and the other NCS; for whatever, but that is it. I want just meds or to be healed. And I think it is my right as a patient not to do an operation that isn't very good when I can hold out for a few years for the FDA to approve the latest surgery that is supposed to be great for a blown disc. Sincerely, lkh

hello, Today I had a consultation with an orthopedic specialist regarding my C5 and C6.  He recommends that I do the injection and assures me that there are no side effects.  Yeah but they forced me to sign the arbritation form to give up my constitutional rights for a jury trial in the even to malpractice otherwise the doctor wont see me.  So I signed it anyway noting that I was forced to sign it.  With that and reading everyone's post I don't think I'm going to go through it.  what really concerns me is that they force patients to sign that form so that if they screw up your sh** out of luck.  I hope everything here makes the right choice.  Take care and good luck.

I think that you are doing the right thing. And any one else that is afraid of these procedures, believe me; they only offer 3 months maximum relief, it is no cure, it is nothing except harmful. From the research that I have been doing the drug companies that provide the steroids for these shots themselves have provided a clause that they are not recommended for such usage. I have no idea why this seems to be so prevalent. 

I had a cervical epidural about 5 weeks ago....I have gained about 8 pounds...When does the weight gain stop??????