Cervical spine steroid injections

I had a fusion of 5/6 6/7 in 98' and 4/5 in 2000. I now have problems with 3/4, with a recommendation of surgery. I found a sports medicine MD in Napa, CA Approx. 2 years ago I had steriod injections for my cervical psine with fantastic results...but...those results have now worn off. After fighting with my workmans comp providers I am heading in today for another series of injections, which I hope prove as successful.

I am sorry to hear about your experiences.

I hope you are doing better.

I'm sorry to her of your pain. Is it still going on? I believe in your case!!!!

My sister (49 yrs old) had a steroid injection in her lumbar spine on about 8-20-08 and has had more pain than before the injection as well. She cannot sit or stand for long. She trys to keep mobile as too much lying down isn't good either. She's had so much pain that I can hear it in her voice when we talk on the phone (and she's a tough individual). She uses soft ice packs several times a day which provides a small amt. of relief.

Her cervical spine is also injured but she will not have any more injections anywhere. She was hit by a drunk driver late November 2007.

Anyone with ideas on timeline to expect relief or on what to do to relieve this additional pain, please write.

Thank you,
Lynne

I'm a little concerned now. At first docs thought it was a muscle pull and i kept saying it's more. Then they filled me with painkillers (heavy duty narcotics) that did not work. I then had an MRI which 350 dollars later they say was the wrong kind for the neck to be seen. I then met with neurosurgeon who was almost positive (said i was a walking text book) that it was a chipped disc in my neck and would definitely require surgery. So next was a myleogram which showed nothing. Ok now don't get me wrong, i'm glad surgery is off the table but now they say do cervical steroid shots. I just logged into this page while searching to find out more about these shots. My days have not been too awful lately, but today was painful. I don't know what the side affects are or anything and now reading that many have gotten worse, I'm concerned. Any opinions? I know that each person is different but if anyone can give some advice, opinion or experience it would be appreciated...thanks

hello,
My name is donna.
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I have had 2 surgerys in my past. One was the lumbar- 3 fused. The 2nd from a car accident -thoractic- I have 5 fused- so a toltal of 8 dics fused. My surgen- N.Y.C.
I had to wait some time for surgery at one point the tens unit was a dream come true!!
I aquired my 1st tens unit 30 yrs ago- Ill never forget it- I was 19ish-- in the hospital and I acutually fainted!!! when the instucted me on the unit- being so young, and in so much pain. It was devenstating to me- to be hooked up to wires. Well, I got over it real quick--The tens unit to me was my best friend, Real fast, real quick, really easy. I wore it every day for 2 ys. And I was a bartender In a hugh NJ club
Fair warning-

You have to be more responsible wth a tens unit as you are not under the influance of drugs-

there fore- You feel great and are not laying on the couch-

Dont be stupid- painkillers keep you down for a reason- they dont want you do do anything to jeperdise your condition.

Use a tens unit wisely- dont f- yourself up- be responsible for your heath
You can be pain free- but you have to be smart and dont make it worst.

Tens units should be by perscription only- ask your doctor
dont be stupid and dont just e- bay it.

Its covered by insurance.
I suggest the website
EMPI- start there. all the info is there.
Be safe- I have a high energy job also, I must be quick, and not on drugs, but nothing is worth my heath, so I can not stress enough- if drugs are not the answer- then I can not extend enough caution to you.!!You must be extremly careful while using the tens unit- You will not be under the influance of drugs to keep you down- but that does not mean you can do it---------- be drug free- be-carefull- get the info

After reading everyone's posts, I had to add my experiences here. I went to my doctor approx 7 months ago with a sinus infection. I have had chronic sinus infections and migraines for quite some time, so I said to her " Can we do an MRI and see if there's a problem that's causing my sinus infections? And... while we're doing the MRI, I have a stiff neck and this burning sensation in my shoulder, so let's check that out, too."

The MRI showed no problems with my brain or sinuses, but I have a disc bulge at c3/c4 and c5/c6. My doctor recommended a pain management doctor, which was kind of odd to me because I really wasn't having much pain, just stiffness, burning in my shoulder from time to time, and some numbness in my arm, but I went anyway. As it turned out, I have a pinched nerve caused from the disc bulge that is causing the buring.

The pain managment Dr. says that he can help me with a series of spinal injections. I went along with this because I though that the burning and numbness would stop, but it did not. The first injection resulted in severe nerve pain in my hand and arm.. so bad that it hurt to run water over my hand. This continued for about a week after. I also had a postiional headached for about a week, but the Dr. swears that it was not a spinal headache.

My symptoms got a little better after that. One month later, I had my second injection. This time, the Dr. kept the sedation lighter so that he could ask me if the needle was causing the nerve sensation in my arm, and it was. He must have repositioned the needle, which leads me to believe that he caused the nerve sensations that occurred after my first injection.

The series of injections was supposed to be 3 - 4.
He stopped mine after two.. and has been "watching" me for the last 5 months. He has me on 100mg of Cymbalta, 60 mg of Lyrica, Baclafen, and hydorcodone. The lyrica and Cymbalta are supposed to be "erasing" the nerve memory. My condition is now worse than ever. I can never sleep through the entire night. My arms and hands go completely numb numberous times throughout the night. I have decreased strength in both of my hand(s), and when I first started this, it was only one hand.

Instead of thinking that this was caused by the injections, the Dr. now wants me to go to a neurologist to make sure that I don't have MS or something. Well, I am saying no thanks.

I have now seen a chiropractor one time, and I am already better. The Chiro says that I have bone spurs that are pressing into my spinal nerve that are causing the numbness and tingling. My chiro says that it should take about 3 weeks, and I have already made it purfectly clear that I don't want any BS.

I'm not saying that injections are bad and never help anyone, but in my case, I think they were the wrong choice.

Good luck with your course of treatment.

I am on my way in a few hours for my 3rd series of spinal injections. I was in an auto accident and crushed the T-12.....It healed in the crushed position. There is degenerative disc disease present and herniated and bulging disc from the T-12 down......mostly around the L-4 and L-5......the first set of injections was 3 weeks ago.....6 injections.......the another set a week later.......now 2 weeks later the 3rd set. I have felt no relief....NONE. The pain is worse if anything. I can't stand the numbing shots they put in the catheter sites. I dread the whole process. I have been reading up on it and it seems you aren't supposed to have over 3-4 a year. I haven't heard of anyone yet getting them so close together like I am. If I don't get relief this time I am not doing it again. I have been in constant pain for 2 years. I just started going to pain management. Maybe I am being impatient. But I just want the pain to go away.

THANK YOU for posting this! I thought I was going crazy, and the nurses at the doctors office acted like I was crazy too! I have back pain in my low back, and also my upper back between the shoulder blades and up to my shoulders. MRI showed facet joint abnormalities, and disk degradation (I'm only 34, so very unusual). The first visit to the pain management doctor, he did a total of 12 injections, six lower and six upper to treat the joint facet issue hoping that would resolve the pain. It was very slight in the improvement, and only for around 3 weeks or so. I really didn't have any issues or problems after the injections other than the tenderness at the injection site for a couple days. Well, I went back for my 2nd visit just two days ago and since I had minimal relief from where he injected last time, he wanted to try treating the disks themselves with the injections rather than the facet joints. He does the injections using sedation, and I remember starting to wake up from the sedation with the most horrible pain ever in my left arm, just below my elbow. It pretty much jolted me awake it was so bad. I began yelling about how bad my arm hurt, and asking why my arm would hurt so bad. The nurses rushed over but just repositioned me, and then said I must have had it resting on the bed wrong or something. When I tried to move my arm, pain just shot through me up and down my arm like electricity. It even hurts when my clothing lightly brushes across my skin. It's the weirdest thing! I kept on complaining to the nurses that it was a really, really bad pain that was not letting up at all. They told me they had no idea why it would hurt and to give it a couple days. Well, it is a couple days later and I am still in agony in my left arm. I suspect it is my nerves and maybe the shot hit the nerve or something. But I have no idea how long it will take to feel better, or if it will feel better. I really HOPE it does, because I think this pain is worse than what I went in to the doctor for! Guess it managed to take my mind off my back pain, but it's a heck of a way to do it! I am calling the doctors office tomorrow to speak to the doctor himself. As far as I know, he had no idea I was having such pain. I didn't see him after the injections, and I don't believe the nurses advised him of what I was saying since they didn't seem to even believe how bad it was. Just freaks me out to think this pain may last for a long time, or forever. I had no idea this was possible from the injections. They never mentioned that to me. BUT.. I must say... my lower back is almost pain free from the injection I had. Soooo.. mixed reviews for me at this point with the injections. I was just kind of happy to come across this thread to see I am not the only one who has this awful arm/nerve pain after an injection. Let's keep each other posted, ok? I'd love to know how the process is going for everyone!

I had spinal steroid injection about 15 years ago. Big mistake!! Couple of days after the injection I got this excruciating pain in my spine. I was bedbound. Pain killers did not work. Lasted months. I still get severe fare-ups with same kind of pain that last for months.

Did the pain ever go away in your hand and arm? I had injection on Monday and the pain is unbearable!!! Help

Unfortunately i was given 6 corticosteroid shots in my thoracic spine and it was a nightmare.  My blood pressure skyrocked, I vomited for days with slight fever. and on top of this I am still in excruciating pain night and day.  I pray for my future and wonder how your pain issues panned out?  J

I have had the cervical injections...saw no relief with the first..in fact I felt more pain my doctor told me that I wouldn't see any result until at least the second injection. She was right after a week into the second injection I found 20% relief. I keep up with an injection regiment every 6months.

Hi,
How are you doing? I truly hope your health condition has improved. I know your post is a year old; but I am hoping you get this message.

I had a cervical fusion on 6-7 in Sept. 2013. Felt better after surgery as the constant dizziness; headaches; severe neck pain, upper back pain and right arm numbness were significantly improved. 2 months post op; I started PT and finished 10 sessions. Severe burning, stabbing sharp knife-like pain returned in my upper back neck. (Didn't finish the last two sessions).

I too, received a steroid spine injection (4 months post op). It did nothing. I continue in severe debilitating pain. (I do not think it was done properly).

Recently, I received neck facet injections (steroid injections) Even with sedation (allegedly); I wanted to jump off the table. This is worse than post op!! I am 4 days past the facet injections; in severe, chronic debilitating pain. I continue to not function. I cannot do anything. I did not think the pain could get any worse. I seriously wish I could have just died on the table. In my case also, pain killers (percocet) do absolutely nothing. (They worked post-op).

In my next life; I want to be a doctor....no one should have to suffer through this horrible process. I am not a science experiment. We are not science experiments. This is our lives. I am scratching and clawing my way to get through each day. I too am at the end of my rope......I am at a loss. I do not understand what has happened to my body.

By the way, the NECK is much more serious than the LUMBAR and much more sensitive. There is no comparison.

I had two steroid injections in my neck a year and 1 month ago. After the second injection, I felt as if I never woke up from the anesthesia. I was foggy, confused, dizzy, feverish, and my neck was completely swollen. I went to the emergency room and they did an MRI, and I had more buging discs (after the injection) and my neck was in a spasm, also it was positionally straight instead of the natural curve that the spine has. Since then I have developed lumps in my back that were not there before. The doctor that did the injection states that he cannot correlate the lumps in my back with the injection, but that the spasms are a side effect (although rare). Has anyone else developed these lumps? If so, is there an explanation as to what they are and how they are related to the injection?

Subsequently, I am in more pain now than before the injections.

I am sorry to hear about the problems many of you have had. I had 2 steroid epidural injections in my lumbar spine in the end of 2012 due to herniated & displaced discs in my lumbar spine after being rear-ended by a truck. I still had pain after PT so my Physiatrist recommended the epidurals. I was told they were "safe". After the first one I had about 1 week of pain relief - that's all. During the 2nd one a month or two later, I practically jumped off the table after the doctor injected me (I was not sedated). My low back pain flared and it hurt worse than after the accident. I was in terrible pain for months. My Physiatrist said the doctor must have "hit a nerve". About 3 days after the "Epidural From Hell" - on Christmas Eve (was home as I felt to terrible to go out) - both my arms started shaking uncontrollably for about 20-30 seconds. I was alone and it was scary. I did lots of research on epidurals - the steroids used: Depo Medrol & other (I got Depo M) - and it is FAR more dangerous than the medical community will tell you. Google it. It is currently under FDA investigation. The drug co's that manufacture the drugs state in their drug inserts that they are NOT to be used for epidural injections. Drug co's CYA because they know it's unsafe. It may only be a 10-15% risk of something bad but for the very little true pain relief obtained it must be a last resort before going down that road. I had an MRI of my back pre-epidural. Almost one year post epidural I had another MRI on my lumbar spine and I now have perineural cysts and a Schmorl's Node on my spine! (Google that if you aren't familiar - scary!) It is known that epidurals / trauma to the spine can cause these. Most doctors / surgeons are ignorant of perineural cysts. They will likely tell you that these cysts are "no big deal" - "everyone has them". That is a bold faced lie. Most doctors haven't had training on them since medical school and that training was wrong / inept. I could go on for far too long here about how dangerous these epidurals are. Please do your own research online. It's nothing more than a huge money making procedure for doctors. If you have problems they will never admit it could be from the procedure. I have talked to friends / family members who work in hospitals and they said once a patient has a problem they go into CYA mode. It's like the police "thin blue line". Be your own patient advocate - educate yourself about this procedure and please, please try anything else but this first. If your pain continues please have an updated MRI and check for the perineural cysts (or other names they can be referred to.) If you do have them you need to monitor them in case they become symptomatic. There are very, very few surgeons who operate them. Used to be only one truly experienced in the USA back in 2013 when I was researching this like crazy. There's a neuro surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic who treats them. I've read that symptomatic cysts can cause debilitating pain that is so bad people have been known to commit suicide because nothing relieves it. Last, if you only Google one thing look up the FDA and Depo Medrol / EpiduraI injections for pain. Sorry my post so long but I am passionate about this topic, concerned for others, and angry about what was done to me all for the almighty dollar. All I wanted was more & better PT and and to strengthen my injured body. Instead I was prescribed drugs (another Dr. $ maker) and that evil epidural. As a previous poster wrote - we are not Guinea Pigs! Peach & love to all here and I hope you find pain relief. (OH - I agree w/the guy that wrote about the Tens Unit. It's great for my back but not for neck, unfortunately.)